Jesus Knew Disciple-Making Was Counter-Cultural. Do We?

Posted on October 28, 2013

by Andy Blanks

Last week I wrote a post entitled “Are You Drawing A Crowd? Ask Yourself Why.” It looked at how Jesus seemed to (at least early in His ministry) repeatedly go to great lengths to distance Himself from the crowds that wanted to follow him. I mentioned how this was in part due to the fact that, by nature, the call to real discipleship can often be crowd-shrinking, not crowd-growing. I pointed out that this is a good reason for us to evaluate our message. Are we drawing a crowd for the right reason?

This post generated a pretty good bit of feedback across Twitter, Facebook, etc. So I wanted to follow up with one more thought, one I had wanted to include but didn’t.
Matthew 9

In Matthew chapter 9, Jesus gives two blind men their sight. Which, you know, is pretty amazing. And if Jesus were in the “ministry growth movement,” He would’ve asked these guys if He could get a statement from them to put on His website and on the back of His books. But that’s not what Jesus did.

In Matthew 9:30, after Jesus healed them, He said this: “See that no one knows about this.”

Now, let’s give a nod to good scholarship and acknowledge that the primary reason for this seems to be Jesus’ desire for people not to misinterpret the nature of His Messiaship or the nature of His Kingdom rule (which, you know, they misinterpreted anyway). Or at least not to do so this early in His ministry. But I wonder if there wasn’t another motivation, one that has application for us as 21st Century disciple-makers.
You see, I think Jesus understood that the atmosphere of the crowd is counter-intuitive to growing disciples.

Jesus was healing people, and teaching stuff that blew people away. Can you imagine the sights and sounds, the constant stimulus, the side conversations and arguments that surrounded this movement? It must have been a circus! But here’s Jesus, shaping the lives of 12 men, and maybe a larger group of other disciples, rocking their worlds with a crash-course in REAL religion.

The chaos of the crowd only served as a distraction to the real, slow, concentrated work of spiritual growth.

As we seek to lead our students toward a more meaningful life of follower-ship, we HAVE to realize how counter-cultural this pursuit is. Here’s what I mean:
Spiritual formation is slow work. Our culture demands results now.
Becoming a real follower is one step forward, two steps back kind of stuff. Our culture expects success on success.
Bending our lives toward Christ’s model means denial of self. Our culture says gratify the self at all costs!
The soul work of growing faith IDEALLY happens in silence with nothing competing with the Spirit’s work in us. But culture is multi-task friendly, stimulus rich, and data intensive.

Jesus understood that the process of becoming a follower happened away from the crowds. Do we?

Trust One Day at a Time

Posted on October 28, 2013 Updated on October 28, 2013

by Rick Warren

God wants you to trust him one day at a time: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not for next week. Not for next year. Not for next month. Just one day at a time.

Philippians 4:6 and 8 show us that there are four things that you need to do to trust God on a daily basis: “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done… Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (NLT).

Worry about nothing.

Why is worry such a big deal? Because it’s not just a bad habit. It’s a flat out sin! But God keeps his promises, and you can trust that he will take care of you. “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34).

Pray about everything.

Prayer can change things. Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (NIV) God solved your biggest problem – getting into Heaven – when he sent Jesus to die for you. If God loved you enough to send Jesus to die for you, don’t you think he loves you enough to take care of all these other problems?

Thank God in all things.

No matter what happens, give thanks. The Bible doesn’t say, “For all things give thanks.” It says, “In all things give thanks.” You don’t have to be thankful for bad things in your life. You should never be thankful for evil. You don’t have to be thankful for cancer or a car accident or war or abuse. But God says in everything give thanks. Why? Because you know that God’s going to take care of you. You know he’s going to meet your needs. You know he’s going to help you.

Think about the right things.

God gives us a list of things to think about, things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Where do you find things that are pure and lovely to think about? At the movies? I don’t think so. On TV? No. You will only find pure and lovely and honorable thoughts in the Word of God. You need to read it, study it, memorize it, and fill your mind with it. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”