I've been doing some reading in a collection of "Devotional Classics" edited by Richard Foster, who I like very much. Today's installment is by Dallas Willard, who I also like. His observation is about how few churches today aspire to train disciples, and how few Christians aspire to be disciples. To be a disciple is, simply, to follow Jesus and to try to be like him.
The marching orders for the church are to be found, primarily, in Matthew 28:19, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." But I wonder how many churches actually do that. We don't teach or train disciples, we try to attract members, and we try to make it as painless as possible. But its not painless to follow Jesus. He talked about taking up a cross. Of course, he also talked about the lightness of his burden, but it was still a yoke and a burden.
What is also interesting, as you look at the Great Commission, is that we are not called to baptize church members, but disciples. One wonders whether there ought to be some training before baptism is administered. Mostly, churches only require a profession of faith, but no progress in discipleship. In the medieval church, one was required to memorize verses and catechisms in order to be baptized or confirmed. I wonder what that would do to church membership today. Most fear that it would reduce interest, but I wonder. Many organizations require that you first learn some basics before becoming a full member, the Boy Scouts and the Masons, for example, why not the church?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book in the 1930s called The Cost of Discipleship, in which he said that we need to be wary of "cheap grace" or Christian faith that makes no demands on us. The kind of faith about which the Apostle Paul declared, "May it never be!" But Dallas Willard puts a new twist on that idea by introducing a concept he calls, The Cost of Non-discipleship. In other words, what price have we paid by NOT training people of faith in the way of the Lord, and how to follow in Christ's footsteps? Willard says, "Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10)."
Food for thought.
