Introduction
I
have a quick quiz for you (for those of you who are freaking out right
now—relax it’s not that kind of quiz!). Let’s suppose for a moment,
hypothetically, that we ran out of water one day. Drought, over-usage,
contamination, whatever you want to pretend the reason to be, the point is that
there is no longer any drinking water. You’ve watched as family, friends and
neighbors slowly die for lack of water. Now let’s suppose that one day you are
digging in your yard when suddenly you strike a shallow water aquifer with an
unlimited supply of pure clean water. What would you do? Think about it before
you answer. You have something that is life-giving and life sustaining in a
dying world. Your options seem obvious. You can do nothing and keep your find
secret and exclusively to yourself or you can tell others and invite them to
your find so they too can be saved. Certainly there are those that would either
keep the find to themselves for fear of running out or leverage the find for
personal profit. However, I suspect that most people would tell others about
their find and thereafter share the life-giving water. It would not be
unreasonable to assume that those people would then tell and show their friends
and those friends would inevitably do the same and so on and so on and so on.
Perhaps you think it’s an odd metaphor but Christian evangelism and
discipleship is really no different.
Many
Christians fail to practice Jesus’ command given at the end of Matthew’s Gospel
to go out and make disciples of all nations. But I don’t believe it’s because
of disobedience, I believe that many Christians just make it harder than it
needs to be. Furthermore, I believe most Christians are paralyzed by the
misconception that evangelism is filled with theological intricacies and
complexities and discipleship requires a highly specialized and programmatic
approach that is both time consuming and theologically focused at all times. While
evangelism and discipleship contain some of these components, biblical
evangelism and discipleship really only requires one thing—relationship! After
a relationship is established, evangelism and discipleship follow quite
naturally. Let me try to explain:
Evangelism
“How, then, can they call on the one they have
not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14)
The
“-ism” in the word “evangelism” essentially denotes a set of beliefs or
doctrines that are considered authoritative by some group. Evangelism is therefore,
by definition, a bias in favor of something and against other things. As a
consequence, it is exclusionary and that’s what
makes
evangelism so uncomfortable to so many people both inside and outside of the
church.
But, what
is the bias of Christian evangelism? At its most basic level, Christian
evangelism has as its bias the “Good News.” It is a bias which necessarily is a
cause for joy and celebration and a
bias against despair and
hopelessness. No doubt this view of Christian evangelism finds immediate
consent by the Christian faithful. However, “Good News” is a somewhat nebulous
term that requires a theological framework for a better understanding.
Consequently, the bias of Christian evangelism should be the presentation of
the Good News within the context of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ generally and specifically that God’s love for us was revealed clearly
through the person of Jesus Christ.
This final and specific element of the Good News is the
very personal and relational element around which my own philosophy of evangelism
has been formed. Understanding that the creator of the universe loves me deeply
and proved it by going to the cross in my place so that we could, one day,
spend eternity together has been a truly life-changing experience for me. More
importantly, God asks nothing in return except to accept the invitation to be
in relationship with him. In this respect, salvation is much more than getting
a “get-out-of-hell-free” card. Since we have all, believers and unbelievers
alike, been created to be in relationship with God and one another, this
relationship element appears to be a natural touch-point for evangelism. It is
in the context of “relationship” that I have codified my own salvation story.
The story I share with non-believers, is this: I am compelled to follow a God
who knew all my mistakes before I made them yet willingly died on a cross in my
place for those mistakes and rose from the dead to say “I forgive you! I don’t
hate you! I love you! I want to be in relationship with you forever!”
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
In modern church vernacular, this is “my story.”
Evangelism, at its core, is simply telling “your story.” What makes the “Good
News” good news to you? This relieves us from the paralysis of not knowing
where to start. It is technically and theologically true that the “Good News”
includes everything from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21. However, if you
were standing in line at a coffee shop and struck up a conversation with the
person in front of you, could you communicate that before it was time to put in
your coffee order? Probably not. “Your story,” specifically, is not all of the
salvation story of Genesis1:1 through Revelation 22:21. Nevertheless, “your
story” is somewhere within God’s overall salvation story. You simply need to
define it within the context of your life. At what point does God’s salvation
story intersect with yours? That’s “your story” and the tool God will use to
reach others. People get hung up on the idea that their “story” has to be some
spectacular conversion experience like encountering a burning bush as in the
case of Moses or being suddenly struck blind as in the case of Paul. While that
might describe “your story,” (if so, I would love to hear your story) that’s
not necessarily the norm for most people. Most people couldn’t tell you exactly
when they became believers. I’m one of those people. There has never been a
time in my life that I am conscious of when I haven’t believed in God. There
have been times in my life when my actions and attitudes did not reflect that
belief. But, you see, those times are part of “my story.” Let me use the
Apostle Peter to illustrate my point. At what point do you think Peter became a
follower? Was it when Jesus asked him to set aside his fishing nets and follow
him (Mt 4:19)? Was it after he saw Jesus walking on the water and thereafter
joined him for a few steps of his own on the water (Mt 14:29), was it after
witnessing the feeding of the 5,000 (Mt 14:13-21) or perhaps the 4,000 (Mt
15:32-39) thereafter? Can you tell exactly where and when Peter became a
believer? Keep in mind that it was after
all of these events that Peter denied knowing Jesus three times (Mt 26:69-75)!
Did Peter begin to believe after seeing the empty tomb (Lk 24:12) or perhaps
thereafter when Jesus appeared to him and ate with him (Jn 21:15-19)? The
answer is, no one knows exactly when Peter became a believer. I would like to postulate
that Peter was probably a believer all along and his “story” was probably a
compilation of all these events which formed a basic message that
contextualized his salvation experience in such a way that, if you had a chance
to sit down and talk to him, you would find his “story” to be highly personal
to his life experience with Jesus.
Application
There is no perfect, foolproof
evangelism method. In seminary, it was called the “sledgehammer argument”
because people have tried for millennia to formulate the perfect method of
communicating the Gospel message in such a way so as to leave the hearer of the
message no option but to believe the message. Let me save you the anguish of
trying to find the perfect formula for evangelism. If Jesus could feed 5,000
with a few fish and loaves of bread, walk on water, give sight to the blind,
hearing to the deaf, cast out demons and raise the dead and in fact rise to
life after his own death and the people who were right there to witness it all
still did not believe, what foolproof method do you suppose you might have that
could be more convincing? No, there’s no foolproof method of evangelism and you
need not be a theologian to be an evangelist. You just need to be “you!” God saved you so that you can be you not someone else or something else.
Granted, God may be transforming the old you
into a new you but it is still you and that is what God will use to
point others to himself. You simply need to define what it is that compels you
to follow Jesus. That’s not some cold technical description of how God saved
you. It’s personal—it’s “your story” of how God captured your heart. Do you
remember the hypothetical illustration I used at the beginning about finding
water? How would you have communicated your find to those around you who were
dying of thirst? Well, telling people about Jesus is no different. People are
dying all around us of spiritual thirst and Jesus is the “living water” (Jn
4:10). Just tell people “your story” and trust that God will use that story to
point and bring people to himself.
Discipleship
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Technically, a
“disciple” is a follower and “discipleship” is the process of teaching someone
to be a follower. Growing up in the church, I was always accustomed to
discipleship as being associated with a formalized program (i.e. Sunday school,
small groups, etc.). As such, there was a distinct beginning and end and a prescribed
methodology and emphasis. Deviation from the prescribed method was discouraged
because there was an end-goal to the process (as though discipleship could
become a completed action!). This is the context within which my concept of
discipleship was initially formed. Although there is certainly a place for
programmed discipleship, I have come to realize that this is far from the
biblical model of discipleship. That’s not to say that programmed discipleship
is not biblical, it merely lacks the element that is common throughout all the
biblical examples of discipleship—relationship. I believe that the one-size-fits-all
approach is a grossly truncated road to Christlikeness which should be the
trajectory of discipleship. Therefore, if the objective of discipleship is to
grow into the likeness of Christ then that necessarily implies that we either
spend time with Christ or with someone who is on the trajectory of growing into
His likeness.
During most of my
adult life, I vacillated when it came to discipleship—engaging when I felt I
had the time to pursue a specific program but otherwise keeping my distance
from discipleship relationships. However, over the years of being a parent to
two wonderful, and faithful Christian girls, I have begun to learn what I think
biblical discipleship was intended to look like. Certainly being a parent is
far from a programmed venture (although I think that would be much easier—Parenting for Dummies!). Instead,
discipleship with respect to my girls is illustrative in understanding my
current philosophy when it comes to discipleship—effective discipleship
involves the sometimes messy task of doing life together in close relationship.
Discipleship in relationship is simply the process of presenting the truths of
the Gospel in real, everyday life situations—using real bullets so to speak.
For example, my oldest daughter wrote her college entrance essay on the most
influential person in her life and she picked me! She writes with respect to
the ten years of pursuing my graduate degree, “No matter how hard it gets, he
never quits.”[1] Although
I have told her about the need to persevere in life and faith, she learned the
lesson of perseverance by being in relationship with me and her mother. She
goes on to write, “All my life I have followed behind my dad, stepping in his
footprints because he is who I want to become. Life happens so fast and society
expects me to be the perfect, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that is on the
pages of so many magazines, but my dad accepts and loves me for who I am
instead of trying to fit me into a mold.”[2] I
have certainly told her that we are all created in the image of God and that he
loves each of us specifically and unconditionally but she learned what that
means by being in relationship with me and her mother. And there are countless
other illustrations as well. However, the purpose of these illustrations is not
intended to say anything about me—I wasn’t the author of these principles. My
wife and I are followers as well. To illustrate my point one step farther, when
my younger daughter wrote her college entrance essay about the person who
influenced her the most, she wrote about her sister! Simply put, she has
followed her sister as her sister has followed my wife and I as we follow
Christ. Both of my girls have been a living experiment of what discipleship
looks like at the street level. This appears to be the clearest example of
discipleship found in Scripture. Christ said that his disciples would do what
they saw him doing (i.e. healing, casting out demons, etc.). In fact, even
Christ claimed that he could only do what he saw his Father doing (Jn 5:19).
Application
One
of the saddest things I’ve experienced in and out of the church is the
segregation between young people and old people. This reality is to the
detriment of both the young and the old. The gap between the way things used to
be and the way things are seems so difficult to bridge. Clothes are different,
hair is different, music is different, cars are different, everything is
different. Even church is different! There are, however, a few very important
things the young and the old have in common: Both desperately thirst to be in a
loving relationship with God and both thirst to be in a loving relationship
with others. Next time you’re in a social setting that includes people from a
broad spectrum of age groups, see how they tend to group. Usually, older people
will associate with older people while younger people tend to migrate toward
people closer to their own age. Both age groups unwittingly shun the very
relationships that would enrich their respective lives. The elderly don’t think
young people respect them and the young don’t think the elderly have any
relevance for their lives. Both sides are wrong. The elderly can give a
perspective of what has gone before and act as a warning beacon for those
younger to avoid mistakes already experienced. The elderly have scars that come
with stories—stories of pain, suffering, sorrow, faith and perseverance. The
young, on the other hand, have a tremendous perspective on what is yet to come.
Their enthusiasm for life’s possibilities can be the impetus for the elderly to
live less in the past and to keep moving forward. The young also have scars
that come with stories—stories of broken homes, lost dreams, trying again and
again and again, stories of hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
Apart, one believes hope is a thing of the past and the other believes hope is
something that might never be realized. Together, the two have a force that is
wise with lessons from the past and passionate for the possibilities of the
future—together, hope has not slipped through their grasp nor is it beyond
their grasp.
I
would like to challenge each of you to an experiment. For most people, it’s
fairly simple to be in a discipleship relationship with someone who is your age
or close to your age—you’re probably involved in some of those relationships
right now. Therefore, I challenge you to seek out someone who is significantly
older than you if you are young and significantly younger than you if you are
old and disciple one another. By disciple, I mean just do life together. Spend
time together. Let me just give you a couple of pointers to help ease you into
the process for both young and old respectively. If you’re young, start by just
asking questions and listening. For once, just pretend that you really don’t
know everything. You might be surprised just how much you can learn. If you’re
old, stop insisting that you’re way is the right and only way just because
that’s the way you’ve been doing it for so many years. You might be surprised
to find out that you’ve been beating your head against a wall in some
particular area while there’s been an easier way but you’ve been too stubborn
to consider that your way might have been wrong. Let me also offer a few practical
suggestions to make your encounter more comfortable: If you’re a young man, try
pulling up your pants to somewhere above your bottom. If you’re an old man, try
pulling down your pants to somewhere below your chest. If you’re a young woman,
try dressing more modestly and less like a street-walker. If you’re an old
woman, try dressing in something other than reused drapery fabric. Consider
each other’s interests before insisting on your own interest as being the best
and only way (Phil 2:3). For both young and old, try listening to the other’s
music. Try the other’s favorite foods. Visit the other’s favorite places. Watch
the other’s favorite television programs. Read the other’s favorite books. Finally,
don’t quit when things get messy. This is not the way of Jesus. The disciples
were often a bunch of goofballs. They fought with each other. They failed to
get what Jesus was trying to teach them over and over and over, but Jesus never
gave up on them. He did life with them daily for three years whether things
were good and they were healing and driving out demons in His name (Lk 9:1) or
whether things were bad and they were arguing with each other about which one
of them would be the greatest in His Kingdom (Lk 9:46). In short, discipleship
is always most effective in the context of relationship. Here’s what I can
promise you if you accept my challenge: It will be inconvenient, it will be time-consuming,
it will be hard, it will be painful, it will be messy, it will bring you great
joy, it will bring you great hope and most importantly, it will bring you
closer to the One who has call each of us to go out and make disciples of all
the nations!
“Join with others in following my example, brothers, and
take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” (Philippians
3:17)
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