A post from my Monday morning column at Zondervan’s ministry blog, Engaging Church. I first recount an experience I had early on in ministry that’s stuck with me ever since. It’s an experience related to discipleship and evangelism. I argue, as I did back then, that discipleship shouldn’t apply to only Christians, that how we engage non-Christians should be framed as discipleship. And I think Randy Pope would side with me, because his new book Insourcing: Bringing Discipleship Back to the Local Church emphasizes life-on-life not only as a way to develop the spiritual journeys of Christians, but also as a way to impact those who are ready to meet Jesus. First, what say you? Is disciples only for Christians? Or could (should?) we use the life-on-life model in our relationships with non-Christians, too? (Read the full column HERE)
Several years ago I remember a conversation I had with the director of outreach for the ministry I worked for on Capitol Hill. This was a unique non-partisan, non-political discipleship and evangelistic ministry in Congress. I was a pastor of sorts in that community of 23,000 congressional staffers who met with guys for prayer, bible study, and discipleship.
The conversation with my boss centered around my activity report. Each week I would record the name and the nature of my many meetings. Most of my breakfast, lunch, coffee, or dinner appointments were discipleship appointments. They were life-on-life engagements in which we would pray, study scripture, and talk about life. One particular person, though, was a not-yet-Christian. And I labeled him a “discipleship” appointment.
My boss, though, that was an odd designation. He thought I should have labeled that appointment and relationship “evangelism,” because he was a non-Christian; only “discipleship” should be applied to Christians, or so he though. I disagreed. And I think Randy Pope would side with me in that disagreement.
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One of the things I love about this book is that it isn’t merely about theory. Randy says “at it’s heart” his book is about “the real thing: the disciples themselves.” (46) And the way he places the disciplees at the heart of his book isthrough what I would call interchapters. Along side his discussion on the execution of his life-on-life model in his church is a fictional account of a discipleship group during its first six meetings together. These accounts open each part and do a tremendous service of keeping the theory firmly on the ground.
As you read through the six accounts you will discover the story of Billie, who has “an as-yet-undiscovered need…for a relationship with her Creator.” The chapters goes on, “I’ve rarely met someone so ready to meet Jesus, Donna thought, and so unlikely to fit in at a church,” (47) yet this non-Christian is invited into a church discipleship group. I won’t spoil the story, and what results in Billie’s story from this group, but it’s clear that Randy is modeling a way we can and should engage non-Christians in a way we ministers don’t typically think about.
And I want to say “Bravo!”
I’m not sure if Randy intentionally set out to offer a model for non-Christian engagement, but I think he did by sharing the story of a group of women and their spiritual journeys, and how each of those stories were impacted and transformed by discipleship. And interestingly, included in this show-and-tell is the spiritual journey of someone who had an as-yet-undiscovered need for a relationship with her Creator, a non-Christian.
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If you’ve been in ministry a while, or even simply been in church a while, you’ve heard plenty that the church is in crisis. I believe one of the reasons why is because the American Church has dropped the ball on discipleship.
We’ve exchanged life-on-life relational investment with the potent elixir of truth, equipping, accountability, mission and prayer for programs. And with non-Christians we’ve exchanged the same manner in which people are impacted—life-on-life-relational investment—for methods. Randy’s new book is a strong antidote for both by bringing discipleship back into the local church. I’m glad he is, and I hope you will, too, especially for the sake of people who are far from the church and far from God.
