Transformational Discipleship

How People Really Grow

Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, Philip Nation

• Editorial: B&H Books
• Año: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781433678554
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Christian Church

A Christian's desire to grow in faith is beautiful and biblical, best illustrated in Jeremiah 17 where Scripture describes "The man who trusts in the LORD" as being "like a tree planted by water... It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit."But how do people really grow? Transformational Discipleship describes the process that brings to life that kind of person described in the Bible. There's no magic formula or mantra to recite here, but rather a substantive measure of research with churches and individuals who have wholeheartedly answered the call of Jesus to make disciples.A compilation of their wisdom and stories, it surely guides church leaders and members to practice the intentional efforts needed to foster an entire culture in which people grow in Christian faith.And they will grow, not because of human research, but by the power of the Word and of the Holy Spirit working through the church—the same way disciples have always been made. When the people of God engage in the mission of God through the Spirit of God, lives are transformed.

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Deficient Discipleship

Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer1

IN THE LEADERS'S FINAL HOURS, he was almost completely alone. He faced death without the company of those who swore their allegiance. Most of his trusted and closest friends deserted him. Some fled and painfully betrayed him. The world scorned him.

But not this disciple.

This disciple would remain faithful to death, following his leader to the grave. His mind was fully committed, his will set on his leader's agenda, and his heart thrilled by the intimacy of the relationship with his teacher. He was in awe of his king, humbled to be included in the inner circle. This disciple wrote of an early encounter with his leader:

Great joy. He greets me like an old friend. And looks after me. How I love him! Then he speaks. How small I am.2

Later the disciple penned these words about his leader's teaching and influence:

When he speaks, all resistance breaks down before the magical effect of his words. One can only be his friend or his enemy. He divides the hot from the cold. But lukewarmness he spits out of his mouth.3

The disciple is famous, just as his leader.

Before his death he said of himself and his leader, "We shall go down in history as the greatest statesmen of all time, or the greatest criminals."

The disciple's name was Joseph Goebbels, and he was a disciple of his Fuhrer (his leader), Adolph Hitler. While others deserted Hitler, Goebbels spent his last days alongside him in Hitler's secure bunker. When Hitler committed suicide, Goebbels and his wife followed closely behind after killing their six children. Goebbels was correct; they are known as the greatest criminals in history. The atrocities they committed against humanity are disgusting. Their plan to eliminate the Jewish people was twisted and evil.

Goebbels was a true disciple of Hitler, a follower, a student. He trusted and emulated his leader. He was discipled, but his heart was obviously never transformed. He died a wicked man with a depraved heart of stone.

Not all discipleship is transformational.

Chris Farley is still regarded as one of the funniest comedians of our generation. From his sketches on Saturday Night Live to the movies he starred in, Farley was a success in the entertainment business.

Chris Farley was impacted by the example and influence of another famous comedian: John Belushi. In a real sense Farley was a disciple of Belushi. Farley famously admitted, "I wanted to be like him in every way." John Belushi moved from the comedy troupe, Second City, in Chicago to Saturday Night Live to starring in movies. Farley followed the same career path.

Farley's emulation did not stop there. Both Belushi and Farley struggled with obesity and had a reputation for wild living. Sadly Belushi died of a drug overdose when he was only thirty-three years old. And years later, after a night of partying, Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment from a drug overdose. He was thirty-three years old. While his mentor impacted his aspirations and his behavior, his mentor never transformed his heart.

Not all discipleship is transformational.

Nontransformational Discipleship

Every person who has ever lived is a disciple. Every person in your church, neighborhood, and community is a disciple. In the New Testament the word for disciple is the Greek word mathetes, which can also be translated pupil or apprentice. Disciple simply means "learner or student." Therefore, everyone everywhere is a disciple of someone. Or something.

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Every person who has ever lived is a disciple.

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Jesus warns us to be careful whom we follow because, as happened with Goebbels and Farley, we will become like our leader. In Luke 6, Jesus gathered a large crowd to Himself and challenged the people to consider carefully who they would learn from, who they would follow. They had many teachers to choose from, and Jesus used a brief parable to show the people the seriousness of the choice.

He also told them a parable: "Can the blind guide the blind? Won't they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:39–40)

Jesus was speaking among a plethora of religious teachers who led people away from the grace of God. To the crowd Christ was saying, "Follow the wrong leader, and he will lead you into a pit." We become like the teacher we admire, so be careful.

When Jesus entered our world, He intentionally stepped into a Jewish discipleship paradigm filled with rabbis and disciples. There were numerous traveling rabbis in Jesus' culture, but their discipleship was not transformational. The learners were impacted by the knowledge and skills they learned, but their hearts were never transformed. Everyone is a disciple, but not everyone is transformed.

Only one Leader brings transformation to His disciples.

Discipleship apart from Jesus is nontransformational. It may bring changes, but it essentially leaves you in the same spiritual state as it found you. The discipleship may provide education, improve behavior, increase happiness, add value, or make the disciple more skilled at a craft. But these are just changes. It's the reskinning of the same thing on the inside.

Surely we can all relate to what it means to be discipled by culture. If not, just take a look at a picture of yourself from fifteen or twenty years ago. Those clothes? That hairstyle? The music you were listening to? Looking back, you can't believe you thought any of those things were acceptable, much less cool. What's worse, you can't imagine that you—you—would ever wear or listen to it. But the you of middle or high school was absolutely convinced not only that your clothes or music was cool but that they were what you really wanted. Discipleship apart from Jesus may be many things, but it is not transformational. Jesus is the only Rabbi who has the power to transform lives.

Jesus isn't just a passing fad, soon to be replaced by another right around the corner. If you believe what the Bible says, Jesus doesn't change people's clothes; He changes the very fabric of people's being. He brings light to darkness. He brings death to life. He brings new to the old. The transformation Jesus offers is radically different from simply being conformed to the world.

One of the clearest statements in the New Testament that makes this distinction is in the well-worn verses of Romans 12:1–2.

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

The difference is vitally important. The world seeks, through a million marketing messages every day, to conform our thinking to its standards. Most of us are more influenced by these messages than we realize. We will, in fact, either be conformed or transformed. Jesus isn't merely interested in conforming—changing the appearance and behavior of people. He's interested in transformation. Transformation is more than a surface-level alteration; it's actually becoming something else entirely.

Not all discipleship is transformational, but transformation only comes through the discipleship that is centered on Jesus.

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Transformation only comes through the discipleship that is centered on Jesus.

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Discipleship Deficiency

Since Christ-centered discipleship results in transformation, we can confidently assert that most churches are deficient in discipleship. This is a scathing claim as our entire mission as believers and churches is to "make disciples." After His death and resurrection, Jesus was clear in His command to His first disciples:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:19–20)

The reason Jesus left His disciples on the planet was to make other disciples. The fundamental reason your church exists is to make disciples of Jesus.

To the church at Colossae, the apostle Paul wrote a defining statement about his ministry to the church:

I have become its [the church's] servant, according to God's administration that was given to me for you, to make God's message fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me. (Col. 1:25–29)

The apostle Paul labored with the energy of Christ to present everyone mature and transformed in Christ. Because Paul was convinced that transformation only comes through Christ, he labored to make disciples of Jesus and not of himself.

For a church to be deficient in discipleship is to be deficient in its fundamental reason for existence. If any organization is careless in its core reason for existence, it doesn't matter if the organization excels at other things.

If Apple is deficient in designing computers, it doesn't matter if they excel in outfitting and decorating their stores. If Starbucks is deficient in coffee, mastering the art of creating loyal employees means nothing. To be deficient in your core reason for existence is always unacceptable.

We have learned to do many things as church leaders and members.

We build buildings.

We design programs.

We staff our churches.

We put on events.

We rally people around new initiatives.

And as our churches grow, we become increasingly proficient in a myriad of other things from branding to facility management. But are we making disciples? Have we become proficient in many things while simultaneously becoming deficient in the one thing that matters most?

When the apostle Paul felt compelled to defend his ministry, he did not point to his savvy leadership, the size of this team, the creativity or innovation in his ministry, his speaking ability, or even the number of mission trips he was leading. He simply pointed to the transformation in people's lives.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. It is clear that you are Christ's letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh. (2 Cor. 3:1–3)

Paul essentially says: "I don't need a resume that outlines my effectiveness as a disciple-maker. Look at the transformed lives because those lives are the resume. But please understand, I did not write the resume. Christ did. And when He wrote it, He wrote it on the hearts of people." Transformation is the bottom-line result of true discipleship.

Looking into the Church

So how can we—the church—know whether or not transformational discipleship is occurring? We decided to study the issue. In 2008, LifeWay Research surveyed seven thousand churches to discover the principles involved with congregational health a...