Tag: Discipleship

Reviewing ReJesus – II

Posted on January 5, 2009

Continuing the review (part I here) of Frost & Hirsch’s ReJesus, chapters 2 & 3 apply the concept of ReJesus to the individual and the community, to discipleship and the church. The aim of “rejesusing” disciples and communities is to “recover the absolute centrality of the person of Jesus in defining who we are as well as what we do.” Thus, they “believe that Christology is the key to the renewal of thE church in every age and in every possible situation it might find itself.”

Chapter two advocates personal renewal through Christology but what kind? They advocate a “recapturing of our imaginations” to person and example of Jesus. Sympathetic to empire theology, they suggest that we become a “conspiracy of little Jesuses” to order to subvert the rules of the Western empire, i.e. globalism, consumerism, etc. In short, “the task of discipleship is the lifelong project of literally becoming like him, of becoming a little Jesus” (49). How then do we become like Jesus? F&H try to steer clear of religion and “conformity to impersonal commands” by emphasizing a “constantly renewed, up-to-date experience with our Lord.” How do we develop this personal relationship with Jesus (which never appears as such in the Bible)? Contemporaneousness–unmediated closeness to Jesus, a term drawn from the wells of Soren Kierkegaard, an existentialist philosopher turned Christian. And here are where some personal concerns begin to emerge.

While I have been invigorated by the radical focus on the person and work of Jesus, the power to become like Jesus appears to be pietism. They steer clear of bootstrap religion but point us to the personal relationship with Jesus as the source for obedience. While I’m sure that is a motivating factor–the more I know Jesus, the more I desire to be like him–the Bible doesn’t appeal to a personal relationship w/ Jesus for our motivation to imitate him. Why? Probably because our experience of being close to him fluctuates considerably. As relationally, emotionally broken evangelicals, we easily confuse emotion for love and piestism for being “in Christ.”

Rather, the New Testament consistently points to new creation, the Spirit, and the Cross as motivation for obedience. For example:

Future Glory: “ For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, a)who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

God’s sovereign pleasure: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Power of the Spirit: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Should there not be a concomitant emphasis on the gospel, the Spirit, new creation and so on, if we are to imitate Jesus? Will not imitatio Christi lead to a new works righteousness without proper emphasis on the gospel? While working on this post I noticed Stetzer interviewed Hirsch, so I dropped some of these questions off in a comment. Hirsch graciously responded by pointing us away from cheap grace to costly grace. Read his response here.

Blogging yourself to Death

Posted on November 26, 2008

A few years ago I hesitantly took up blogging at the behest of a friend. Since then I have started three blogs, two of which are active. I knew the dangers going in. Blogging is an inherently narcissistic medium; it assumes that readers want to know what you think about any given topic. It is from you, through you, and if we aren’t careful, it will be back to you. I fight that blog narcissism every day. Blogging panders to pride.

Statistics don’t help. You can track down people who refer to your blog, interact in comments, and watch your hits rise and fall. Sure, these can be helpful and produce some good conversations, but stats are as dangerous as they are helpful. Of course, it’s not the stats that are really dangerous; it is my idolizing heart. The part of me that wants everything to be about me, not God. The impulse to worship something other than the glorious triune God, namely myself. Or is that really what is happening in my heart? Am I worshipping myself or am I worshipping what others think of me? Ah, that’s more to the point.

Blogging invites interaction, recognition, and criticism, as do many forms of self-expression. I find myself checking comments and statistics to see if anyone has responded. Often, this is out of a desire to know what people think about me and my ideas, to see if they like or dislike them. If they like my writing, then I feel good, and sometimes I will cuddle that goodness, like Gollum and his ring. I the dark places of my heart, I want others’ approval more than I rest in God’s approval. The applause of men echoes more loudly in my darkened heart than my applause of God.

If I am not careful, vigilent, I will blog myself to death. Living for the approval and praise of others is deadly. It blackens the heart, atrophying affections for Christ and actualizing affections for self. It leads us into a kind of death, where Jesus offers life.Paul tells us to put to death deadly things, to fight the good fight of faith: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:10). I need to put evil idolatry to death, so that I can truly live.

In Fight Club we: 1) Know our Sin 2) Fight our Sin 3) Trust our Savior. I know my sin, and sometimes I fight it. But I am short on strength to choose life, not death, apart from the Spirit. The Spirit has made me a new creature. When I cuddle blog stats, I act like the old creature, the one that Jesus died to forgive and renew. I act out of character. Paul reminds me that I: “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” The new disciple in Jesus is constantly renewed. He or she doesn’t just look back and say, that’s when I became a Christian, when I became a new person.” Instead, they look at the present and they say: “This is proof that I am a Christian, that I am being renewed today in the knowledge of the gospel, of Jesus, to live out my new humanity.”

Jesus offers us life where there is death, newness where there is oldness, forgiveness where there is vanity and every evil thing. The question is, “Will I trust him?” Or will I trust the fleeting promise of men’s approval? Fortunately, God is bent on renewing me, on guiding my heart to a place of infinite joy in his presence, to the acceptance of the Father who loves me enough to redirect my affections back to him. I am encouraged by God’s relentless pursuit of his glory in my joy. I am thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that reminds me and shows me just how great God’s grace is, and as a result, today, I will choose to trust Christ, not approval, and blog for life, not death!

Partners not Members

Posted on September 23, 2008

Some churches do members classes; we have a Partners Class (we took this name from the Austin Stone Church). The reason we call it a Partners class is that we believe the church is a partnership of Spirit-led disciples who follow Jesus. The church isn’t a country club bound by exclusive membership; it’s a missional community bound together by the gospel.

Read about it here.

Where to Office: Church or Home?

Posted on September 3, 2008

The question of where to office is front and center for church planters. In the early stages, there is no office. The coffeeshop or library is converted into a temporary office. As the church grows, office space becomes a financial possibility. We then rent a space or buy a building. But the question of where to office does not go away. Is it better to study at home, away from office distractions or to study at the office away from home distractions? Where should we office? Home or Church?

In striving to cultivate community, I have shifted the way I think about office and counseling time. I used to think that it was best to “get out of the house” to get admin work done. I scheduled most appointments around coffee and lunch, which meant that I was meeting “outside the house.” The home office was partially perceived as an “obstacle” to ministry, due to the distractions of kids and home life. I’ve even been considering renting some shared office space by diving into the coworking concept at places like Launchpad or Conjunctured (HT: JV). I’ve also reasoned that these are missional locations for meetings, but my thinking has changed, some.

What would it look like to apply the biblical concepts of “being the church” vs. “doing church” to our decision making on office space? What if we officed out of our homes more than “the office”? What if in choosing to office out of the home, we practiced a larger ecclesiology that is community-centered, not building-centered?

Over the past three weeks I have intentionally scheduled meetings at our home. Why? As a pastor, many of my meetings are people-focused, not task-focused. Many of them are interested in discipleship. At various levels, they want to share life and truth with me, and I certainly want to share it with them. If that’s the case, then why isolate them from my life, my family, and my home, only to be invited in when it is convenient, when we can roll out a meal and impress them with a clean house? Why relegate counseling to the sterile confines of a church office, when the grittiness of life can be shared within the warm, earthiness of a home? Here are some benefits I have experienced so far:

  • Double the Wisdom. My wife can weigh in, doubling and diversifying the shared wisdom.
  • Increased Community. After counseling we can easily invite people to stay for lunch or dinner.
  • Increased Laughter. At home we feel the freedom to laugh more. No public spaces to intrude upon.
  • Increased Discipleship. People get to see our family up close, with all our imperfections and graces on display.
  • Resources at Hand. Books are at fingertips for recommended reading.
  • Relaxed Atmosphere. People seem more at ease dropping by the house than out in public.

Should pastors really “go to the office”? Have we unnecessarily drawn the boundary lines between “church” and “home”? Would Paul “go to the office” if he were pastoring in America? Perhaps the whole question of “home” or “office” betrays a deficient view of the church, a failure to believe and practice home—family—as a subset of the church. Could it be that the church office actually offsets true church?