Dear Fellow Trekker,
(Someone suggested fellow “traveler” might not be politically correct, so I am assenting in this instance, to be politically correct.)
Passing the baton this month from Central Europe, where my best friend and wife, Barbara, and I have been since the beginning of the month. We are here visiting Military Community Youth Ministries, Youth Compass, Young Life, and Youth for Christ staff who are laboring in the vineyards of youth (literally sometimes) across Europe. We have been given an incredibly warm welcome wherever we have gone, as we seek to reflect the Lifegiver and give hope to young and old alike.
I remain continually amazed at God’s strategy to build His church, which focuses on and always relies upon people, and their capabilities to do His will when possessed by His Spirit.
As you might expect, we are doing a lot of “hanging out” in homes, offices and meeting rooms, speaking here and there informally, and also in more structured situations, always seeking to encourage the work of the Spirit through soul talk into the life of others.
Yesterday, during a new staff training session for MCYM youth leaders here in the Heidelberg area, I spent a few hours on the subject of “making disciples”. Now I guess I’ve been at this business of discipling for about fifty years. When I started in the fall of 1955, with two guys out of my Palatine, IL Young Life club who had invited the Lifegiver, Jesus, into their lives at Young Life’s Frontier Ranch a few weeks before, I am sure I was quite mechanical, task-oriented, and driven to “make disciples” the way I had been taught. In those early days of Young Life, Young Life used almost exclusively the Navigator organization materials and methods. These were helpful and effective, with great stress on the disciple’s and discipler’s responsibility in the discipling process.
Yesterday I took a slightly different approach, learned through years of experience, spirit enlightened convictions and continual thought and prayer. I believe the foundation of all discipling is modeled when Jesus, walking along the seashore, called to specific people, “Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17). Understanding Jesus’ challenge, we find a three-legged stool on which the learner may sit and continue to “grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
First, one must choose to come into a close, intimate relationship with Jesus wherein our greatest desire is simply to “follow Jesus”. That is to say, the student/disciple takes on the personal characteristics and the style of the leader/teacher. He “looks” like him, “acts” like him, “accomplishes” work like him, etc. Second, the teacher takes a greater responsibility for making it happen. We “show up” to follow, and the Lifegiver, the God of the universe says, “I will make you…” What God is, He does and says, so that there is no variance between God’s nature, His act and spoken word.
In recent years, I have discovered in this second element of discipleship another term which is most descriptive of God’s absolutely indispensable part… spiritual formation! In fact, these days I find myself thinking more in terms of “spiritual transformation” about a lot of things. God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, is the disciple maker, always in our lives and in the life of whomever we disciple. We are called to speak into, to encourage the work of the Spirit which was at work in the disciple’s life long before we showed up and will be at work long after we depart.
As a result of our “coming to and following” and God promising/doing what He promises, we “become fishers of men.” The best translation of fishers of men I can suggest is simply oriented and focused upon people as Jesus is.
This statement of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark concerning “our calling, God’s promise and sure result” in the formation of a disciple is very significant indeed. Surely the way Jesus made disciples in His earthly life is the manner in which we should do it. Jesus, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”, is always the “how” with reference to anything we are or do. Filled with the Spirit, we are to be “Jesus with skin on.” When the resurrected Lifegiver told His disciples “as the Father sent me, I am also sending you” He immediately followed that up with the statement, “receive the Holy Spirit.” With the Holy Spirit we can do all things. Without empowerment by His Spirit we can do nothing! Rather humbling to say the least. (Check out John 20:21, 22, John 15:5.)
It is clear to us this month in Europe that people can always use a little encouragement! All blossom and mature with encouragement. We don’t need criticism or judgment or condemnation to grow in Christ. We all need encouragement. The effectiveness of a disciple maker will be in direct proportion to how he or she speaks encouraging words of the Spirit into the life of another. Guys, be honest, be candid, be decisive, but be encouraging. Discipleship is all about being changed into the likeness of the Lifegiver, Jesus Christ. It is heavy on the reflection of His image, and light on the reflection of our image as a disciple maker.
Let’s all be Barnabas’s, men! Sons of encouragement, energizing all whom we meet daily as long as we are alive, so that we might not be led astray in a fallen world. (Heb 3:13 states that concept well.) I sure miss “hanging out with you”. And Brother Paul expresses it well, too, to his friends in Rome (1:11, 12).
Your fellow trekker on the trail of life,
Jim Meredith