Month: February 2020

TADB 68: The Spiritual Spine of Discipleship

Any discussion of the anatomy of discipleship would be incomplete without spending some time exploring the skeletal structure that provides the form and framework for all the other vital functions.  Both our physical and spiritual skeletons are hidden from sight, but they are vital, extremely relevant and should not be ignored.  Likewise just as our physical skeleton grows as we mature so also our spiritual skeletal system must develop if it is to support the weight and activity of adulthood.

I suggest that there are three key components to our spiritual skeleton:  Reconciliation, Adoption, and Naturalization.  These three form an integrated framework for our new identity in Christ.  They are a both a gift and a birthright given through faith in Christ.  Each one involves a transaction that forms our new identity.  Each one is amazingly wonderful, critical, and complex.

As we continue to develop our personal spiritual health, as well as help others develop theirs, we need to periodically do a bone scan and check for osteoporosis.  Bone loss can lead to problems when we least expect it.  A  spiritual diagnostic scan is more than asking, “Am I born again?”, “Have I prayed the sinner’s prayer?”, or “Have I invited Jesus into my heart?”  It involves examining the strength of our major skeletal structure.

1.  RECONCILIATION is the means by which we are reconnected with our Creator.  Our relationship with Him had been severed by sin and our rebellious hearts made us worthy of God’s condemnation.  Reconciliation is how God has brought us back into right relationship with Him through the saving work of Jesus Christ.

As Paul wrote,  “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”  (2Cor. 5:18).

Reconciliation is the heart of the Gospel message and as such is like our spine; it supports everything else.  If our understanding of reconciliation is weak or broken, discipleship is vulnerable.  For example, if our understanding of the Gospel and salvation is that it is a get out of jail (hell) free card or a quick fix for our hurts, hang-ups, and habits, it is like having spiritual Spina Bifita.  Such a belief system creates an underdeveloped and weak spinal structure that is inadequate to support the life God intends us to live.

Reconciliation involves several key ideas that are often misunderstood in our current Christian culture:  forgiveness, pardon, and judgment.  Sloppy thinking on these concepts weakens the spine and causes spiritual chronic pain, loss of strength, and even paralysis.   We will look at these more closely in the next few blogs.

2.  ADOPTION is another part of our spiritual skeletal structure and is the reason we have a Father/child relationship with God.  Not only does adoption make God our Father, but it also makes other people of faith our extended family and Jesus Christ is our elder brother.  As part of His family we are now His heirs and joint heirs with Christ. 

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are (1 John 3:1).

Notice that John is saying we are not just called children of God; we actually ARE His children.  He is not saying we are naturally born children of God, as liberal theology proposes, but rather we are adopted into God’s family through faith and repentance.  Family status is now our birthright.  Understanding what that means and living accordingly is how we honor that birthright. 

3.  NATURALIZATION is the third part of our spiritual skeleton.  Naturalization is the “act of making someone a legal citizen of a country that they were not born in” (Cambridge Dictionary).

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14).

The privilege of citizenship in God’s kingdom was central to the message Jesus preached during His ministry on earth.  He announced that He is the door – the entrance – into this new kingdom (Mark 1:35; John 10:9).  It is essential that we adapt our lives to fit into His kingdom which is what our journey of discipleship is all about.    

Embracing the gospel should lead naturally to the question, “How do I learn to live in this new, invisible, yet real country?”  This is not a simple question.  Saints through the millennia have wrestled with it.  How do we live in, but not of, this world?  How do we contribute as aliens and strangers to a world that is no longer  our home?   This kingdom transfer is now a part of our new identity and should motivate us to live as good citizens.

Notice that spiritual naturalization requires that we relinquish our allegiance (our old passport) to gain a new one.  There are no duel citizenships in God’s kingdom.  Repentance means turning from (rejecting) the ungodly rebellion of this world and transferring our allegiance to the kingdom of God.  Our new spiritual country has different values, laws, freedoms, responsibilities and currency than our old one.  We still live in the old kingdom, but it is no longer our home.  Discipleship is learning how to live in our new kingdom.

An earthly example might be Roman citizenship.  Historically it was a trump card that opened doors and provided protection.  Anywhere in the Roman Empire, if you identified yourself as a Roman citizen, you had the power and privileges of the Empire at your disposal.  But citizenship also expected the person to live in a way that honored Rome.  Privilege carries responsibility.

Reconciliation, adoption, and naturalization are gifts that we live out of; they are not ones we live to gain.  In other words, we do not do good works to gain reconciliation, adoption, or naturalization.  Rather, as we live in accordance with them, they are the basis for our new identity and they give us freedom, confidence, and courage to pursue our relationship with God as friends, children, and citizens of His kingdom.

Over the next several blogs, I want to explore and strengthen our spiritual skeleton.

Questions for reflection:

How do you see yourself most of the time?  What forms your identity?  How prevalent is the idea of friend, child, and citizen?

TADB 67: Pathway – What is the Next Step?

More than 1,000 churches have taken the Reveal Survey for the purpose of discerning their church’s spiritual growth.  Among their findings, the authors discovered that churches successful in moving people toward maturity, have an identifiable, nonnegotiable, high challenge, “core curriculum” consisting of effective next steps for spiritual growth.1  The core curriculum was not the only venue that was utilized, but it was the essential one for taking the next step on the pathway to maturity. 

Much like stepping stones on a pathway make walking forward doable, so also specific venues help people to take their next spiritual step.  Those next steps should be sequential and provide a faith challenge but not be more than one can handle.

In my early years with The Navigators in college we used a core set of materials for our discipleship pathway.  A new believer was introduced to “Lessons on Assurance” which was followed by a Bible study series called “Design for Discipleship” and The Navigators Topical Memory System.  This was our core curriculum.  (They are still available from NavPress).  Although I now use different tools in my discipling process, the strategy is the same; I have a core pathway I use at each level of maturity.

A core curriculum serves the same function as courses taken in college.  Each discipline has its 101, 201, 301 courses.  That is not all that is offered, but they are foundational.  The 200 level courses are not available until you demonstrate competency at the 100 level.  As an engineering student in college, I had many mathematical course options but not until I mastered calculus. 

This process strategy is common in secular education but rare in our pathway for spiritual development.  Usually we go with a general “whatever” or “one size fits all” approach.  This is partly true because our American culture is constantly offering options making a standard pathway sound archaic.  In fact, choices are expected.  We are told that everyone is unique, has his own learning style, and has the right to decide for himself what he/she wants or needs.  Of course, following a clear pathway doesn’t exclude options; it simply makes them a complement to the core – not the core itself.    

Another major hindrance to a core curriculum approach is that we tend to do with others what was done with us.  People who have not experienced a clear pathway to discipleship, are very hesitant to mentor someone else.  Their personal experience has been limited to casual fellowship and a “hit and miss” understanding of scripture.  Consequently, they don’t know where to begin or how to progress along a spiritual pathway.  The advantage of a core curriculum is that it is not only effective in building the basic concepts and skills of the Christian life, but it also provides a disciple with tools needed to disciple the next spiritual generation.

I observed this dilemma first hand a few years ago.  I was training the regional directors of a mission organization in how to be intentional in disciplemaking.  All of the men were mature, seasoned missionaries, and now leading missionaries.  When I asked if anyone could tell me how they got to their current maturity level, the room was silent.  Their histories had all included a variety of very good, life-changing experiences, but none had a clear pathway for discipleship that was pass-on-able. 

So let’s do a little assessment.   Do you have the tools to create a pass-on-able pathway?  If you were given the assignment to help a person grow from spiritual childhood to spiritual parenting, what would you use?  Or consider another scenario.  A person recognizes your spiritual maturity and asks if you would help them become a mature apprentice of Christ like yourself.  What if he/she were to ask you, “If I give you access to my life for the next two years to be discipled, what would we do?  At the end of the two years what will I look like?  How will I be different?”  How would you answer?

There are a couple of ways you can “learn” to play the game of golf.  One is to go out with your buddies and just play the best you can trying to emulate what they do.  Some may play well, most are just “hackers” but, hey, they generally hit the ball in the general direction of the green.  A second way is to find someone who plays well and knows how he/she got there.  They have taken the time to break down the golf swing into its various components and can pass on what they have learned.  They know the proper technique requires starting with the putter and working your way to the driver:  a process with manageable next steps.

Consider filling in the following grid for your own discipleship process.  If you have some holes in your grid, how can you fill them in?  Who do you know who can give you some suggestions?

In the next few blog posts I will explore the skeletal framework of discipleship, the part that is hidden but holds it all together and gives support. 

Here is a summary outline of the current series on The Anatomy of Discipleship

1. Profile: Learner or Apprentice (TAD Blob 59)

2. Pursuits: What are we aiming at?  (TAD Blog 60)

3. Purpose:  What is it designed for?  (TAD Blog 61)

4.  Pattern: Who do we Look Like? (TAD Blog 62)

5.  Provision:  Where is the Power? (TAD Blog 63)

6.  Priority:  How Important is it?  (TAD Blog 64)

7.  Process:  Cruise Ship or Ocean Liner? (TAD Blog 65)

8.  Proof:  Where is the Evidence (TAD Blog 66)

9.  Pathway:  What is the Next Step? (TAD Blog 67)

1  Move, Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkinson, Zondervan/Willow, p210