Discipleship in a Missions Church

by Tim Lewis

“I’m tired of dealing with other people’s stuff.”

My wife actually said that the other day. Don’t worry; I asked, and she gave me permission to tell you. While she wasn’t talking about anybody in the church, or even a person who is a Christian, it struck me that it was a pretty good definition of discipleship. I realize it’s probably not found in many textbooks or Bible dictionaries, but if I had to choose a one-word, action-oriented synonym for discipleship it might be “messy.”

Not all discipleship is the same. Two categories of people in our country become followers of Jesus. On one hand are people who come to faith in Christ whom we might label as Culturally Christian Converts. They may not become Christians until later in life, but they have had significant Christian influences in their lives. Perhaps Mom and Dad were Christians. Maybe they grew up in church. They know the Bible. They know Jesus died for their sins. They understand what it means to live the Christian life. For whatever reason, they simply had not repented and submitted to the Lordship of Jesus.

I am one of those people. My dad is a pastor. I grew up going to church three times every week. I was good at Bible trivia and as a teenager had more Bible head knowledge than many people decades older than myself. For me, the question wasn’t, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” but rather, “How do I know this is really true?” When I made the decision toward the end of my high school years to commit my life to Christ, I knew exactly what I was stepping into.

You probably know people who fall into this category. I sometimes say about them, “They could get saved, and they wouldn’t have to change anything.” Of course, Jesus calls all of us to change, and true discipleship is a lifelong process, but you get the point. Some people enter a relationship with Jesus with a background in their lives that allows them to mature rapidly in their walk with Christ.

Others come to faith in Jesus without the benefit of a Christian background. We might call them Culturally Pagan Converts. On a scale of one to ten, they start out at zero or one in terms of knowing what it means to be a follower of Christ. They realize their need for a Savior, repent of their sin, and place their lives in the hands of Jesus, but the world they step into is completely foreign to them.

They don’t know how to be a refined, “proper” Christian. How could they? They have never been around one before. They don’t know all the little rules like, “You’re not supposed to curse in front of the pastor,” or “You take your hat off to pray,” or “You shouldn’t blurt out whatever comes to your mind during the sermon.” They don’t know the proper way to prepare for a pot luck, how to find the Gospel of John in their Bibles, or how to pray and sound really spiritual while doing it. They have never in their entire lives uttered the words “thou,” “hath,” or “begotten.”

In some ways this is good thing. In essence, they begin their walk with Christ at square one and aren’t familiar with the “culture” of Christianity that often develops in the church and has very little, if anything, to do with actually following Jesus.

What we, as cultural Christians, must remember is that nobody goes from step one to step ten in Christian maturity overnight. Discipleship is a process. Growth occurs over time. While there is a great deal I don’t know about discipleship, here are a few things I have learned while working with non-cultural Christian converts over the years:

• Disipleship requires patience. People will let you down. Count on it. They will slip and stumble along the way. Be patient and realize they may actually be making great strides of growth when you stop to consider where they started. In addition, remember you aren’t all that perfect either.
  
  

• Discipleship requires a lot of handholding. Perhaps the most difficult part of true discipleship is that it requires time, energy, and effort. Mature followers of Jesus can’t be “cranked out” simply by completing 13 simple lessons. In addition, your pastor isn’t physically capable of doing all the discipleship in your church. Jesus Himself invested the majority of His time in training just 12 men. Within that group He focused on three in particular. If the Son of God didn’t try to be all things to all people, neither should your pastor.
  
  

• Real discipleship is going to cost you something. You’re going to have to invest and give of yourself for the sake of someone else. You’re going to have to commit intentionally to being there when needed, even if it’s inconvenient. You’re going to have to help people up and encourage them to move forward with Jesus, and then do it again, and again, and again. It’s going to get messy, and you’re probably going to get frustrated.
  
  

• Discipleship takes time. The biggest difference between a Cultural Christian Convert and a Cultural Pagan Convert is the time it takes to reach maturity. Babies don’t become adults overnight. Think about your own walk with Jesus. I have been actively following Jesus for more than 20 years now, and I can honestly say I am more aware of my shortcomings now than I was the day I accepted Christ. I still have a long, long way to go before Jesus is finished with me. I’m thankful for the people who continue to tolerate my shortcomings, forgive my failures, and encourage me to keep moving forward. We must extend that same courtesy to others.
  

Jesus demonstrated all of these traits in the way He handled the discipleship of The Twelve. It took patience, hand holding, and time. One minute they were great men of faith, the next they were cowering in fear. One minute Peter was boldly proclaiming Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and the next he was trying to tell Jesus what to do. After three years of intense, in-the-field, hands-on training, all the disciples fled. Peter denied even knowing Jesus, and did so with a curse. Through it all He continued to love, admonish, encourage, and hang in there with them.

One other thing I’ve learned about Culturally Pagan Converts—they are some of my favorite people. They’ve not learned to act stuffy and religious. Their prayers are sweet because they are pure and from the heart. They may not be flowery, but they are inscrutably honest. They may not know a lot about the Bible, but at least they don’t read it and yawn. They are excited to learn and grow. They may be a little rough around the edges and ruffle the feathers of more “refined” Christian sensibilities, but their faith is real, open, and vibrant.

And you know what? On many occasions it’s not clear whether I am the one doing the discipling or the one being discipled. That’s discipleship in a mission church!

About the Writer: Tim and Jessica Lewis moved to Ogden, Utah, in 2000 to start Summit Chapel Free Will Baptist Church. They have three children: Ashton, Logan, and Miley. Tim enjoys the outdoors, racquetball, and reading.