Today I Answered This Email...

Just today I responded to an email from a seminary student doing a paper on discipleship. Here are her questions, followed by my responses in italics.

• How would you define discipleship?
  • Discipleship defines the process and journey taken by anyone who chooses to be a disciple of Christ – that is, a learner, one who watches and interacts with Christ to take on his agenda in the world, namely to bring up there, down here. That’s all relational stuff. It’s about realizing that “I matter to God” and so does everyone else.

• Do you feel your church does effective adult discipleship? 
  • Yes, but there is always room for improvement to increase effectiveness.

• If Yes - what do you do and how?
  • I think there’s confusion between discipleship and indoctrination. My guess is that a traditional model of discipleship really risks  being the later.
  • That said, I believe much of the effective work of taking up the Great Commission (Matthew 28) occurs in the space of ministry that many would not deem discipleship. I’m speaking of our weekend services which are designed with seekers in mind. Jesus says, “Make disciples.
    • For starters, people must be invited to accept the call of Jesus.
    • Secondly, people will accept such an outlandish call when they understand how much they matter to God. Void of that knowledge, disciples can become legalistic religious zealots who make discipleship all about correct behavior. When people get that they matter to God, that their life has worth and purpose, the rest of their worldview can begin to change. This includes how they see God, themselves and other people. When I hear someone move from knowing that they matter to recognizing that other people matter too – it’s big-time celebration stuff!
    • Jesus said, “teaching them to obey what I’ve commanded you.” Interesting that the specific command Jesus gives to this disciples is “love one another.” This follows his summary of the entire law: love God with everything in you and your neighbor as yourself.” When people love, life changes.
    • Seems to me that at the end of the day, the question of effective discipleship is simply and completely: “Am I more loving than I was last week, last month, last year?”
  • Therefore, we see everything we do as discipleship. Weekend services, our midweek service, Bible classes, groups of friendships, groups of growth and support, personal practices/disciplines – they all “count” as effective means of discipleship.

• Why do you feel it's effective?
  • We’re trying to help our people not segregate discipleship as the catch word to describe or understand their spirituality. If we live in a way that honors God and the truest self he made us to be, we’ll understand that we can only live life fully integrated as committed followers.
    • Growth shows up in my marriage or it doesn’t. Growth shows up in my parenting or it doesn’t. Growth shows up in my leadership, or it doesn’t. Growth shows up in my finances, job, recreation, secret thoughts and church life – or it doesn’t. Growth is growth. I am either more loving or I am not. And if I’m more loving, then it’s showing up in my behavior, in my lifestyle.
    • We rely on stories a lot. There are health measurements such as attendance on the weekend, in midweek services, in groups, in baptisms, and in giving. And those all matter; each is about interest, steps in growth and about lives being changed. But stories bear out the life changes in relationships, in work, in lifestyle where loving shows up. And the stories are abundant.

• If No - what keeps your church from engaging in effective discipleship?
  • We can improve in providing more emphasis on the core spiritual disciplines that only individuals can own. Giving people teaching and tools to own these practices as steps that prepare and shape them is something we’re doing over this summer. We are planning for more steps in the fall out of what we learn this summer.
  • Additionally, there’s a deeply-engrained mindset that suggests discipleship somehow means it’s all about “getting to know Jesus better”, as if salvation and knowing God is only about one’s relationship with God in a two-way interaction. Yes, it is - but it's more.
    • This has Christians crying for the local church to “feed me”, expecting that Bible classes, weekend services, and midweek services should be set up to help me feel better about being a Christian (or something distorted like that).
    • The greatest growth I’ve seen in my own life and in the lives of others is when they begin to experience...
      • ...there are others. I need to care about someone else besides just me. As people serve, reach out and take genuine interest in others, they grow. God shows up. Their intimacy with God deepens; their prayer routine turns conversational – and often.
      • ...God is in my pain, in my right-now circumstances. When they begin to look at where they are right now and ask, “God, what are you up to?”, there is generally a building of trust – true faith – and a sense of hope.
      • ...connection with God in scripture on their own. They sense the Holy Spirit bringing the story into harmony with their story.
      • ...other spiritual practices that they create or experiment with not because they are following rote outline, but because they intentionally position themselves to love better.
      • ...friendships with other Christ-followers that are supporting, challenging and invited.
  • Ultimately, discovering multiple ways to help people engage a 24/7 disciple mindset is the ongoing challenge. What’s effective today won’t be so much tomorrow. What helped yesterday, isn’t so helpful today.

• Is your discipleship ministry the same today as it was five years ago?
  • No. Five years ago we weren’t really recognizing that people had various pathways to growth. We finally got honest when we realized that we were asking our people to give 9 days a week to serve, be in services, share with their neighbors and co-workers, be with their family, belong to a small group, … the list went on.
  • We realized that some will grow best through the practice and experience of midweek service designed for Christ-followers, others will benefit from a small group or a Bible class. We began to promote a “here’s the menu – you choose what best helps you at your particular point in your journey.”

• Have you done anything within your adult discipleship ministry to address the changes in the way people process, study, work, think today compared to 10-20 years ago? If yes - what?
  • We’re trying to address the relational component well. We see people processing in conversation, in life lived out together over time. People are more hands-on. So, we’re making every class/group highly relational. We’re sending discussion questions home with everyone on the weekends.
  • Nearly ten years ago we launched a series of Core Classes (via Warrens' Purpose Driven Church) that still functions as an essential discipling track in our church.

• What do you feel is the greatest challenge to true adult discipleship in today's world?
  • Unlearning what it is not. It is not a set number of classes. It is not a checklist of activities. It is not a prescribed anything. A number of those things may show up along the way, but it is journey. It is learning, relating, practicing. It is life for the follower of Jesus.

Some of this revisits some earlier posts, but provided a platform for a recap in the midst of the REVEAL survey that Willow Creek has initiated and is now responding to.

How would you answer these questions in your church?