One of my weaknesses continues to be my love of movies. As a result, God is merciful to me and shows me things while I watch. Sometimes it’s only a scene or a line that will hit me; every now and then a whole movie will strike me (pun intended?) as symbolic.
This was the case with Mary Poppins. And I explored some amazing symbolism in the series The Church According to Mary Poppins. My mother encouraged me to continue writing along the same lines. At first I shrugged it off, but God led me to a couple more I could explore.
I remember watching the Karate Kid in the theater. Yes, that’s how old I am. I was in middle school, and I was so excited about this cool movie that I asked a friend at lunch one day if he had seen it. His response? He clapped his hands and began to furiously rub them together.
Once the connection is made, this series will really write itself. I’ll pull in some details or concepts you may or not remember or even think of, but the basics are there. We have a student. We have a master. Discipleship is fairly natural after that.
Another difference between this one and Mary Poppins is that the Karate Kid movies are intentionally symbolic. A type of fantasy movie all its own, themes based in Eastern mysticism were intended to have certain messages, more expressly stated than implied, dumbed down for an American audience. But don’t let that fool you. While the themes and messages may be more intentional, there are many key kingdom discipleship principles that are important for us to explore.
Discipleship is the goal of the gospel. Saying the sinner’s prayer alone is not making a disciple and therefore not fulfilling the Great Commission. Even repentance alone is not making a disciple. Jesus’ command to “go into all the world and make disciples” is largely absent from most attempts at evangelism. Most evangelism centers around converting someone into being an attender, tither, and notch on the organizational bedpost. Discipleship seeks to make an individual part of the family, a community, a relationship where one is taught to love and obey God.
And families need fathers and mothers, older, wiser saints that can help a child grow into being a young man or woman. And we desperately need fathers in the Body of Christ today.
This doesn’t mean we need more men than women in leadership positions. We have men in positions, professionals, given authority by organization. These positions actually discourage the very relationship true discipleship requires. What we need are fathers, men of God who, whether they have children or not, take responsibility for those younger or more immature to teach them out of love and experience, patiently, prayerfully, and firmly guiding the whole Body of Christ into maturity.
This takes a paradigm shift of epic proportions that will do more than threaten established traditions of men; it will tear them down or abandon them altogether. But this shift is happening, and must for the Church to be who she must be in the coming generation.
The twelve had Christ. Barnabas had the twelve. Paul had Barnabas. Timothy had Paul. You see how it works? Young men becoming fathers so that children can be come young men and eventually fathers themselves.
So we will begin to explore how Daniel LaRusso, a seeker by definition, a child without a father, finds Mr. Miyagi in the most unlikeliest of places, the janitor shop in his apartment building.
To be continued …