Jesus has one fundamental way of evaluating the success of any individual or any local church: Are we fulfilling His command to be disciples and to make disciples? Simply put, do we look like Jesus? Do we, as individuals, and does our church produce people who look like Jesus? Do we forgive like Jesus forgave? Do we love like Jesus loved? Do we pray like Jesus prayed? Do we value what Jesus valued? Do we do what Jesus did?
Why is Discipleship Such a High Priority at this Particular Time?
Virtually everyone agrees that the pace of cultural change is occurring at such an increased rate that old methods of trying to help people look like Jesus are producing poorer and poorer results. There appears to be a thinning of many Christians’ connection to Christ. Christian leaders and people are engaged in behaviors that would have been unthinkable to former generations – divorce, affairs, pornography use, addictions of all kinds, prayerlessness, an unwillingness to forgive, financial deception, a lack of personal worship, etc. Before a church goes wide, it must go deep. Another way to put it is this: if a church does a good job in discipling people (forming people who look like Jesus), it will automatically reach people who don’t know Jesus. Disciples of Jesus are missional. Deep people go wide.
What Is the Ultimate Goal of Discipleship?
Intimacy with Christ! Donald Miller, in his book “Blue Like Jazz,” relates the following story which powerfully illustrates what intimacy with Christ looks like:
A guy we know named Alan went around the country asking ministry leaders questions. He went to successful churches and asked the pastors what they were doing, why what they were doing was working. It sounded very boring except for one visit he made to a man named Bill Bright, the President of [Campus Crusade for Christ]. Alan said he was a big man, full of life, who listened without shifting his eyes. Alan asked a few questions. I don’t know what they were, but the final question he asked Dr. Bright was what Jesus meant to him. Alan said Dr. Bright could not answer the question. He said Dr. Bright just started to cry. He sat there in his big chair behind his big desk and wept.
When Alan told that story I wondered what it was like to love Jesus that way. I wondered, quite honestly, if that Bill Bright guy was just nuts, or if he really knew Jesus in a personal way, so well that he would cry at the very mention of His name. I knew that I would like to know Jesus like that, with my heart, not just with my head. I felt that would be the key to something.
Wouldn’t it be great in Vineyard Columbus became a church which immersed people into a culture that pursued knowing Jesus the way Dr. Bright knew Jesus? Wouldn’t it be great if Vineyard Columbus created deep disciples and became known as a church whose people looked like Jesus? Wouldn’t it be great if Vineyard Columbus not only did a lot of activities, but really formed disciples of Jesus?
Over the next few months I plan to talk a lot more about some fresh strategies that Vineyard Columbus will be employing to more intentionally make disciples and to have us become disciples. This is hard work, but we’re committed to at least give it a shot. We are committed to fulfill Jesus’ command to be His disciples and to make disciples.