Living with Jesus – an Ordinary Discipleship

What we consider “extraordinary”, Jesus put front and center as the heart of being his disciple.

Launching the new course “Living with Jesus – an Ordinary Discipleship” is the outcome of a variety of conversations, readings and musings regarding the state of our current understanding of discipleship. It appears that the concept of being a disciple of Jesus has grown dusty in the backroom of modern American Christianity; and the practice has suffered far worse. I am hugely challenged in my own life by the need to reconsider the call that Jesus has issued to all who believe…”Come, follow me!”

For instance…

 What is the difference between living FOR Jesus and Living WITH Jesus? One sounds quite spiritual, but may actually leave us in the driver’s seat. The other suggests the relationship that Jesus intended when he called the first disciples, as well as confessing the reality of His presence in the here and now.

 What is the ‘norm’ for the follower of Christ? Have we created a two-tier discipleship, with all of those great ‘saints’ living at a super-sonic level the rest of us will never reach? Or, is their experience the real deal; and the rest of us have settled for merely being ‘nice’.

 How do we avoid both the solitary, isolationist, personal devotion that keeps us from loving our neighbors(except from our kitchen windows)and the doing good deeds that can slowly become a source of pride and spiritual exhaustion because it is untethered from the love for God?

 What does the shape of Jesus Call look like for us today? Is it really any different from the very first calling…which meant a complete shift in the paradigm used to make choices at every level.

 There are many more hard questions that come out of examining this idea. It is not a comfortable place to be. However, if what I read is true, we are in danger of presenting an impoverished gospel at the least; and, at worst, a false one. The implications are extensive. As Kendra Dean puts it ,in her book “Almost Christian”, instead of doing a bad job of teaching our youth, the church is doing “…an exceedingly good job of teaching…what we really believe: namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people focused primarily on ‘folks like us’ – which begs the question of whether we are really the church at all.”(p 12) And that is only one of a myriad of critical implications for allowing our understanding and practice of discipleship to remain as it is.

I am indebted to articles from Christianity Today, Leadership, the old Discipleship Journal (Navigators- now out of print) and the every present internet for some of the stirrings that have resulted in this course. But, more importantly, it has been the interaction with Pastor Doug, several other elders at Grace, and the following authors that has given form to the many ideas swirling in my heart and head. I hope that those who become a part of this course will be able to cut through the static that surrounds us in this world, and hear again the clear call of Jesus…”Come. Follow me!” I want to learn to live WITH Him.

 Transforming Discipleship by Greg Ogden

Missional Spirituality by Helland and Hjalmarson

Whole Life Transformation by Keith Meyer

Radical by David Platt

Almost Christian by Kendra Dean

A host of the old timers such as William Law, A.W. Tozer and Thomas A’Kempis.

            

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~ by Roy Yanke on January 25, 2012.