Missionary Disciples

Nowadays there is much talk about missionary disciples. This is not new - 15 years ago the Baptist Union slogan was 'Encouraging Missionary Disciples', but the emphasis has come to the fore, and the perceived need certainly accelerated by Covid. So there are now conferences focusing on the subject, looking at how we enable there to be more missionary disciples in our churches.

But there are also a few voices who are saying something subtly different. They are encouraging us to see that 'Missionary Disciples' should be an unnecessary combination of words ... because Discipleship must always include being on God's mission. Therefore you don't need the adjective - all true disciples will be missionary disciples for sure.

I have to say that I completely agree with the relative few. When Jesus said 'Come follow me' (to Peter and other fishermen), he also said 'and I will make you fishers of men'. When he called Levi the tax collector to follow it wasn't simply to leave behind is dodgy dealings (though of course it did include that!) ... it was to join on mission (going straight back among his dodgy friends!).

True discipleship means to be on God's mission team.

That doesn't mean we will all be star evangelists, or all of us need to full on extrovert ... but it does mean all of us seeking God for how He wants us to be on mission, and it does mean being prepared to share the hope that we have in Jesus. To not do this, skimp it, park it, or even ignore it ... is simply not being true to the call that Jesus makes on us when we call on Him to be saved.

So I now believe we are selling ourselves short when we talk about 'missionary disciples', since it implies that there are other categories/types of discipleship on offer. Being missionary is intrinsic to the real deal of following Jesus - the other categories are not truly in Christ. What the intrinsic missionary call exactly looks like can vary widely across different people, but it cannot be negotiated out or bracketed off to a subset.

So let us not focus on 'making missionary disciples'. Let us instead repent and reform our thinking on discipleship, seeking His grace to be true to the mission calling that is in following Jesus.

Pyjama Christians

Zoom and other web technologies have helped us all through the pandemic. Churches were applauded for their adaptability and creativity in 'going online' at very short notice last year. Who knew the church could react and change so quickly!

But now conversations between church leaders run along these lines: do we want to keep streaming? The additional people engaging (connecting / viewing) with our services is encouraging ... but are we just putting out a kind of Christian entertainment? Are we forming real community? And what about real discipleship?

We know the term 'Rice Christians' - a negative term used to describe the (bad) scenarios where people seem to show allegiance to the Christian faith in order to receive aid (e.g. rice) in some far off land where access to food is an issue. Yet now, especially in the West, we are in danger of producing 'Pyjama Christians'! Of course it is easier to just click 'View' on the cusp of the meeting start time (or any time thereafter). Yes you can engage from the comfort of your own home, cup of coffee in hand ... take a break whenever you need or want.

All these increase the 'accessibility' of our church gatherings - which is sort of a good thing ...

But Jesus commissioned us to make disciples (Matthew 28). That means challenge, hard decisions, and life-on-life learning together in the Spirit. It suggests changing out of your pyjamas and dressing ready for some hard graft.

The teachings of Jesus (which we are commissioned to teach people to obey) are in many ways wonderfully simple ... and yet hard to live out. On the contrary our plethora of online content risks being sophisticated & complicated ... yet easy to consume.

Maybe simply looking to Jesus gives us a clue on this topic. For Jesus is God come to earth, born as human, living flesh and blood (aka incarnation). In Jesus we see that God is not remote or virtual! Of course the Spirit can work through our remote technologies ... just as the Spirit has worked through pen-friend campaigns and long distance short wave radio ministries in the past. Yet there is something about the together: real and physical that Jesus has already modelled for us. Maybe we were given physical bodies for a reason.

Dreams

Many are sensing, hoping or expecting that the Spirit is stirring for a fresh season of God's special activity in our land. The 'revivalist' in me certainly hopes so too! But more than just wishful thinking, I am grateful that on my radar there are one or two snippets that suggest that the Spirit is indeed stirring. This encourages me to pray that simple but classic charismatic prayer: 'More Lord'!

It has come to my attention that God seems to have given a handful of people I have the privilege to work amongst 'spiritually significant' dreams in recent weeks. One gets my attention because of the accuracy of detail the person has seen in their dream regarding another person - details that they could not possibly know. Another is also a detailed dream which suggests God is revealing deep stuff within the life of the family. Others are clear encouragements and show God-given possibility.

This encourages me that God is on the move. He is concerned with family life, He is concerned to bring healing and transformation. He wants to open things back up. He will empower us to come against specific things that are bad.

The other interesting thing about these dreams that I am aware of, is that several of them have been granted to people who are very young in the faith. These are not people 'experienced in the spiritual gifts', or people with many years of long established deep prayer life, but rather people starting out. May God graciously reveal - regardless of individual's spiritual pedigree!

I have not had any significant dreams myself (I'm not sure I have ever had), but I am taking it as significant that God seems to be moving in this way.

Joel 2:28!

Disciple Making

One aspect where the pandemic has helped us as Christians in churches is appreciating the distinction between 'attendance' (or 'connecting') at whole church services and ongoing depth of discipleship. For too long we have paid attention to attendance at the expense of sustainable discipleship, and that deficit has been clearly exposed in recent months.

It may help us to assess where people are at by using two axes: depth of discipleship and attendance (where the latter might be connecting electronically to our online gatherings during this season) - as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1

That creates 4 quadrants. Those in the upper-right bring cheer to any pastor - they have discipleship (growing more like Jesus), and are connecting! Conversely the lower-left are a cause for concern. The other two quadrants bring worry but for different reasons. The lower-right may be doing quite well in themselves, walking well with Jesus - though at the risk of feeling isolated or disconnected from the body (a cohesion issue). The upper-left are visible in the body, but lets be honest: we lovingly want them to go deeper with Jesus and become more mature in their faith. These different categories are summarised in figure 2.

Figure 2

Now let's make an interesting observation. Our not-yet-Christian friends/enquirers start out in the lower-left quadrant. This is not their fault - it is simply the starting point. Our typical western model is to then invite them to corporate events - be it a carol service, a seeker service/event etc. This is good (and God blesses it!), and on our graph it takes people up into the upper-left quadrant. By God's grace they hopefully come to faith and cross the line into their own growing discipleship (upper-right), a journey shown in figure 3. I wonder, though, how many in reality get stuck in the upper-left?

Figure 3

What if our model was depth of relationship and developing discipleship from the outset? We would invite people to stuff of course, but the emphasis is moving towards Jesus rather than simply to the good stuff a church can lay on. The journey may prove to be more like figure 4, with its different shape of curve. The destination is the same (with Jesus, mature discipleship and well connected in the wider body), but the route to get there different. Yes I guess there is a risk of becoming stuck in lower-right ... but I wonder if this route might actually be better in our context today? Maybe it is more suited to inviting first to the smaller group / expression of Christian community where faith and discipleship can be explored more personally ... but still with connection to the wider body ultimately in mind?

Figure 4

Either way, if you are forced to choose between the axes then making disciples should have the priority - for that was the primary commission Jesus gave us.