I have been tasked (that word sounds onerous, but in this case it is not; in fact, it is a blessing!) to teach the 20s/30s class Sunday morning. In 35 minutes or less (assuming our starting activities, including prayer, take less than 10 minutes!) I am to explain how to “take Christianity to the current culture.”
I guess my first note would be: Wouldn’t you rather take CHRIST to the culture, than take “Christianity” to the culture? We get into semantics at that point, don’t we? if “Christianity” means “the practice of following Christ,” then I don’t mind taking Christianity… but if it means “~religion” then I’m not too keen on it. But I digress.
I thought I would start by mentioning how different (HOPEFULLY!) we are from most folks in today’s “culture.” Maybe talk about the previews and advertisements that are shown in movie theaters today. (Do YOU get all of them? Some of them cause my wife and me to look at each other and say, “What was that about?”)
Then a quick jump to Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission:
From the venerable KJV:
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
I don’t know Greek. There, I’ve said it. But… I do have access to a lot of Greek scholarship, and I’ll pit my Greek scholars against your Greek scholars any day!
And myGreek scholars seem to be saying that we’ve “missed” the point of the Great Commission for some time. I grew up understaning that the main imperative of that verse was
Interesting, huh?
Let’s not get sidetracked on whether GO is the “imperative” or not. I’ll go so far as to agree that “GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES” may be the imperative here. But the relevant point, for the upcoming class, is that we should do a particular thing BEFORE we BAPTIZE. What must be done first? MAKE DISCIPLES!
Have you made a disciple lately? How does one go about doing that? Especially if you grew up “in the church” and you want to disciple someone who is not sure “about this Jesus thing.” ??
That’s not rhetorical! If you know, let us know! Especially me, because I need to find out before Sunday morning!
But I suspect it involves something other than knocking on someone’s door you have never met and asking them if they are saved or not, and would they like to be.
What do you think?
–Mark
Allow me to pick one detail in your post to discuss. You said, “we should do a particular thing BEFORE we BAPTIZE.” You say, the thing to do first is to “Make disciples.” True, folks obviously have to be introduced to Christ before baptism, but the Disciple Making process goes well past baptism. It doesn’t conclude before baptism. I sometimes think we’ve mixed up our ends. Baptism isn’t the end we’re trying to achieve. Disciple making is the end we’re trying to achieve. Baptism (ALTHOUGH IMPORTANT) is just a milestone (ALTHOUGH SIGNIFICANT) along the journey to becoming a disciple.
I think about the day of Pentecost where Peter gets 3000+ to come down the aisle during the invitation song. Or when Philip baptizes the Eunuch. I don’t think that was the final event in the salvific process for these lives. If anything, their baptism was the beginning of their disciplehood transformation.
There are a lot of gray areas here. My 8 year old believes in God and has faith that Jesus forgives sin. But does he have sin in his life? He loves the Lord, but hasn’t been baptized yet. Is he an unbaptized believer? An unbaptized disciple? A disciple who hasn’t expressed belief? Is he saved or lost? Is he a Christian? In fact it’s more gray than black or white.
Anyhow, I say all that to say, disciple making is a long process, not a single event. Baptism is clearly a part of that process and comes at different points for different people. But through it all, we must remember that our ultimate goal is to have people follow Jesus.
One other note, this time about our culture. My experience has been that our culture doesn’t need more salespeople. We don’t need to go out trying to convince people to be Christians. If we love the unlovable, feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the poor, and show justice to the oppressed, then people learn the nature of Christ. That may be the best way to introduce Christ to our culture.
Postmoderns don’t just want you to practice what you preach. They just want you to practice and skip the preaching.
It’s after Sunday, but if you have all your material for your class in stone before the firat lesson you’re weird!! We knew that already….
I ‘ve come to believe that the command of Matt 28 is to make disciples, and that clothing the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, taking care of the widows and fatherless, helping the opressed and offering mercy and grace is the way they are made. See I listen to Eric!
We have for way to long believed and practiced that the way to God’s heart and acceptance is through knowledge, and that disciples were made when they acquired enough of the “right” knowledge. We validated someone’s discipleship by what they were able to recite what the Bible said. Many churches selected elders based upon their knowledge of the book. It wasn’t important that they lived as Christ, but that they could find all the scriptures that talked about how Christ lived.
However, knowlwedge isn’t the goal, love is. If the law and the prophets hang on loving God and loving people, then discipleship is measured by one’s actions of loving God and loving people. THIS IS HOW THEY WILL KNOW IF YOU ARE MY DISCIPLE, IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
Sam
Eric, what an excellent reminder. Thanks! Disciple-making is indeed a process that can easily transcend baptism in both [time] directions.
My appreciation for helping broaden our thinking here.
And I loved your “skip the preaching” comment relative to post-moderns.
–Mark
Sam,
“Knowledge isn’t the goal; love is.” I’ll hang my hat on that one for sure! Of course, we can’t help but acquire knowledge along the way as we become love (“we love because He first loved us” is a knowledge nugget, right?), but knowledge by itself certainly never saved a single soul.
We need to be reminded (some more than others?) to keep the emphasis on where it belongs — on where the Lord put it — don’t we!
In love,
Mark