Discipleship

August 22/January 26

Dear Gary,

Dr. Laubach comes a long way in a short time. He says that he is feeling God in each movement, willing that God direct his fingers in typing, his steps as he walks, his words as he speaks, and his jaws as he eats. 

“It is exactly that “moment by moment,” every waking moment, surrender, responsiveness, obedience, sensitiveness, pliability, “lost in His love,” that I now have the mind-bent to explore with all my might. It means two burning passions: First, to be like Jesus. Second, to respond to God as a violin responds to the bow of the master.”

This is  beyond me, or as Lewis puts it, beyond my “self,” which is destined for death. He says,”Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” I think from this perspective feeling God in each movement would qualify as innocent or good. It becomes a matter of trading in my self for Jesus’ self, an even exchange. I have no idea what He does with the old ones.

Dallas Willard, in The Cost of Nondiscipleship, argues that the early Christians were first and foremost disciples, already part of the Kingdom  of God. They are contrary to modern church members. “For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. … (They) do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership. Churches are filled with “undiscipled disciples.”

I consider myself to have been an undisciplined disciple when I first arrived at seminary. It took me some time to realize I had chosen a religious profession but hadn’t made a personal commitment to follow Christ. In the years that followed I made many deep commitments, but I know I often confused my commitments to Christ with commitments to the church. The latter were always more easily accomplished. At the same time the difference between the two was noticeable to me in the attitudes of my parishioners. They often lacked, at least outwardly, much semblance of commitment to Jesus as Lord. As Willard points out, we are more prone to make converts, not disciples, and baptize them into church membership, not the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I misunderstood Willard at first. I thought he was presenting discipleship and nondiscipleship as a dichotomy. Either you are or you aren’t, you have it or you don’t. I've been exposed to this sort of thinking many times in the past.. Either you’re a Christian or not; either you’ve accepted Him or you haven’t. For me the most frequent negative about this approach is the unsettled feeling that comes in our recurring separations from God. We think maybe we didn’t make a faith decision; maybe my initial commitment wasn’t strong enough. Maybe it didn’t take.

But Willard corrects that thinking. Decisions and commitments are recurring events, and each one takes us deeper into a life of faith. “In the heart of the disciple there is a desire, and there is decision or settled intent. The disciple of Christ desires above all else to be like him … The disciple is one who, intent upon becoming Christlike and so dwelling in his “faith and practice,”  systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end.”

- Pastor Mike