Last night I finished reading Choose the Life by Bill Hull a book on discipleship, very much in the same sort of role as David Watson’s classic text Discipleship. It’s taken me virtually a month to read through this as there is something challenging on almost every page, but it’s been well worth the effort.
Early on in the book he says:
The average group of professing Christian’s would agree that we all should love and obey God, that the Great Commandment and the Great Commission are our main purposes, and that we should share our faith and give sacrificially of our time and resources. The problem is that while we say these are what should define Christian character, Christians themselves do not exhibit these qualities.
Whilst he writes from a North American perspective, this situation is evident across the church here in the UK as well. There are many good Christian people who are experiencing only a pale imitation of the life that Jesus offers us as abundant life, what Hull calls ‘nondiscipleship Christians’.
In his opinion, the main reasons for this is the lack of accountability that Christians really have and our general unwillingness to train more disciples. We have a church leader/pastor/officer who has spiritual oversight of us but rarely do we ever submit ourselves to them to such a degree that we allow them to ask the really searching questions of our relationship with God. Those self same people who we don’t truly submit ourselves to are the same people we expect to do all the training of new disciples.
Of course the real blame lies in the fact that the Church has pretty much sold out to the ‘cinema model’ of church. We go to church to get something for ourselves, rather than to offer something to God. We expect to entertained, although we probably don’t realise that this is even the case, and so we are faced with the situation where the person teaching on a Sunday is looking out over a morose group of people, few of whom ever react in anyway to what the teacher/preacher is saying.
Real discipleship is costly! Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks of the ‘Cost of Discipleship’ and James, the book I’m reading at the moment, speaks in depth about what this cost is. It’s costly in terms of attitudes, actions and discipline, but the rewards for that sort of living at greater than we can even imagine.
I would say in the UK the biggest issue out there is trust levels, rather than people not wanting to commit. People will often open up and share their desire to grow in faith and discipleship in an environment that connects with them where they are. Christendom church has perhaps lacked or lost the ability to create those safe places where people can learn to trust one another in the discipleship journey, learn to tolerate each other making mistakes. Hierarchical and modernity minded churches don’t exactly lend themselves to creating this environment? Having said that, many people are simply not that ‘religious’. They can have very little in the way of spiritual experience, and that’s the way they naturally are. They can find it exhausting being in a church setting that places high priority on an intense inner spiritual life. That challenges leaders to find other ways in which to explore how they can bless them as they grow in discipleship.
Maybe you’re right with the issue of a lack of trust! It’s certainly a point that Bill Hull raises in the book. One of the other problems though is that people are content with the ‘cinema model’ because it means that they don’t have to engage too much, as you say they find it exhausting.
Real discipleship needs to find that delicate balance that includes the inner spiritual life with its practical outworking in the world. Anything less than that balance will lead to an over-emphasis on one of the two sides!
One final thought, I’m not sure that it is up to the leaders to find ways that they can bless people as they grow in discipleship. This simply reverts to the Christendom model that places all the responsibility on leadership to do the work. If the traditional model of church shows us anything it is that too much expectation has been placed on the professional ‘clergy’ that is both detrimental to them and to the laity. We all have to work out our faith in fear and trembling and there has to be an acceptance by everyone that they have some responsibility for their own discipleship, whilst remaining in community with others.
Yes, by blessing, I intended to express that they should be content to be a blessing in some way to the disciple and actually ask themselves if what they are doing is being seen as a blessing by the disciple or not. If not, what is going wrong? It is about not being acquisitive and trying to own or control the disciples, asking ‘what can this person contribute to my church?’ but asking instead ‘What can I (and the group) do to help you as a disciple grow in service and faith in whatever direction God is calling you?’ That is the position of generosity and affirmation that communicates that the disciple is loved and valued for who they are, and that their ministry whereever it is happening is where you recognise God is working through them. It conveys your commitment to be a blessing to them, rather than declaring your optimistic intention that they might one day become a blessing to your church!
Risky stuff, but many people are tired of the church making unending demands on their time and money, and the local church can eventually become a ‘project’ they decide to leave to others in order to find where they can be genuinely appreciated for who they are.