Archived Posts For Discipleship
Why I Like Brian McLaren
Posted on May 21, 2008 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Discipleship, Emerging Questions | Leave a Comment
Sure, it makes me an apostate, and a bad person. But I can’t find myself disagreeing with much that he says at all, and I think here we have a vital message for the church to hear. That’s all
Entitlement - the roots of our consumerism
Posted on May 19, 2008 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Crazy Idealism, Discipleship, Emerging Questions | Leave a Comment
Over at my personal blog (TheGeoffRe(y)port), I’ve taken on a bit of a theme around the misplaced feeling of entitlement that is so engrained as an enabler for our consumeristic mindset in the west (”The Ongoing Redefinition of Wealth“, “India to US - Shut up Fatty” and “Lobbyist, Possibly The Funniest Profession In The World” - if you’re interested). And the more I write about these ideas, the more obvious it becomes to me that if we are genuinely serious about this kingdom of God thing and finding out what that means in our culture, then it’s time we addressed this issue very, very seriously.
We have to recognise that we have this deeply misplaced feeling of entitlement to our lifestyle; and at times we in the church are perpetuating the dangerous myth that this is OK. When we expect that we have a right to drive as much as we like, in whatever car we like - we’re giving our devotion to that stuff. My problem is not so much that people have these things (necessarily), but that we feel “entitled” to that. We feel as though we “deserve” that.
When Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, they weren’t to have anything.
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
Matthew 10:5-10 (NIV)
A Christianity that follows the man who said this, needs to be able to imagine this methodology as a possibility. I’m not suggesting that Jesus is telling you to get rid of all your possessions: but I am suggesting that the horror such a prospect invokes in you is part of the problem here. Because deep down, through the gradual indoctrination of our culture, we believe that we deserve to have the things we own.
I firmly believe that we are called to take the call of Jesus seriously, and to act counter-culturally in this area. What if our pre-requisites for working missionally in an area was to go with nothing in the bank, and nowhere to live? Now I’m going extreme, but the fact that I don’t know a culturally equivalent example to the passage quoted above seems to me to say something about the way we’re operating.
Now, I realise that I’m doing the thing that infuriates my good friend Paulie: asking questions but not really offering a solution. But I think we need to be getting this stuff out there, because I firmly believe that these feelings of entitlement and getting what you deserve are harmful to the gospel in Christians.
And I am the chief of these sinners.
death and doubt
Posted on November 19, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Discipleship | 2 Comments
I’m aware that this blog has tended to lean towards a more theoretical approach to issues, so here is a specific practical situation for your reflections. In our Sunday morning youth session, we were discussing how we deal with (rather than ignore) doubts, and in the small group discussion afterwards had one of our girls asking their leader-person the following question (or words to that effect):
I’ve got a friend who has had three of her friends die in the past year and now they’re not sure if they believe in God. What should I tell them?
It’s a scary question, and by the sounds of it our leader-person did an admirable job in trying her best to handle it. But I’m intrigued to hear what you, the wise readers out there think. How does someone respond to that situation?
discipleship dilemma
Posted on October 12, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Discipleship, Emerging Questions | 25 Comments
There seems to be a bit of a push in the blogs at the moment around re-thinking our model of what discipleship out to mean. From Jonathan Brink:
“But imagine for a second, after calling his disciples to follow him, he proceeded to invite them to come to the local synagogue on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and Wednesday night for another couple of hours. Forget following him around and watching Him do things. And when they got to there, he sat them down and led them through a couple of songs. Everyone sat in the same direction facing Jesus as they listened to him speak from behind a small upright box. The message was on average an hour long, tightly scripted with an introductory joke to arouse the crowd and was primarily about how to “not sin”. It usually included three points, a story from His personal life, and a summary to wrap it all up. He always finished with a challenge to his disciples to do better and closed with another song. At some point in the process he passed a large basket around expecting them to put a little something in to pay the rent and help build a larger meeting place. The reality was that those in setup were tired of unpacking and packing up each time they met in this rented building. A new, obviously larger building just made sense. As long as those in the crowd showed up, the disciples were good. Invite their friend and they were better. Serve on a committee and they were golden. Under this scenario you have to imagine the original call to “Come follow me” seems to lose its impact, doesn’t it?”
“We are all familiar with the gospel stories where Jesus selects a band of disciples, lives his life with them, ministers with them, and mentors them. This approach to the formation of followers was common in the Israel of Jesus’ day. Most rabbis would initiate and develop their schools of thought through similar means. It was this life-on-life phenomenon that facilitated the transfer of information and ideas into concrete historical situations.”
So here’s the thing. My thinking is that it is a little too simplistic to think that we could import Jesus’ 1st century Rabbi style into 21st century western culture; but I’m also of the opinion that an attempt to bring in that model without contextualization would at least be a big step forward from the status quo model that Jonathon describes in the first quote.
There’s your question: what does Jesus model of discipleship best look like in contemporary culture? I’ll give you a hint - don’t start with existing church structure as your framework.
