ChosenRebel's Blog

Six principles to spend a lifetime thinking about

Mention the word discipleship in the average church, and the mind will rush to thoughts of deepening—deepening believers in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Great goal. Great thought.

Pretty soon, the conversation will move to questions of how to do it and what to use to do it. Often the next step is the design or selection of some curriculum that it is hoped will yield a better, deeper disciple who brings both greater glory to Christ and has a greater impact in the world.

Eventually, a series of topics is decided upon; then a class, a seminar, a course of study, a series of books to read is agreed to, and the process is initiated. In the West, we have done this “forever.”  I have done it. I was trained to do this. I have trained others to do this. And to be honest, I have seen some good results.

But a nagging thought for me is that I see nothing that looks anything like this pattern in the pages of the New Testament.  It just doesn’t look anything like what we see Jesus doing with the disciples or what Paul does with his.

In fact, Jesus’ pattern is decidedly non-us. His process is decidedly different from ours.

Jesus never gave a seminar on how to preach.  He never conducted a class on how to do evangelism. He never started a school to train disciples how to pray.  As a matter of fact, neither did the apostle Paul.  

In fact, there is a total absence of any of our typically Western forms in the disciple-making process of the New Testament.  By the end of the first century, we know that the early church was beginning to move in a catechetical direction for new disciples, but even this is absent in the pages of Scripture. So, how did Jesus do it? Let’s start at the beginning.

Mark 3:13-15 (ESV)

13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons.

Back up a little bit, and you will find this important precursor to Jesus’ choosing the twelve. Luke tells us that he spent the night in prayer before the selection (Luke 6:12). This inaugural call of the first disciples is stripped-down and basic.  The Savior makes his choice.

1. He was the initiator
2. He prayed all night.
3. He called them.                
4. He appointed them                         
5. He directed them.
6. He names them apostles             
7. He gives them purpose  
   (named for the purpose of sending them out)

Now to the process. The second half of verse 14, as well as verse 15,     gives a hint as to what that process was.

“. . . so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 
and have authority to cast out demons.” 

Jesus’s process seems to be more relational than curriculum driven.  

I think the most descriptive way to explain it would be “INTENTIONAL WITHNESS.” Jesus’ process was to spend purposeful time with his disciples. He had a goal in mind. His purpose was to send them out to preach.  For now, I am going to leave “casting demons” out of the discussion.  We can all debate that at another time.

Here’s the question and the challenge:

How do we shape our discipleship process in ways that look and feel more like the “intentional withness” of Jesus and Paul?

And let’s ask another question.

How did Jesus do it?  

Short answer, I don’t know the specifics. But I think we can see the outlines of the process in the pages of the gospels.

So in this post, I want to continue to try to uncover what “INTENTIONAL WITHNESS” looks like. Jesus chose them, then spent 3-4 years with his disciples. During that time, not once did he have a seminar on preaching, or prayer, or discipleship, or evangelism. Instead, his training and equipping of his disciples seemed to be heavy on the following elements:

Six Principles to Think About

1. He lived with them. (Woke, ate, walked, rested, slept—everything.) The opportunity for long-term impact in such a context is immense. Why are retreats and camps, and mission trips so effective? Answer: When you are with people 24/7, all the junk or internal depth of your life comes out. Jesus’ boys saw the reality of his walk with God, and the result was an intoxicating desire to follow him.
   ……
2. He conversed with them. We see snippets of this in the gospels, but couple your imagination with the Hebraic teaching that most likely was the backdrop of Jesus’ model, namely Deut. 6:4-9.  If Jesus is following the model of Deuteronomy with his disciples–sitting in a house, when they walked along the way, when they lay down at night, when they rose in the morning, and talking theology and kingdom–wow–they got one great theological education.
   pppp
3. He taught them. Jesus taught them as he taught the masses. They heard Him. Over and over, they heard Him. Every parable, every teaching, every run-in with the Pharisees, repeated over and over to different audiences in different places, they heard Him. Is this not a stimulus to us to read and reread the gospels?!
   mmmmm
4. He modeled for them. Jesus preached everywhere. He prayed all the time, sometimes all night. And everywhere he goes, they are watching. I have learned a lot of things by watching other people do stuff. There are things we can’t learn by watching, but there is a lot that we can.
   mmmmmm
5. He gave them responsibility. First, it was simple: get the people to sit, collect baskets of bread, collect baskets of fish, go get food, but one day, seemingly out of the blue, he pairs up 72 of his followers and sends them out to do what they had seen him do. Stunning!
   mmmmm
6. He left them. He entrusted the ministry to them and sent the Holy Spirit to empower them. Men and women never really take full responsibility for delegated authority until the delegator leaves. The baton had to be passed, and it was passed by Jesus’ leaving. He continued his work of intercession at the Father’s side, but he left a model for us to follow.

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 He lived with them.
He conversed with them.
He taught them.
He modeled for them.
He gave them responsibility
He left them.

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That sixth principle is a biggie. Leaving the disciples (and sending the Holy Spirit) was a big part of releasing them to begin the process of making disciples on their own.

Questions: What are some of the barriers or reasons why leadership in our churches is so hesitant to give significant responsibility to people?  How can we create structures of empowerment where more people are entrusted and expected to make disciples?