Most people when they see me probably think I don’t care what other people think. I have to admit, I project that. I have gotten better at letting things bounce off me and not stick, but the truth is I … Continue reading
Category Archives: Passive
Disciples or Apostles?
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So a question has been running through my head a bunch lately at it is this question: Should the church be “making” disciples or apostles?
I put making in quotation marks because really I question the whole “making” language as truly (as many have said in the past and present) it is God who “makes” disciples and the church just helps in the process.
Okay, but seriously I am wondering if our language of discipleship basically gives us a bunch of passive learners/consumers. I mean if I am supposed to be a disciple doesn’t that mean I am a learner or “pupil.” The images that come to my head when I explore that is a student at a desk just furiously taking notes and learning from the one who has the knowledge. Sound a little familiar? Many of my acquaintances and friends who are Christians often approach church in the same way: they go to worship but also mainly to “learn” from someone who has a knowledge. They want to know what they are to believe.
Our language doesn’t exactly challenge that notion even though most pastors I know cry about the lack of “ministry of all believers” being actively done. Well what do we expect? We say we are “making” disciples…. and what we are “making” is learners who need us (pastors, you know, who have the knowledge…even if that isn’t what we want).
I have been reading Jim Walker’s book Dirty Word, and a quote stuck out to me that connected with this thought running through my head. He writes:
Koinonia isn’t something we talk about, read about, or sit and watch. Koinonia is action; it’s what we do. When I was learning to drive, I was told and I was shown. I even got to use one of those driving-simulation machines in high school. But it wasn’t until I actually got behind the wheel and hit the gas that I learned how to drive. Does the church teach people to drive by putting them behind the wheel? Do we help people experience the kingdom of God? Or is church a big tour bus where everyone piles in, and there is one driver who points out the window at the kingdom of God, but no one actually gets to get out and experience it? (emphasis mine)
What a great picture that I feel captures some of my frustration. To me it feels like our language of making disciples creates nothing more than tourists on the journey of life, hearing about the kingdom of God and believing it is there but not actually going out into the world and stepping off the bus to experience it.
But what if we were about “making” (loosely used) apostles. You know apostles (definition: one sent on a mission), those people Jesus gathered and gave the command to in Matthew 28. Maybe instead of living the command of the story we should enter into the story. What if we were about intentionally saying that we are going to send people out? You are here and we will help equip you and then we are sending you out: you are an apostle! Currently, we have the language of apostles but in most circles it is the “clergy” who are in the category of apostle. What greater way to reinforce the sense that clergy are the ones who do the work of the kingdom and the rest just sit and learn.
Personally, I would love to see an image of the church as a bus where the bus stops and the driver opens the door and says don’t just look at it, GO EXPERIENCE IT! Don’t just learn it, GO DO IT! YOU ARE SENT!
P.S. Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling. It is not polished. It is not finished. I just had to let it out.
