There is this young man in our fellowship, and he gets frustrated with the organic nature of discipleship within our group. (I grudgingly use the term “organic” because it has become a buzz word and beginning to lose its effectiveness … but there it is.) We were having lunch one day, and he began to tell me that he didn’t think our group was doing much discipleship. His idea of discipleship included classes and direct teaching that he felt wasn’t being done. My question was, “How do you know you’re not being discipled right now?”
Of course that further frustrated him (people get frustrated with me a lot … I know), and continues to as we have further discussed it as time goes on. But I’ve thought of a good example of how discipleship should work, and does, within the life of the Body, and thought I would share.
My son Micah is a great example of what discipleship should look like. A week ago, we were at my in-laws and Micah begins to do a “show” and sing a song. The song he sang? “When I get to heaven, I’m gonna get a new body.” He sang that phrase over and over again.
He’s four.
Last night, we went over the story of Adam and Eve, and how death was (and is) the penalty for sin. But I explained that if we follow Jesus, we will go to heaven when we die. “Yeah!” he says. “And be with God forever!” I agreed. Then Micah said, “You know, I’m really excited to be with God forever.”
I never sat Micah down to specifically teach him these truths or to have this perspective. He got it from spending lots of time with me and the people in our fellowship. I can’t even tell you the specific instance when we talked about 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul’s teaching on the new spiritual body we will have, but obviously at some time we did. And Micah remembered.
Micah is taking on my traits because he lives with me and spends lots of time with me … and looks up to me as his father, of course. He gets the idea to sing a song he made up and do a show because he’s seen me share songs I’ve written with others. He’s watching and listening even when I don’t think he is. And just as a funny aside, Micah also thanked God in his prayers last night that he had a poster with superheroes on it. His daddy still reads comic books.
Jesus discipled people by living with them. They heard his teachings, yes, but every moment watching Him live was a teaching moment, and that made His teachings even that much more real. The early apostles and Barnabas and Paul discipled the same way.
I am the man of God I am today because of the intimate relationships I’ve had with other men and women of God who have fathered and mothered me in the Spirit, people that not only spoke deep truths to me … but I saw them live it, too. John Taggart, Isaac Williams, Rose Palmer, my own mother and Larry Trammell, among others. And I may not have as may fathers as I once did, the Body still disciples me. I learn how to better pastor from Ben and serve from Eric. I learn how to have a better heart for evangelism from Larry V. And the whole Body loves me and teaches me as they follow God and exhibit their gifts in the Body. I have been – and will continue to be – the beneficiary of their spiritual depth.
And Micah not only lives with me. He exercises with Jesse and takes long walks with Saji and bakes cookies with Amber and rough houses with Jason. It is in these moments that life happens and righteousness is revealed, the fruit of the Spirit can be seen. And that is far better to me than any class could ever teach him Or me.
Peace.
You couldn’t avoid “organic,” but you successfully avoided the buzz phrase “doing life together”, and that’s no small accomplishment.
Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.
Which is totally awesome that he didn’t say that phrase, because we actually do do life together, in my less-than-humble opinion. That whole communal living thing.
Yeah, here at RCV you’re bound to catch the Life, regularly by accident, just being here. If you actually ask God and pay attention, its like a flood. While you get plenty of words on a regular basis, you can watch and see the reality in the lives of the speakers on a daily basis. Many of the best teachings are seen and experienced rather than heard, and the lives of even the children instruct our hearts on a regular basis. The model we were once restricted to was “the wise teacher”. But now we can follow the Spirit as he works in his people in work, rest, or play.