I like to keep my ear to the ground on discipleship. I pay attention to what’s being taught and who’s saying what. From the popular sources like John & Stasi Eldredge and Rick Warren, to the not so popular but equally interesting messages from Dallas Willard and Mark Green. What I’ve been noticing is a distinct polarization in the content and focus. Seems like the really popular types focus on the self, and the not so popular focus on the mission. And the really, really unpopular people like Dave Andrews and Vishal Mangalwadi focus on the hard middle.
The definition of popular is
- to be liked, admired, or enjoyed by many people or by a particular person or group : – intended for or suited to the taste, understanding, or means of the general public rather than specialists
So when I examine what’s moving off the shelves, what’s filling the workshops and courses, I see a distinct focus on the self.
Microcosm:
Seems to me that the books that sell the most, workshops best attended and people most talked about are of the ‘self help’ genre. John and Stasi Eldredge talk about improving your masculine and feminine self. Rick Warren helps you understand your SPACE and purpose. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson teaches you how you can be more blessed and fulfill your dreams. Good ideas no? And many of these writers and teachers are outstanding practitioners of the ways of God in the community. But the stuff that sells the most is about me.
We all have an inherent need to improve and grow. We want to develop our physical, mental and spiritual dimensions. We think the best way to do this is to read about and listen to people who are talking about, well, me! Hmmm.
I wonder if that really works?
The stuff on relationships is especially telling. There are tons of books and workshops available on dating, marriage and relationships in general. The interesting thing is that the more you learn, the longer your criteria becomes (you know, that list you keep in your head when you meet people). The whole while, more dating relationships end up in failure, more Christians end up sleeping with each other and divorce continues to climb up the charts. Hmmm.
In Captivating, Stasi Eldredge talks about how captivating (and even seductive) you can be. She reminds you of what you need in relationships. We get more and more focused on our need to be loved and less focused on our opportunity to be love. Paul said that love is not selfish, but in the growing list of relationship criteria, it’s all about what I am looking for in another person, not what I can give to other people. Looking within, is not a solution.
Macrocosm:
On the other end of the spectrum, and still kinda popular, is the stuff of mission. The grand mission. The eternal purpose and our place in it. Dallas Willard speaks of the Divine Conspiracy and our role therein. Mark Green of LICC focuses on transforming the nation through Godly principles of business. YWAM has taught about saving the world for over 50 years. This side of the spectrum is the big picture stuff.
So big in fact, that’s it’s easy to get lost in it. To lose ‘your self’ and get absorbed by obedience to the mission. The mission is so big that it’s also tempting to get strategic. You know, the numbers. 22K people groups. 4K people zones. So many percentiles, so little time. Our intercession for the nations, our evangelism, our giving all starts to get a little disconnected from the world we are trying to help.
When I read about YWAM’s latest 4K mission strategies and watch Bono tour Africa with Dan Rathers for the One Campaign, something seems out of place. I’m just a guy. I don’t have Loren Cunningham’s perspective or Bono’s resources. I’m one small part of a bigger family, in an even bigger city in a huge world. The bible says I’m a speck of dust, a grain of wheat or sand. I’m not insignificant, but I am not going to change the whole world. So what can I change?
The hard middle:
In the middle of these two discipleship poles, there seems to be a place in the middle. Dave Andrews talks about loving the difficult neighbor. He lives in a rough part of Brisbane with his entire family, loving the guy right next door. Cleaning up the needles off the street by prayer, discipleship and of course, picking up trash. Vishal Mangalwadi and his wife Ruth took their Masters degrees in Philosophy and Theology and started work in the poor rural villages of India. Their discipleship and evangelism was based on meeting real needs, day in and day out.
Dallas Willard recently asked the question; “When was the last time you went to a workshop on feeding the poor, or helping the abused?” The really hard middle is not a popular kinda focus. Jesus spoke in terms of giving to receive, laying down our lives in order to truly live. Loving our neighbor as a way of loving ourselves. How about a workshop on loving people I don’t wanna love?
I think the two poles in modern discipleship shows a kind of schizophrenia of the heart. On one side, we are desperately needing to grow up. On the other side, is an abandonment of the self (sometimes it seems easier) for the ‘mission’. The interesting trick of the heart here as that there is little cost to pay at the poles. The real price is paid in the middle. The time I take to be next door to really help my neighbor. The life I must live (over decades) to bring long term change to the community and even the nations. Learning to love people for what they can get out of it. In all these things, I am blessed and that’s the paradox of the kingdom.
I like talking about identity and how fearfully and wonderfully made we are. I like pontificating about the big picture and visioning every now and then. But I know the real growth and the real change is in the reasonable footprint of my life. The family I live with, the neighbor I live with and the community I am a part of. That’s how the nation grows and it’s how I will eventually grow up into the maturity that God has designed for me.