What's a Disciple Anyway?

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

Some of Jesus’ last words to his followers were the Great Commission, where he told them, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). If I had been there, I think I would have been tempted to stop him and ask for some clarification. What, exactly, did Jesus mean by “disciple?” What were the signs that someone had become a disciple, that they were complete and I could check them off my list and move on to the next person? 

Merriam-Webster defines “disciple” as:
one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another: as
a :  one of the twelve in the inner circle of Christ's followers according to the Gospel accounts
b :  a convinced adherent of a school or individual

If we apply those definitions to what Jesus called his followers to do—make disciples—our job seems pretty easy. We tell people about Jesus, they become “a convinced adherent of a school or individual” by believing and trusting in Jesus, and on we go to the next person. 

Except that’s not really what Jesus did. Most of his ministry days were spent with the same twelve people, even after they were convinced of who he was. For Jesus, making disciples wasn’t a one-time thing, and I don’t think it is for us either. 

Making disciples isn’t another item on the “Good Little Christian” to-do list, and if we’ve told someone about God we’re good to go. Disciple-making is the continual, slow, good work of being the hands and feet of Christ to all we come into contact with. It can (and should) look like telling people about God, but it’s so much more than that. Making disciples is also about encouraging fellow believers when they are down, it is about showing up when we don’t feel like it, it is about continuing to work out our faith with the people around us long after an initial commitment to Christ. 

It is not flashy, it is not instant, it is not easy. 

It is trustworthy, it is patient, it is enduring. 

Jesus didn’t exchange his disciples every time they didn’t understand what he was up to (which was often). Instead, he stuck with them, slowly showing them what life with him could really look like. We don’t need to be intimidated by the Great Commission, thinking we have to move to another country and be telling hundreds of people a day about Jesus (though that may be what some of us are supposed to do)—instead, we can be part of the work of making disciples, wherever we are. We can invest in others and allow them to do the same for us as we live out Jesus' words together. 

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. You can read more of her musings on her own blog or follow her on Twitter @bwitt722.]

Daily Bread and American Dream Bread

Ah, the American Dream.

A good job, a spacious home, a white picket fence, a golden retriever, and a new-to-you Honda Odyssey. You can picture the Instagram account, right? If you’re new to Instagram, here’s what you need to know: Instagram is a photo-editing app that many people use on their phones so they can project beautifully edited and filtered photos of the following:

1. Green smoothies in a mason jar (2 c leafy greens, 2 c water or almond milk, 3 c ripe fruit)
2. Organic foodstuffs, like apples, artfully arranged in a hand-thrown ceramic bowl
3. Selfies at the Mumford & Sons concert
4. Kids running through a sprinkler, ducking under drops of water, laughing uproariously 

Here’s my latest Instagram:

Looks pretty good, right? My life must be perfect! I must be a great parent and my kids look like they never fight and they always eat their vegetables.

But here’s the problem with Instagram, and with the American Dream generally: its lifestyle is entirely antithetical to the lifestyle that Christ expects. You know what doesn’t look great on Instagram? Daily bread. Humility. Justice. Sacrifice. Self-control.

The world tells you to rise to your highest level of competence—to achieve to your highest potential.

Christ tells you to die to yourself—to take up your cross and deny yourself.

Now, I don’t mean to mislead you. I use Instagram like so many of you, and I think that if Jesus were living among us, then he would use probably use Instagram too. But what does it look like to project Daily Bread rather than American Dream Bread?

Well, I think it looks a lot like private acts of faithfulness and trust. It looks like Bible reading and prayer and hard conversations with people we love. It looks like responsible living. It looks like practicing self-control with our finances, with our words, with our dinner choices, and with our time. Notice that the life of Christ has many of the same elements present in the American dream—money, friends, conversation, food, pleasure—just on an entirely different scale. It’s measured and valued differently.

If you’re like me, then you might have a hard time getting out of your own way. It’s hard to trust that God will “show up” when you feel that you have all the tools to accomplish your goals on your own. It’s hard to step aside and let God control your life when it seems that you can do a pretty good job of controlling it by yourself. But if you’re like me, then you also know that you might have what you want, but you probably don’t have what you need: Daily Bread, humility, justice, sacrifice, and self-control.

A Different Kind of Radical

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

When I take a step back and look at my life, it seems pretty boring. I go to work, maybe Bible study or an activity with friends, go to sleep, and repeat. Throw in some hanging out with my family, grocery shopping and running errands, church and youth group on Sundays, and my life is pretty well summed up. Nothing about it screams “Radical!” or even “Slightly unusual!” Because from the outside, it’s not.

Sometimes when I hear about people who are living in Africa telling people about Jesus, or who have sold nearly all their possessions to give to the poor, I feel a little guilty. If they’re doing all that for God, then surely whatever I’m doing is meager and petty in comparison. I might as well quit even trying, because I don’t seem to be capable of that kind of radical.

We see the grandiose, dramatic things people do and wonder if they count more for the kingdom of God than our routines full of classes, soccer practice, meetings, and laundry. 

Yet I wonder if our view of “living radically for God” has gotten warped. At its very core, there’s something radical about following Jesus and seeking to live like him. When we look at the messages fed to us each day, many of them encourage us to pursue things for our own ultimate benefit, whether it’s a high-profile job, a glamorous house, or relationships that are all about our own wants and desires. The focus is almost entirely on us and what we can get from things.

 In Luke 9, Jesus calls several different people to follow him, and his comments to them are not exactly supportive. He doesn’t tell them that by following him they will become famous, acquire riches, or even make new friends. Instead, he tells them almost the exact opposite—life with Jesus means being willing to give up all of that. And not just give up what we may already have, but give up the life of pursuing those things to pursue him above all else.

So maybe Jesus’ call to order our lives after him is more radical than it seems. Instead of one big radical moment, what if our lives are made up of a tiny thousand radical moments? Of moments of conscious decision-making to order our lives not as society tells us to or as we ourselves may want to, but ordering it so that everything falls in line with what God tells us to pursue? While jobs, houses, relationships, and many other things can be good, they are not what Jesus tells us is best. He is best. When we seek him, we may find those other things as well, but there is no guarantee. And to seek him above all else, knowing it may cost us what we really want, is, in itself, radical.

It’s not a flashy kind of radical. Living radically in the everyday moments may go unnoticed by most people, but it will not go unnoticed by God. 

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. You can read more of her musings on her own blog or follow her on Twitter @bwitt722.]

The After Party

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

My daughter Lily has been talking about Heaven quite a bit lately. She loves to hear stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible, which is a kids’ Bible that I highly recommend because it doesn’t shy away from the really hard stories of the Bible, and it always points the readers towards Jesus and his unending love. Because there is so much death and destruction in the Bible, Lily and I have been talking about what happens to us after we die. She has fixated upon a few key heavenly images: notably, the idea that no one gets hurt in Heaven (even when they fall off their bikes) and the possibility that we might not need sleep (so we have more time for eating Lucky Charms and riding our scooters outside).

I love that even someone as young and immature as my preschool-aged daughter can understand the perfection that awaits us in Heaven. The prospect of an eternity with God is absolutely enthralling.

Except when it’s not.

Eventually, as we grow older, we learn to fear death (and feel remorseful about the ones who will grieve after us) and our excitement about an eternity spent praising God can wane. Sometimes we even wonder if it will be…boring.

Whenever I’m having a hard time leaving this life behind for the glories of eternity, I think about some of the images used in the Bible. One of the recurring images is that of a huge party, where all of your favorite people are in attendance, where the music is just right, where the food is abundant, where you can spend time face-to-face with God. Imagine being a child at a birthday party, or having audience with your favorite celebrity, or finally receiving an invitation to an event that you’ve always wanted to attend. Imagine the excitement and the spectacle. Although the very best rendering of celebration here on earth certainly pales in comparison to the actual experience of Heaven, it’s one that helps me to grasp the incredible eternity that awaits us: that God himself would invite us to his party and that he would sit across from us and eat with us.

[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI where she attends Encounter Church with her husband Dirk, and two kids, Lily and Colin. Kristin teaches high school English and otherwise passes the time reading, writing, running, and enjoying all that Michigan's West Coast has to offer.]