Discipleship: The Heart of the Matter

While thinking about the title and subtitle of this month’s blog post these are a few of the thoughts that came streaming in.  Discipleship: What is it? Discipleship: Who’s makin’em?  Discipleship: What we’re not doing.  Discipleship: Just do it!  Discipleship: You do it.

If we go and look once again at Matthew 28:19 it’s typically called the “Great Commission.”  For most of my Christian life I read this with the understanding as a basic job description for missionaries and pastors.  Since I didn’t consider myself either, until recently, I wrote it off with a sigh of relief. 

For to long we have had a limited perspective of what “Going and Making Disciples” is really about. Ask the average pew warmer what Matthew 28:19 means and they will mention something about mission or that their pastor does it and they would be about 10% right.  It does include missions but it’s in no way limited to missions.  I would like to suggest what I believe the remaining 90% consists of. 

I think making disciples consists of making sure that Jesus would consider you a disciple.  That you would be making disciples of those around you including your friends, children, spouse, co-workers, neighbors and strangers and then other nations.  You can assign your own percentages to the ingredients above.

I would like to propose a new way of looking at the “Great Commission” First, it was the main part of the last statement Jesus gave to his disciples, which means it should be kept close to our hearts and considered important.  Second, it wasn’t a suggestion or a question it was a command that we were given the authority to carry out.  Third, it wasn’t limited to missionaries or pastors, it was given to his disciples at the time and to all that follow, which includes you and me and generations to come.

So what is a “Disciple” anyhow?  Using my nifty Bible software this is what I discovered.  The New Testament word is rendered, Mathetes and pronounced math-ay-tes´ the meaning can be translated as learner, or pupil, to understand. It carries the idea that a disciple would be willing to learn in any way possible.  The rendering of a similar word matheteuo includes in the description, to enroll as scholar, to instruct or teach.

Based on this basic information we can consider a disciple to be an individual who is willing to learn in any way possible and is then willing to instruct and teach others.  I think this is a good working definition.

The other day I wanted to make a holiday dessert that I remember eating every Christmas for as long as I can remember, Persimmon Pudding, which is so much better than it sounds.  If your still not convinced I’ll send you the recipe. Sine I’d never made persimmon pudding before I needed to ask my mother or grandmother for the recipe.  I could have guessed but it wouldn’t have yielded the same results.  I’m pleased to report that because I followed the recipe of those who baked before me, my labor was not in vain.

The same concept applies to how we Make Disciples. If we want our efforts to succeed then we need to follow the recipe of the one who successfully made disciples from scratch, Jesus.  There is so much we can glean from the scriptures on this topic that my brain and blog can’t contain it all.  Here is a feeble attempt at comprising a list.

What Jesus Did…

•       He invited the disciples to learn from him.
•       He made himself available.
•       He provided on the job training.
•     He taught people of different ages and different   backgrounds.
•     He did ministry so his disciples could observe.
•       He did ministry with his disciples
•     He sent them out 2 by 2 to do unsupervised ministry and they reported back to him.
•       He trusted them to do the  important stuff like preach, pray    for the sick, baptize and cast out demons.

       What Jesus Didn’t Do…

• He didn’t make the disciples beg him to teach them.
• He didn’t pay them or charge them for their training.
• He didn’t beg them to take their learning serious.
•  He didn’t assign them titles or positions other than learner.
•  He didn’t make them sit in a classroom for hours earning a  degree.
•  He wasn’t afraid to take risks in how he led especially when it came to breaking with traditions that hindered people from truly worshiping God.
•  He didn’t avoid correcting, confronting or challenging the disciples when they were missing the point.

I believe the main purpose of the church is to make disciples, not converts or fatter sheep.  Here are some things we need to consider as a body of disciples. 

  1. Why do we do what we do?

  2.  Does what we do, make disciples, distract, discourage, or      

       disciples.

  3.  Would Jesus consider me a disciple?

  4.  Am I willing to do anything to learn?

  5.  What have I leaned?

  6.  What do I need to learn?

  7.  Who am I discipling? & Who is discipling me?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…" We call it the “Great Commission” not because it’s an enormous task or because God only calls great people to participate in it, instead it's because it's a commission to the great numbers of disciples living around the world.  It’s the task of every disciple until he returns. Let’s hasten his return.  

Defining Panta ta Ethne

You may be wondering what Panta ta ethne means and why my blog is called Panta ta ethne.  One of the reasons I chose this names is that it sounds neat.  If I were inclined to get a tattoo, I would get Panta ta ethne written on my… Well more importantly than being ink worthy or sounding smart is the meaning wrapped up in the phrase Panta ta ethne.

Panta ta Ethne, is the transliteration of the Greek phrase, all nations, used in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” NIV (emphasis mine).

Matthew 28:19, is the first verse of what is called the Great Commission.  From the day that this charge was given by Jesus until today these verses have inspired missionaries to GO to all nations with the Gospel.  Most translations render Panta ta ethne, as ‘all nations.’  Therefore, its been assumed that doing missions requires the missionary to go to others nations other than the one they consider home.  This assumption isn’t entirely accurate. If the western church desires to remain relevant, we will have to learn how to be missionaries to our own nation. I will explain why this is essential later.

According to experts, a.k.a. not me, a better translation of Panta ta ethne is “all the people groups” and not all the nations.  (For a more academic explanation of “Panta ta ethne see link at the end of this blog entry.)  The problem with using the word ‘nations’ is that we traditionally think of a nation state for example Sierra Leone or The United States, when we should be thinking about smaller people groups. 

For example, Sierra Leone a small nation of 6 million people yet it is comprised of multiple people groups the Krio, Loko, Limba, Fulla, Mandingo and Mende etc.  Each people group has its own language and traditions.   To effectively reach the nation of Sierra Leone with the Gospel, the Panta ta ethne that make up the nation must be reached.   

Our own nation is a nation of immigrants.  Regardless of your political feelings on the topic it is our reality.  Cities like Los Angeles have become home to more than 200 nations and an increasing numbers of sub-cultures.  Beaverton, Or. is no exception, and is currently the most ethnically diverse city in Oregon.  Before you contact your realtor, consider this.  Is it possible that God has brought the nations in to our backyard?  Yes! Some may even say its because we have failed to GO and so God has brought  them to us.  I also think there are places like Iraq, where its very difficult for us to GO and so God, in his Love and Grace, has brought hard to reach people groups to us. Either way we've been commissioned.

America used to be known as a ‘melting pot’ a nation made up of peoples from many nations forming a new, shared identity.  This has been one of the foundational ideas of our nation, it’s even on our money ‘e pluribus unum’ another ink worthy phrase meaning ‘Out of many, One”

Interestingly, we have entered an era sociologists call the Post-Modern Era.  Which is a fancy term that up until two months ago I didn’t really understand.  In The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, the Post-Modern Era is simply defined as, "the re-tribalization of America."  As a nation we used to define and organize ourselves in large groups such as Americans or Republicans and Democrats or as Catholic and Protestant.  In the current Post Modern context people are forming their identities around smaller and more specific ethnic or sub-cultural groups.  For example we used to group ethnic groups by region like Asian but now we make the distinction between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian etc.  This also extends to sub-cultures within our nation like Oregonians, Ducks and Beavers, green, independents, gay and lesbian, vegans and cyclists.  

   

Portland is a perfect example of this.  "Keep Portland Weird" is our motto.  The city is comprised of smaller communities for example: The Pearl, N.W. 23^rd, Belmont, Hawthorne, N. Mississippi and Sellwood, to name a few.  Each of these areas has it’s own hip sub-culture that centers around a main st. that plays host to restaurants, boutiques, and coffee shops that represent the culture in that area.   Another example would be to look at the ethnic make up of areas within Portland, like North Portland vs. S.W. Portland or the East Side compared to the West Side of the river.  If you're from the Portland Metro area I’m sure you could label the ethnic groups that dominate these areas of the Rose City. 

The fact is a ‘one style fits all’ approach to doing church is no longer working. If business people can figure out how to market their products to the subcultures within our cities, the church can too.  It’s called contextualization, making the church relevant to the group it wants to reach. It’s the primary task of missionaries and church planters the world around.  We know the Gospel is relevant to every tongue, tribe and nations but the church isn't.

I said I would explain why our definition of missions and the role of the church must be redefined if it’s to remain relevant in the Post-Modern Era.  The idea that missions traditionally takes place in foreign nations isn’t an accurate model.  Now that the nations have to come to us, we need to quickly figure out how to reach them. 

However, we have a problem.  The current way we do church is no longer the most effective.  The current church model is a ‘come and see’ approach.  And at it’s peak this model created some big churches that were successful for a season.  But, now with the ‘tribalization’ of our culture this model is outdated.

From what I am able gather from scripture, the primary task of the church is to GO make disciples within all the ethnic groups and subcultures that we can identify.  This won’t happen if we continue to operate in what Hirsch calls a ‘come and see’ manner and by planting ‘one-size-fits-all’ churches. 

From the very beginning of time God shows himself to be a missionary God.  Leaving the splendor of Heaven and submitting himself to the limits of a human body to live among us.  How else, could we wrap our human brains around the idea of an invisible God who loves us and created us.  Even the geniuses of our day and age can’t seem to grasp that.   And so God came to us in a context we could understand.  The church must do the same.

We, the church, have been given the mandate to go and make disciples or all people groups.  We need to “go and be” the church according to Jesus and repeated by Hirsch.  We are encouraged though out scripture to care for the widow, orphan, foreigner and the poor.  This requires time, thought, willingness, courage, contextualization and patience.  It’s messy and can’t be detailed out in advance or exported as a cookie cutter program.  Ultimately it requires a new model of doing church. 

Why? Because the current model demands we spend the majority of our time and energy on maintenance and management of programs, resources and buildings.  The very demands of the current church model force us to neglect our primary task, that of making disciples of all people groups, Panta ta ethne.

We need to provoke one another to good works. We carry the message of Jesus everywhere we go.  Through our lives the message of Jesus is being translated to the communities and cultures within our spheres of influence.  It’s neither the pastor’s job nor the missionaries’ task.  It requires all hands on deck.  It’s a natural process that requires God’s supernatural power.  We can do it and we must.  It’s risky but necessary.  It’s an adventure that will keep you from becoming irrelevant or even worse, bored.  Join me in making disciples of Panta ta ethne.

If you aren’t yet convinced or would simply like to learn more about becoming missional and the meaning of Panta ta ethne, please take the time to venture down the following trails, its well worth the journey.

Alan Hirsch

http://www.theforgottenways.org/

Biblical Exposition on Panta ta Ethne

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/unreached-peoples

So what do you miss about Africa?

So what do you miss about Africa?  I’ve been asked this several times since moving back to the states two and a half months ago.  The first answer that came to my mind was “ Uh, Nothing and if you had ever been there you wouldn’t be asking me that question.”  But as I began to think a little deeper I realized that there were a lot of things I was missing about Africa and they’re significant.

I don’t miss the cockroaches I had to battle daily in my kitchen for the right to cook.  I don’t miss sweating for no good reason, especially while asleep.  I don’t miss being on guard every time I step out of my house, never knowing who might approach me.  I don’t miss hauling 5 gal. water jugs twice a week from a public tap to my house.  And I don’t miss being face to face with a poverty-oppressed nation.

I'm guessing you wouldn’t miss those things either.  So what DO I miss?  I miss how relational and warm African culture is.  Leonians love strangers, even more than themselves.  People say hi to their neighbors on a daily basis.  They actually know their neighbors.  I don’t know my neighbors.  Do you know yours?  In Africa it’s common to say hi to a stranger on the street, especially if you made eye contact.  I grew up in the N.W. and people are generally friendly, at least compared to places like L.A.  Still it’s not easy to get a stranger to say hi to you.

The other day I said hi to my neighbor and she politely greeted me back, but I could tell that it made her uncomfortable.  I later wondered how much more uncomfortable she would be if she knew I could hear her family through the adjoining walls of our town home.  If she knew I could hear her giving her children a bath every evening or that I could hear them making breakfast in the mornings.  I think she got off easy with a simple “hi.”

Which leads me to think if I was a missionary in Portland, OR and I am; how would I go about getting to know my neighbors?   After all I can barely get them to acknowledge me.  The fact that we can walk by another human being and barely show any awareness of their presence is so strange to me.  In Africa at any given time I could walk out of my gate and several people would just be there, waiting for someone to engage them in conversation.  People make time to talk in Sierra Leone, especially to their neighbors.  They help each other, watch out for one another and annoy each other.  There willingness to engage in conversation and life with one another creates a strong sense of community.  And that is one of the things I miss the most about Africa.  

God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings 
and sacrifices put together!  Mark 12:33 The Message

So why start a blog, you ask?  I’ve asked myself the same question?  I never understood why so many people seemed to be interested in reading or  starting blogs.   What's the deal yo?   Why blog?  I could respond, “why not.”  But that not a satisfying answer.  After pondering the idea a bit, my answer is this: I have something to say, and I miss communicating my ministry adventures through writing.  So whether some one reads it or not I’m going to blog for a season.  Here goes...