Being a Rescue-Mission Angler

The past few posts have focused on defining discipleship. This is mostly because 1) it's important and 2) there seems to be a lot of not seeing eye to eye in churches when it comes to discipleship. I'm not attempting to give the final answer to the question, but rather to help focus some lines of thought about discipleship for you, church leader, who might just be talking about discipleship to a congregation of people who might not all be on the same plane. Maybe even you, church leader, are a bit confused about discipleship, or in your own mind the idea is not all that clear.

I've been suggesting we start with Jesus. Duh. Even saying "let's start with Jesus" does not clear the air immediately. There are probably many places one can turn as a starting point within the corpus of Jesus' teaching and example in the gospels. As a starting point, I'm suggesting we select one of the first things Jesus says when he invites soon-to-be-disciples onto his wagon: the call of disciples in Mark 1:17.

This week, the part of that passage we focus on is that discipleship is an invitation to be fishers for people as part of God's rescue mission.

Discipleship is for the Benefit of Others

Discipleship means...


In a previous post I pointed suggested we define discipleship according to Jesus' call to follow in Mark 1:17. I drew attention to four points:

1. Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.
2. Discipleship is two-sided: following and fishing.
3. Discipleship is fishing as part of God's rescue mission.
4. Discipleship is about group fishing.

This post focuses on the two-sided nature of discipleship. Following and fishing.


So back to the "discipleship means" prompt. How do you answer this? What do people in your congregation think? How do their lives reflect an answer to this? Popular ways to complete or answer the "discipleship means" statement might be: Becoming more like Jesus. Or maybe it's growing closer to God/Jesus. Perhaps it's "spiritual growth" (whatever that might mean).


I wonder...how often do we think of discipleship as other focused, rather than focused on our own personal development?


I wonder if we should.

Discipleship: Leaving Behind (whatever it is that gave us identity and purpose)

Discipleship is a catchy word in church ministries these days. It's not a new idea, but it seems to have found a new level of popularity in recent years. However, not everyone is on the same page when asked what "discipleship" is all about or whether we're actually accomplishing this in our churches and ministries.

In last week's post, we looked at discipleship through the lens of Jesus' invitation to his soon-to-be disciples in the gospel of Mark. His invitation was:

Follow me, and I will make you into people who fish for people. (Mark 1:17)

Last week I drew out four points from this passage that might help us focus our understanding of discipleship and our efforts as leaders in ministry to "be and make disciples." The points were:

1. Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.
2. Discipleship is two-sided: following and fishing.
3. Discipleship is fishing as part of God's rescue mission.
4. Discipleship is about group fishing.

This week, we'll focus on the first point: Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.

Discipleship as Fishing

Among Jesus' first words to his would-be disciples was:

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. (Mark 1:17)

A recent article in Christianity Today suggests that church leaders and church-goers are not on the same page with how they understand "discipleship" and how to go about growing in discipleship. There is a difference between whether pastors think discipleship is taking place and whether church-goers do. And there is a diversity of words and ideas used to describe "discipleship": "becoming more Christ-like," "spiritual growth," "spiritual journey," "sanctification." Not all of these are mutually exclusive. But they do reflect diverse ideas and that maybe not everyone is on the same page.

Jesus' first words quoted above are an invitation to a life of discipleship--to a life of following Jesus. If a major part of Jesus' life included making disciples, Mark 1:17 gives us Jesus' most succinct phrase that tells us what it's all about.

The New "In" Thing...

"Discipleship" is all the rage these days. It's a main catchword for church activity.

It's even the title of IOLBC's Beyond Ministry website: www.everydaydiscipleship.org and our family blog: www.discipleshipkitchen.blogspot.com

There is good reason for this. Jesus' followers are called "disciples." Jesus invites them to be "disciples." And Jesus commanded disciple reduplication. In fact, it is the one main command Jesus gives the disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel:

As you go about your lives, make disciples of all peoples...(Matt. 28:19)

Still, it can be a little concerning when it gets mixed up with American consumer-Facebook-media driven-"what's in" culture. Or a lot concerning. A recent article from Missio Alliance reflects this concern. The article questions the use of "discipleship" as some sort of fixer to ignite more excitement and participation in church. Discipleship is not to be a church program or a catchy idea to get those people who are not quite "in" on the church thing.

Not Everyone is the Same Kind of Christian

This is the third post in a series that attempts to think through some matters related to the church today, based on a series of posts by Ed Stetzer at Christianity Today. Click to go to part 1 or part 2. 


Not everyone is the same kind of Christian.

We all get this. There are Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Reformed, E-Free, Mennonites, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and so on. Even within these denominations there is much variety. Some might say division.

But, I'm not talking about these groups.

This is REALLY Crazy!

Part II of a series on the church today. See part I here.

So I came across this news the other day. Some scientists are talking about bringing the woolly mammoth back. From extinction. See the video here.

Regardless of whether or not it can actually happen, I'm more interested in the thought behind it.

What's wrong with being extinct? Isn't extinction part of the natural order? Do we want to mess with that? Maybe I'm over simplistic in my scientific understanding, but it seems to me that it's actually good for things die out and new things to replace them. It's an important part of life.