Part One: How the Life of Jesus Shapes Discipleship
Foundations for Missional Discipleship and Spirituality
The Simplex of Jesus
As we begin to think about Missional Discipleship.
Having the one who is sent (Jesus) at the forefront of our very existence is the starting point of discipleship practices and should be a prevailing theme of the Missional Church.
A presenting challenge for both the inherited Church and the emerging missional Church leaders who yearn to create a blended ecology of denominationalism is — to — develop practices that form disciples in the practices & purposes of Jesus (Christology), through an understanding of God’s Mission (Missio Dei), before their preference for Church (Ecclesiology).
This challenge has always been present in the history of the Church as it grapples with the complexities of knowing that:
When we confess ‘Jesus is Lord’, it is a simplex — simple enough for anyone to understand, and, complex enough that theologians have written volumes for hundreds of years on the subject.
Missional discipleship involves committing ourselves to God’s eternal purposes in this world.
While missional church leaders beckon inherited Christian institutions to reorient their existence around the Missio Dei, and display faithfulness to the numerical growth of new types of churches, the litmus test for both inherited and the missional Church is the quality of the disciples that they make.
Debbie & Alan Hirsch (well-known missiologists) state that the traditions of the Church have tamed Christians:
“Christians have been domesticated by the prevailing culture — instead of being radical disciples of Jesus Christ”.
They argue that the urgency for the Church is to form disciples in the image of Christ and shape their understanding that the incarnation is the most subversive doctrine in the Bible, saying:
“when dealing with discipleship, and the related capacity to generate authentic followers of Christ, we are dealing with that single biggest factor that will, in the end, determine the quality of the whole — if we fail at this point then we must fail in all the others”.
Active Participants in Christs ministry
Drawing its preference with the world through none other than the life and ministry of Jesus himself — the Missional Church strives to shape its discipleship practices on the life of Jesus as:
All authority has been given to him because he is sitting at the right hand of God (Heb 9:24)
Realizing that Jesus came as the embodiment of God upon the earth (John 1:14), announcing and demonstrating the Kingdom of God to a particular people at a specific time is something that sets Christians apart from other types of spiritual people?
Believing there is not a square inch of the world that does not belong to Jesus: the Missional Church understands that life and ministry provide a template of how Jesus shapes discipleship by us repeatedly inquiring into his divine incarnation.
Jesus is not going to be the king when he returns, but instead, he is the king for all eternity. He has every right to go to every corner of the globe to evict the squatters and alert neighbourhoods to his reign — all power and authority have been given to him.
“God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything” (Eph 1:21).
The incarnation gives us a visual representation of God; if we say Jesus is God — we are putting a face to God, a shape to God, and a way of life to God.
It is through this understanding of who Jesus was and is — seated at the right hand of God, and in reign over all of the creation, that:
the missional Church seeks to form disciples who understand themselves as missionaries first, and “keepers” of the faith a distant second.
Missional movements are obsessed with discipleship and discipleship making
The Easy Part: Becoming Radical Disciples of Christ and turning this world inside out by unleashing a global wave of kindness, empathy, and generosity!
My experience of living in a post-Catholic Quebec society (2012–2018) was while most people have no objection at all to Jesus, they have no interest in the ‘church.’
The above is an example of the paradox of the challenge that post-Christendom Church leaders encounter as they struggle to conceive that many people currently live into the purposes of Jesus, without signing up for membership of rigid Church dogma.
This challenge was reinforced to me with the presentation of a Sociologist at a conference I helped organise in Montreal (2017) looking at the people in Canada who identified as Nones (people who have no church connection)e or Dones (people who have left the Church).
A sociologist stated:
There was evidence that the core ‘Canadian’ value of acceptance makes ‘Nones’ and ‘Dones’ feel they are more aligned to Canadian values than religious values; they don’t think one needs religion to live a moral life.
While living in another post-Catholic society Cork, Ireland,(2006–2012). I had a conversation with a yoga teacher who remarked that he studied the teachings of Jesus every day, striving to live out his life according to these teachings, and he does not value the habit of attending a church to live out said teachings.
In my current role in the UK (February 2020), someone reminded me that for most of their life growing up in the Church, disciples where the people in the Bible who followed Jesus at that time, and that it is only in the past ten years (in her experience) that people have started to realise that they can be disciples themselves and don’t need permission from any Church authority for this to happen.
Hence, in the western world, we have a dynamic of folks who hold to the ‘who’ they understand Jesus to be as a trellis for living their lives — and also many Christians who are shaped by inherited church teachings and dogma as a trellis for their faith development.
Albeit, with the continued decline of people who participate in the traditional inherited church model, and the growth of those participating in new forms of churches — we can assume that the awareness of what it means to be a disciple first, and a church member second, will only be further challenged and complicated.
My experiences through training leaders, creating new forms for the Church to inhabit across three continents, and researching this area for many years. I have observed that intentional discipleship communities, for the most part, are happening in relationship-focused forms of Christian communities.
These communities understand if they don’t start with discipleship and discipleship making — while participating in each other’s lives — they have failed.
Missional movements are obsessed with discipleship and discipleship making~ Alan Hirsch.
The encouragement for traditional churches is that there now exists the momentum to implement a blended ecology of the Church that has at is core — Jesus-centric discipleship practices.
A few prominent themes of Churches that are immersed in a participatory form of discipleship practices are:
1. The power of ‘And’
The call of taking up the cross is something that can be easier talked about than practiced.
Thus, we draw from the life of Jesus how he informs our discipleship practice of giving unconditional love in all aspects of our lives. Still, in reality, we find this challenging to accomplish, even in our own families.
Jesus’ response to the question of the most important commandment does not start with Love the Lord your God (Mark 12:30). It begins with the proclamation; hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One (Mark 12:29). This forms the grounding for Loving God and others, bringing all aspects of our lives under the Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Creation was from the beginning an act of love, of affirming the goodness of the other and refusal to lapse into a dualism that sets up parts of creation as less worthy.
The importance of words such as “and,” rather than a reductionist rationale of “either/or” are essential as leaders seek to bring about Kingdom change in their local context.
In this new understanding of ‘And,’ no-one is losing control of something. Instead, all leaders can gain a new understanding of God’s mission in their context. Alongside, the possibilities for the local church to (re)discover Kingdom practices that can bind together what ‘has been’ to what ‘can be,’ as leaders resource all of its church members striving to make God’s love known in coffee shops, houses, sports clubs, etc.
Since there is limited research on effective renewal practices that might facilitate a new blended ecology of the Church within the denominational structures of the twenty-first century, many opportunities exist for missionally minded leaders to share their learning about the emergence of a blended economy of the Church.
2. Love
At the heart of discipleship is a yearning to draw others into the Kingdom of God by trying to act, look, and behave like Jesus (albeit imperfectly).
As we continue to draw from the life of Jesus and how he informs our discipleship practice of giving unconditional love in all aspects of our lives, Jesus was in no doubt about how hard this might be for us.
When asked aobut the greatest commandment, Jesus replies with the proclamation:
hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One. Mark 12:29
This forms the grounding for Loving God and others, bringing all aspects of our lives under a Triune God of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Our rootedness in the discipleship practice of love culminates with John’s vision of an innumerable multitude of redeemed peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation, worshipping Christ (Rev 7:9–10).
Love should be the starting and ending point when approaching discipleship.
3. Sacrifice
The actions and teachings of Jesus are radically different from even the most benign social practices that prevail in our world.
As Jesus had to die for us to have eternal life, we must lay aside our preferences and give priorities to the ‘other’ in our midst, dying to self.
The heart of Jesus’s message was not to reinforce an individualistic reading of his command to repent. Instead, Jesus is summoning his hearers to give up everything about the way they live their lives and trust Him for a new plan with regards to God’s purposes, for all peoples.
It is essential not to create an environment so comfortable that it gives no hint of the cost of discipleship or the call to serve as selflessly as Christ.
When disciples follow Christ, they must abandon the security of current structures — this might be Church structures and personal comforts and egos, and walk bravely into the future.
Building sacrifice and service into the DNA of discipleship is essential to mirror the practices and purposes of Jesus.
4. Neighborhood
The teaching and ministry of Jesus reinforce the fact that a covenant relationship with God is intimately tied in with the health of one’s unconditional love of our neighbourhoods.
The practice of boundary-breaking compassion by living into the rhythms and daily life of our neighbourhoods and co-creating to bring light to brokenness is how disciples will engage with a world that is suspicious of institutional religion.
This practice of generous neighbourliness, grounded in God’s passion for the neighbourhood is what Jesus demonstrated explicitly in the gospels.
When forming disciples, the Church should put its faith in the processes that Jesus taught us.
It is from a passion to be an incarnational presence, that disciples can be part of an extraordinary cascade of grace, and interrupt their neighborhoods with hope.
5. Small Groups
The life of Jesus demonstrates the value of living meaningful relationships within a small group context.
A part of Jesus’s authenticity arose from him making time for his disciples, and others, to see him, hear him, experience his walk with God and service to others.
Disciples must become apprentices of Jesus who create space for spiritual disciplines done in the context of community (small group discipleship).
By creating small groups where the practices, visions, and teachings of Jesus can be worked out in real life.
Small groups should be Jesus-centred communities of practice that reflect a holistic approach to discipleship by:
- Not being afraid of experimenting.
- Take their inspiration from the life and teachings of Jesus.
- Commit their time to address the needs of their locality.
- Have equal levels of accountability and support.
Through these demonstrations of how the life of Jesus shapes their discipleship practices, others would notice how the members of these small groups mirror the character and purposes of God and the transformative power of obedience through Jesus.
Thank-you for taking the time to read this piece that is designed to develop your thinking.
Please take some time to discuss the following question with others.
With regards to How the Life of Jesus Shapes Discipleship:
What questions arose?
What insights arose?
What observations arose?
Foundations for Missional Discipleship and Spirituality Series
Part One: How the Life of Jesus Shapes Discipleship
Part Two: How Hope in The Kingdom Influences Mission
Part Three: How Life in The Spirit Guides the Church into Adventure, Risk, and Bold Mission
Works Cited
Bosch, David Jacobus. A Spirituality of the Road.
Brueggemann, Walter. Journey to the Common Good.
Dunwoody, Mark. Introducing Canadian Church Planters and Denominational Leaders to the Canadian Missionary Crisis.
Dunwoody, Mark. The beauty of change continues: effective practices of a blended ecology of Church.
Escobar, Kathy. Down We Go Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus. Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus.
Hirsch Alan. 5Q: Activating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ.
Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church.
Hirsch Alan, Debbie. Untamed, Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleships.
“Historic Models of Fresh Expressions.” Fresh Expressions US, http://freshexpressionsus.org/2016/11/14/historic-models-fresh-expressions/.
Holt, Simon Carey. SPIRITUALITY & MISSION IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD God Next Door.
Jane, Mary. Vision: Living Under the Promises of God Study Group.
Morisy, Ann. Journeying out: A New Approach to Christian Mission. London ;
Nelson, Scott. Vision: Living Under the Promises of God.
“One Simple Reason Dinner Church Is Trending.” Fresh Expressions US, http://freshexpressionsus.org/2017/10/26/one-simple-reason-dinner-church-trending/.
Scandrette, Mark. Practicing the Way of Jesus Life Together in the Kingdom of Love. Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love.
Scott, Nelson. The Eight Practices of a Disciple on Mission.
SNYDER, and Snyder, Howard A. Salvation Means Creation Healed Snyder, Howard A.. Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace: Overcoming the Divorce Between Earth and Heaven. Wright N.T. Surprised By Hope.
