At the Waffle House yesterday I was sitting next to a man at the low bar and we entered into a conversation. And as new conversations usually go, the questions of “What do you do?” and in the south “Where do you go to church?” came up. I told the man I am a pastor and I am called to try to intsil a network of house churches or simple churches. He asked me to tell him more, Why I am doing this? What fears/challenges I face? What have I learned. My personal response to him in my conversation went along this line.
My heart was opened to the “new” the more my heart and my understanding was exposed to the old. The more I understood, embraced and began to imitate not what the church has currently morphed into, but what the church morphed out of. It is a call to not start something “new”, but to go “old school.” I came to the greater realization that Christianity and discipleship is not about imitating a religion, but imitating a person, namely Jesus Christ. So my plant is not called to try to conform to and imitate current church models, but it is called to conform to and imitate Christ.
And what scares me is so much of doing the new does not depend upon me. Trying to establish a church that is full of people is not hard. I have succeeded in that. Stepping out of that and to try to establish a church that is full of the Spirit of God is much, much more difficult. Establishing a church that is full of people takes an art. And I am good at that art. It takes having a strong personality and a little bit of an ego. It takes focusing on the art of entertainment, worship production, the celebrity factor, and tailoring programs for youth and consumers. Giving them what they want. I can create and control all this.
Establishing a church that is full of the Spirit of God though takes unction and the anointing, and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. It takes so much out of my control and places it in the Holy Spirit’s control. Its establishment does not come about through reliance and trusting in my means, but reliance on and practicing of the means of grace.
Doing the “new” has changed me in many different areas of my life and walk as a disciple of Christ.
Personally, it has really solidified to me in a convicting way as I strive to place discipleship, and making disciples who make disciples at the core of my “new” ministry to personally answer this question, “Am I a disciple worth multiplying?” God does not desire to multiply mediocrity. He desires to multiply those who exhibit immediate, radical, costly, obedience. Discipleship is the act and process of modeling and conforming yourself to Christ. I have come to understand that there is no “easy button” to achieve this, to become or make a disciple. It requires reading Scripture more than I ever have before, praying more than I ever have before, and being openly accountable to others in the body more than I ever have been before. How I become or “make” a disciple is simple, but it is not easy. If I am not willing to consistently embrace and model this, then I cannot effectively lead others to become disciples. For I cannot lead them to a place I myself am not willing to go. And no program, training, technique or tool I try to use can replace lack of obedience. Am I a disciple worth multiplying?
It has changed my focus from being able to say that I am a Christian, to being able to say I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. In the understanding of the early church saying both would be redundant, but in today’s church’s understanding, I do not believe that is true anymore.
If I am wearing a golf shirt and someone comes up to me and says, “So you are a golfer.” I would immediately reply,” no, I am not a golfer, I like to go out and hit them once in a while and try to get round in or two a month, but I am not a golfer. I realize and understand the difference between a being a true golfer and a person who occasionally plays a round of golf. The commitment to spending hours daily on the driving range, being mentored by a trainer, time required refining my game on the practice green and on the course that is required to call yourself a golfer. The same is true if I played occasionally in a touch football league, I would not call myself a football player. Or if I played a few months a year in a Saturday morning church basketball league. I would say I like to I am a basketball player, but I honestly could not define myself as a basketball player.
Yet if someone saw me with a crucifix around my neck or on a bracelet on my wrist and asked me if I am a Christian, I automatically without thought reply, “Yes I am.” As most Christians do. I do not differentiate like I do with everything else in life if I am truly a Christian, a disciple of Christ, or if I am someone, like the person who plays an occasional round of golf, who is playing around occasionally with Christianity. And I guess you can get away with going to church once a week, reading the Bible occasionally, praying only when I am sick or my transmission goes out in my car, have not led anyone into a saving relationship with Christ in years, and still look that person in the eye and say I am a Christian. But I cannot look them in the eye and say I am a disciple of Jesus. Because then my understanding of what the difference in the level of commitment to time spent in prayer, the Word, accountability, and the “all in” deep deep zeal and love for God and love my neighbors making disciples and baptizing them, to call myself a disciple of Jesus comes into play. My daily commitment now since doing the new is not on being able to answer yes when asked if I am a Christian, but being able to answer yes if I am a disciple of Jesus.
For my family and I, ODC’s “new” format of simple house churches we call Discipleship Communities being at the core of our collective church has changed our understanding of what and where “church” exists. Our church meets in our home, so our home is church. It is eroded the distinction of “this is what we do at church” and “this what we do at home outside of church.” It is in our living room that worship and prayer takes place. It is at our dining room table that the Lord’s Supper is celebrated and shared. Bible teaching comes from a sofa and not a pulpit as part of a shared and collective teaching, not a lecture. This means that the “buffer” zone that separates how you act in church and how you act outside of church is also removed. If I share in the Lord’s Supper at my dining room table, then walk into the kitchen and slip into a harsh conversation with my wife, the contrast and hypocrisy is immediately recognized and blatant to everyone in the home. It forces our family to deal with those tensions more than ever before. The space of time between deeper revelation of the Gospel and fuller implementation of the Gospel is steps from the dining room table or sofa.
My family, Lent is a time of personal reflection as we move towards the Cross and Easter. I pray this morning and during this Lent season you are led to reflect on a basic questions the goes beyond “Am I a Christian?”, to “Am I a disciple of Jesus?” Would Jesus say you are His disciple?” in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and questions in the comment box below.
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One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
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