We’ve been having an extended discussion among our pastors and elders about the nature of discipleship. When Jesus told the fishermen, “Come, follow me,” he was using an expression familiar to every Rabbi and every Jewish student who had ever studied at a synagogue. It was, in essence, the acceptance letter from a Rabbi to a student who had asked to be admitted to the school of that Rabbi. It was not, however, an invitation to come and learn everything the Rabbi knew. It included that expectation but it was much more than that. It was in an invitation to follow the teacher and become like him in every way and to do everything that he did. It was an invitation to come and imitate his life and character to the fullest extent possible.
In the American church, we have tended to define discipleship as learning more and more about Jesus and about the Bible. That is a praiseworthy goal but it stops far short of the biblical idea of discipleship. The biblical idea of discipleship means to do as much as it means to learn. For the most part we have been big on learning all about Jesus but not so big on living like he lived or doing the things that he did.
The paradigm for discipleship has often been to learn until we know everything there is to know about a certain element of the Christian life and when we have become “experts” then we will begin to do the things we have gained extensive knowledge about. The problem is that there is always more to learn and as we study, read, attend more conferences, and belong to one more study groups we begin to serve God vicariously through the books we read and the studies we participate in. Because we have read about it or talked about if we feel as if we have done it.
A disciple then may become much more of a learner than a doer. We are always waiting until we know a little more before we step out and activate our gifts or the authority we have in Christ.
As a friend of mine put it, “I never felt qualified so I kept putting off the doing until I could learn some more.” God has more “qualified” people than he needs now. He doesn’t need qualified people; he needs willing people. In the business world companies recognize that what works on paper rarely works in real life. So they take highly educated college grads and retrain them for the real world of business or production. It is the experience that qualifies them not a greater accumulation of facts and figures.
God is the same. He advertises for willing men and women and as they step out in faith to do things in which they have no expertise, he trains them and qualifies them himself. Gideon protested loud and long that he had no training or pedigree in leadership or warfare. God simply said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14). Nearly everything we do in the kingdom is going to be OJT! Many of us do not develop out spiritual gifts because we are waiting to learn more before we exercise them. We keep waiting for one more book, one more class or one more seminar before we begin to pray for impossible healings, begin to prophecy, begin to command demons, or begin to share out faith.
I’m not saying we don’t need a little training but most of us are so over-trained so that we begin to trust in technique rather than in the presence of God or the move of the Spirit. In doing so, we pray or command with little power and authority, get few results, and are then convinced we need to learn more. I’m convinced that we need a little more Nike theology that would say, “Just do it.” Discipleship is more about doing than learning and as we do it, God will teach us what we need to know. If you’ve been waiting to read your fifth book on a topic you are way overdue. Just do it and see what God does through you.
