In the article "Initial and Full Conversion" (April 2006), we looked at what we do to help bring people to Christ. We saw that many people who begin our initiations process have an initial conversion to Christ – they accept the gospel and have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior – but they have not come to full conversion or Christian maturity. They do not keep all the commandments, often because they do not fully know what is involved in keeping them. Our initiations process is designed to bring them to full conversion, "bearing fruit in every good work" (Col 1:10).
But that is not all we try to do. We also want to make them disciples of the Lord. And if they are true disciples, they will want to give their lives to advance his kingdom. Many of us would be inclined to say that someone who is fully converted in the sense that they keep all the commandments (love of God and love of neighbor, including faith in Christ) is a disciple. But that leaves something out, something expressed most clearly in the discipleship sayings in the gospels.
Most people who identify themselves as Christians are nominal or deficient Christians. Sociological surveys tell us that the majority of people who identify themselves as Christians do not "go to church" and do not keep the commandments. These are nominal Christians. Many who go to church do not keep some or even most of the commandments. These could be termed deficient Christians. Some of those whom we meet at church, however, are good Christians. They do keep the commandments. Some of them are quite active as Christians. Most of those say that Christianity is very important to them. But do they have a discipleship commitment?
Some do. Many do not.
Teaching On Discipleship
We talk about Christian discipleship throughout our work with new people in evangelism and initiations. We make the fullest presentation in the talk "Disciples" in the Our Call talk. There we say:
Disciples are people who live for the coming of the kingdom, who are on mission to advance the kingdom, who live to do the will of their heavenly Father. (Lk 11:1–2)
Disciples are people who deny themselves and give their lives to their master, so that their lives are his and not their own (Luke 9:23).
Disciples are people who take up their cross and follow Christ, being willing to give their lives for him and his kingdom as he gave his life for us, "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it." (Mk 10:35)
Disciples are people who live "all out" for the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Matt 12:28)
Disciples are people who follow the Lord and live for his kingdom "with all their lives for the rest of their lives".
Disciples are people who sell all to buy the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price. (Matt 13:44–46)
The Discipleship Issue
Why are many good Christians not disciples? The answer has to do with what some people have called "the discipleship issue". The discipleship issue is first and foremost about our lives. Whose are they? Our own or the Lord’s? If we have truly given our lives to him, we approach our lives as stewards of a life that belongs to the Lord. We simply want to know what he wants to do with his life that he has given us, and we want to do whatever that is.
The discipleship issue is secondly about what we have. As modern human beings, this focuses on our time and money. Do we keep our time and contribute some to the Lord, or is it all his? Do we keep our money and contribute some to the Lord, or is it all his? If we are disciples, the time and money in our keeping is his time and his money that he has given us to steward.
For most good Christians, the Lord and his kingdom (Christianity) is one of many things in their lives. For some it is something very important. But they have the Lord and… They have the Lord and their family and their job and their friends and their music and their motorcycle and, and, and… As one Christian teacher put it, they have bought the pearl of great price (rather cheaply, it might be said) and added it to their pearl collection. Until they settle the discipleship issue, they may be good Christians, people the world around them would see as good Christians, at least if they invest enough in Christian things, but they are not yet disciples.
We do not have to stop having a family or a secular job or a bank account in order to be a disciple. As the Acts of the Apostles makes clear, the early Christians saw themselves as disciples, and yet many of them were married, with regular occupations, and with material resources. The discipleship issue is whether we have made those things over to the Lord or whether we keep some of it for ourselves and give some to the Lord.
Forming Disciples
Our initiations process is designed to bring people to a discipleship commitment. Disciples, of course, have to keep the commandments, as we saw in the write-up on full conversion. Zeal for the Lord is not a substitute for obedience. In fact, most of what we do as pastoral workers in initiations is centered on helping people keep the commandments. We are encouraging people to pray, to raise their families well, to support community life, to seek to build up their brothers and sisters in the Lord, to keep Christian sexual morality, to stay out of debt, etc., etc. These are the day-in, day-out concerns of our formative care. Nonetheless, we should not simply be trying to form law-abiding, commandment-keeping Christians. We should not even simply be trying to form faith-filled, obedient Christians. We should be trying to form law-abiding, commandment-keeping, faith-filled, obedient disciples.
One key feature of the discipleship issue concerns decisions in life. We want to help the people in our initiations process to make intelligent decisions. We want to help them use their time and money wisely, for instance, not to waste it or inadvertently throw it away. Even more, we want them to make Christian decisions. Much of the time, these will be commandment-based or obedience decisions. Very often young people who come to us have to decide to stop fornicating or not to borrow money without paying it back. These are decisions that are simply a matter of keeping the commandments – or not.
But there is a different kind of decision. For instance, some young people who come to us decide to repent of serious sin as early as the Life in the Spirit Seminars or their first retreat. But then, they need to decide to come regularly to our activities (or something similar) so that they can grow as Christians. Many do not make that decision. They want to use their time in a different way, and so they do not take the steps that will allow them to be disciples.
People farther in the Lord, people who have decided to give some of their lives to grow as disciples, continue to have further discipleship decisions. A young person may have decided to be connected to us and even enter the initiations process. He may be keeping out of sexual sin. But he may have met someone he is romantically attracted to who is not much of a Christian and who does not want to be. He may marry that person anyway. If he does, he is practically guaranteeing that he cannot live much of his life in a discipleship way, even though he may not have broken a commandment in marrying that person. He has not taken the path of a disciple.
Older people have to make similar decisions. They may be facing the need to get a new home. They may decide not to buy a house that is beyond their means or that is in a bad neighborhood for their children to be in. That is all just fine. But they may also decide to buy a house that is too far for them to be much part of the community because they like it better. Their decision may not break a commandment, but it is not a discipleship decision.
The question a basic good Christian asks is: can I keep the commandments and still do this thing I want to do? Or the less committed good Christian may in the back of his mind be asking the longer-term question: can I do this and not go to hell. But the question a disciple asks is: how I can use this life I have – this life that is the Lord’s and not my own anymore – how can I use it to live for the Lord and advance his kingdom. Which possible marriage partner will allow me to live for the Lord? Which house that I might buy will allow me to contribute most to the advancement of his kingdom?
We are, to be sure, seeking to bring people to Christian maturity, to a life of keeping the commandments. We are, however, also seeking to bring them to Christian discipleship. If those who complete our initiations process simply want to be "good enough" Christians and do not want to be disciples, we have not fully succeeded. That means that we have to regularly help the people we are working with to ask the discipleship question as they make their decisions in life – which choice will allow me to live most fully for the Lord? The answer, of course, may be "either one", and so the decision has to be made on other grounds, but we want to help them get to the point where they ask the question instinctively and approach all their decisions as disciples.
Regular Reviews
Discipleship, of course, is not just a matter of making decisions. It is a matter of living our whole life. That means that we as pastoral workers in initiations are also trying to help people to look at their lives as a whole and say, "am I using my time and money in the best way for the Lord and his kingdom?" Regular reviews of schedule and budget are very helpful in this regard. Being a disciple does not mean that we eliminate all rest and recreation or never spend any money on ourselves. We need such things to function well. But it does mean that we regularly ask the question: "am I stewarding my life and resources for the Lord in the way I use my time and money?"
Sometimes young people are afraid that if they decide to be disciples, they have to live single for the Lord. Some certainly should. But some should get married for the Lord. The discipleship question is: "how can I live in the best way for the Lord?", not "what do I most want to do?" or "what do I most deeply desire?" Most should probably get married, but, if they are disciples, they should do that because that is the best way for them to live for the Lord and advance his kingdom. But all in the course of the initiations process should ask the question how they can live best as a disciple of the Lord, someone seeking to advance his kingdom. We treat this in the course on Entering Your State in Life (Foundations Course 2 for Singles).
The decision to be a disciple can come at any time in the initiations process. For some it happens at the moment of initial conversion. When some new people come to faith in the Lord, they know he is the most important thing in life, the pearl of great price, something worth living their whole life for, and they give him their lives with no strings attached. For some becoming disciples is a gradual process. They can say the words of a discipleship commitment and mean them as far as they understand them. However, their lives stay much the same. They have the same friends and interests, the same values and priorities, the same things taking up most of their time. Only gradually do they agree to pray regularly, to be a regular part of a Christian group, to get some Christian friends, to contribute some of their money on a regular basis. If they are young, only gradually do they seriously make the Christian commitment of their prospective marriage partner an important consideration or ask how their planned occupation can fit into a Christian life. If they are older, only gradually do they make discipleship decisions about how to use the money from the raise they just got or about where to get a new house or what school to send their children to.
Those who have been raised as good Christians are often the slower ones to become disciples, at least to become disciples with "all their lives". New converts sometimes see the issues more clearly and take more decisive steps quickly. Because they are making a big change to become a Christian in the first place, they see the consequences of the step they are taking more easily. Nonetheless, those who have been raised as good Christians, if they go through the initiations process well, will step by step become disciples.
Testing
There is a simple truth here, the truth of what the scripture calls "testing". We only have made a real decision when it is put to the test. It is when we have to decide against marrying someone we are attracted to because that person will not enable us to live for the Lord that we become a disciple in the area of our marriage. It is only when we have to decide to forego a promotion, because the new job will not allow us to live as fully for the Lord that we become a disciple in the area of our occupation. We need to, in a certain way, remake our discipleship commitment constantly. We need to extend it to more and more of our life. And the Lord seems to help the process by constantly providing tests that allow us to grow in discipleship. As pastoral workers, we can be most useful when we help the people we are caring for see that they are facing a discipleship decision.
Nonetheless, whether by quick growth or slow growth, discipleship is what we are aiming at, what should characterize all the members of our communities. We want to be a band of disciples, seeking to give our lives to advance the kingdom of the Lord. And as pastoral workers in initiations, we want to help those we are caring for see the surpassing worth of the pearl of great price and constantly choose for it in small as well as in big things.
But that is not all we try to do. We also want to make them disciples of the Lord. And if they are true disciples, they will want to give their lives to advance his kingdom. Many of us would be inclined to say that someone who is fully converted in the sense that they keep all the commandments (love of God and love of neighbor, including faith in Christ) is a disciple. But that leaves something out, something expressed most clearly in the discipleship sayings in the gospels.
Most people who identify themselves as Christians are nominal or deficient Christians. Sociological surveys tell us that the majority of people who identify themselves as Christians do not "go to church" and do not keep the commandments. These are nominal Christians. Many who go to church do not keep some or even most of the commandments. These could be termed deficient Christians. Some of those whom we meet at church, however, are good Christians. They do keep the commandments. Some of them are quite active as Christians. Most of those say that Christianity is very important to them. But do they have a discipleship commitment?
Some do. Many do not.
Teaching On Discipleship
We talk about Christian discipleship throughout our work with new people in evangelism and initiations. We make the fullest presentation in the talk "Disciples" in the Our Call talk. There we say:
Disciples are people who live for the coming of the kingdom, who are on mission to advance the kingdom, who live to do the will of their heavenly Father. (Lk 11:1–2)
Disciples are people who deny themselves and give their lives to their master, so that their lives are his and not their own (Luke 9:23).
Disciples are people who take up their cross and follow Christ, being willing to give their lives for him and his kingdom as he gave his life for us, "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it." (Mk 10:35)
Disciples are people who live "all out" for the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Matt 12:28)
Disciples are people who follow the Lord and live for his kingdom "with all their lives for the rest of their lives".
Disciples are people who sell all to buy the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price. (Matt 13:44–46)
The Discipleship Issue
Why are many good Christians not disciples? The answer has to do with what some people have called "the discipleship issue". The discipleship issue is first and foremost about our lives. Whose are they? Our own or the Lord’s? If we have truly given our lives to him, we approach our lives as stewards of a life that belongs to the Lord. We simply want to know what he wants to do with his life that he has given us, and we want to do whatever that is.
The discipleship issue is secondly about what we have. As modern human beings, this focuses on our time and money. Do we keep our time and contribute some to the Lord, or is it all his? Do we keep our money and contribute some to the Lord, or is it all his? If we are disciples, the time and money in our keeping is his time and his money that he has given us to steward.
For most good Christians, the Lord and his kingdom (Christianity) is one of many things in their lives. For some it is something very important. But they have the Lord and… They have the Lord and their family and their job and their friends and their music and their motorcycle and, and, and… As one Christian teacher put it, they have bought the pearl of great price (rather cheaply, it might be said) and added it to their pearl collection. Until they settle the discipleship issue, they may be good Christians, people the world around them would see as good Christians, at least if they invest enough in Christian things, but they are not yet disciples.
We do not have to stop having a family or a secular job or a bank account in order to be a disciple. As the Acts of the Apostles makes clear, the early Christians saw themselves as disciples, and yet many of them were married, with regular occupations, and with material resources. The discipleship issue is whether we have made those things over to the Lord or whether we keep some of it for ourselves and give some to the Lord.
Forming Disciples
Our initiations process is designed to bring people to a discipleship commitment. Disciples, of course, have to keep the commandments, as we saw in the write-up on full conversion. Zeal for the Lord is not a substitute for obedience. In fact, most of what we do as pastoral workers in initiations is centered on helping people keep the commandments. We are encouraging people to pray, to raise their families well, to support community life, to seek to build up their brothers and sisters in the Lord, to keep Christian sexual morality, to stay out of debt, etc., etc. These are the day-in, day-out concerns of our formative care. Nonetheless, we should not simply be trying to form law-abiding, commandment-keeping Christians. We should not even simply be trying to form faith-filled, obedient Christians. We should be trying to form law-abiding, commandment-keeping, faith-filled, obedient disciples.
One key feature of the discipleship issue concerns decisions in life. We want to help the people in our initiations process to make intelligent decisions. We want to help them use their time and money wisely, for instance, not to waste it or inadvertently throw it away. Even more, we want them to make Christian decisions. Much of the time, these will be commandment-based or obedience decisions. Very often young people who come to us have to decide to stop fornicating or not to borrow money without paying it back. These are decisions that are simply a matter of keeping the commandments – or not.
But there is a different kind of decision. For instance, some young people who come to us decide to repent of serious sin as early as the Life in the Spirit Seminars or their first retreat. But then, they need to decide to come regularly to our activities (or something similar) so that they can grow as Christians. Many do not make that decision. They want to use their time in a different way, and so they do not take the steps that will allow them to be disciples.
People farther in the Lord, people who have decided to give some of their lives to grow as disciples, continue to have further discipleship decisions. A young person may have decided to be connected to us and even enter the initiations process. He may be keeping out of sexual sin. But he may have met someone he is romantically attracted to who is not much of a Christian and who does not want to be. He may marry that person anyway. If he does, he is practically guaranteeing that he cannot live much of his life in a discipleship way, even though he may not have broken a commandment in marrying that person. He has not taken the path of a disciple.
Older people have to make similar decisions. They may be facing the need to get a new home. They may decide not to buy a house that is beyond their means or that is in a bad neighborhood for their children to be in. That is all just fine. But they may also decide to buy a house that is too far for them to be much part of the community because they like it better. Their decision may not break a commandment, but it is not a discipleship decision.
The question a basic good Christian asks is: can I keep the commandments and still do this thing I want to do? Or the less committed good Christian may in the back of his mind be asking the longer-term question: can I do this and not go to hell. But the question a disciple asks is: how I can use this life I have – this life that is the Lord’s and not my own anymore – how can I use it to live for the Lord and advance his kingdom. Which possible marriage partner will allow me to live for the Lord? Which house that I might buy will allow me to contribute most to the advancement of his kingdom?
We are, to be sure, seeking to bring people to Christian maturity, to a life of keeping the commandments. We are, however, also seeking to bring them to Christian discipleship. If those who complete our initiations process simply want to be "good enough" Christians and do not want to be disciples, we have not fully succeeded. That means that we have to regularly help the people we are working with to ask the discipleship question as they make their decisions in life – which choice will allow me to live most fully for the Lord? The answer, of course, may be "either one", and so the decision has to be made on other grounds, but we want to help them get to the point where they ask the question instinctively and approach all their decisions as disciples.
Regular Reviews
Discipleship, of course, is not just a matter of making decisions. It is a matter of living our whole life. That means that we as pastoral workers in initiations are also trying to help people to look at their lives as a whole and say, "am I using my time and money in the best way for the Lord and his kingdom?" Regular reviews of schedule and budget are very helpful in this regard. Being a disciple does not mean that we eliminate all rest and recreation or never spend any money on ourselves. We need such things to function well. But it does mean that we regularly ask the question: "am I stewarding my life and resources for the Lord in the way I use my time and money?"
Sometimes young people are afraid that if they decide to be disciples, they have to live single for the Lord. Some certainly should. But some should get married for the Lord. The discipleship question is: "how can I live in the best way for the Lord?", not "what do I most want to do?" or "what do I most deeply desire?" Most should probably get married, but, if they are disciples, they should do that because that is the best way for them to live for the Lord and advance his kingdom. But all in the course of the initiations process should ask the question how they can live best as a disciple of the Lord, someone seeking to advance his kingdom. We treat this in the course on Entering Your State in Life (Foundations Course 2 for Singles).
The decision to be a disciple can come at any time in the initiations process. For some it happens at the moment of initial conversion. When some new people come to faith in the Lord, they know he is the most important thing in life, the pearl of great price, something worth living their whole life for, and they give him their lives with no strings attached. For some becoming disciples is a gradual process. They can say the words of a discipleship commitment and mean them as far as they understand them. However, their lives stay much the same. They have the same friends and interests, the same values and priorities, the same things taking up most of their time. Only gradually do they agree to pray regularly, to be a regular part of a Christian group, to get some Christian friends, to contribute some of their money on a regular basis. If they are young, only gradually do they seriously make the Christian commitment of their prospective marriage partner an important consideration or ask how their planned occupation can fit into a Christian life. If they are older, only gradually do they make discipleship decisions about how to use the money from the raise they just got or about where to get a new house or what school to send their children to.
Those who have been raised as good Christians are often the slower ones to become disciples, at least to become disciples with "all their lives". New converts sometimes see the issues more clearly and take more decisive steps quickly. Because they are making a big change to become a Christian in the first place, they see the consequences of the step they are taking more easily. Nonetheless, those who have been raised as good Christians, if they go through the initiations process well, will step by step become disciples.
Testing
There is a simple truth here, the truth of what the scripture calls "testing". We only have made a real decision when it is put to the test. It is when we have to decide against marrying someone we are attracted to because that person will not enable us to live for the Lord that we become a disciple in the area of our marriage. It is only when we have to decide to forego a promotion, because the new job will not allow us to live as fully for the Lord that we become a disciple in the area of our occupation. We need to, in a certain way, remake our discipleship commitment constantly. We need to extend it to more and more of our life. And the Lord seems to help the process by constantly providing tests that allow us to grow in discipleship. As pastoral workers, we can be most useful when we help the people we are caring for see that they are facing a discipleship decision.
Nonetheless, whether by quick growth or slow growth, discipleship is what we are aiming at, what should characterize all the members of our communities. We want to be a band of disciples, seeking to give our lives to advance the kingdom of the Lord. And as pastoral workers in initiations, we want to help those we are caring for see the surpassing worth of the pearl of great price and constantly choose for it in small as well as in big things.
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