Authentic Means Real

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The fourth calling for the church is to make disciples. I discuss this thoroughly in Organic Disciplemaking

Jesus called the church to go and make disciples of all the peoples. Mt. 28. A disciple is a student. Ancient rabbis spent years with their disciples, teaching their way of life, their understanding of scripture, and how to teach it to others. Like Jesus, they often lived with their disciples for extended periods. The process of discipleship was a complete shaping of a new rabbi—a passing on of everything the rabbi had; his character, his knowledge, his values, and his wisdom. Ancient Jewish discipleship was an educational process, but it contained much more than our modern concept of education. Rabbis transmitted biblical knowledge, but the close association in daily life also transmitted elements not found in books. The rabbi sought to transmit his outlook, wisdom, and character. This was personalized education where two men formed a close, trusting relationship. Within that relationship, the rabbi could sense inner spiritual needs in his disciple and minister to those. The idea was to produce a certain kind of person. The intensive personal attention in this style of training dictated that a rabbi focus on only a few disciples at a time.

Jesus apparently took this model and used it fully, even expanding on the norm. He lived and traveled with the twelve, and seems to have focused even more on the top three: James, John, and Peter. Although some New Testament authors refer to all Christians as disciples (in the sense that they are all followers of Christ), the majority use refers to those who were trainees of a specific teacher.

The same seems to be true of Paul (the only apostle for whom we have extensive biographical information). Right from the beginning, Paul worked at discipleship. After his three-year stay in Damascus, he had to escape by being lowered from the city walls. According to Acts 9:25 it was “his disciples” who lowered him in a basket.

Later, Paul lived and traveled with numerous young men and at least one married couple, teaching them his extraordinary body of knowledge, both in the Old Testament scriptures (where he was an expert) but also from the amazing revelations he had been given by God. They also got the chance to see Paul at work in the field, and no-doubt participated with him in actual ministry situations. This kind of field training could develop skills and understanding in a way no classroom could. Paul was in a position to see with his own eyes how younger workers ministered. That would lead to the best kind of coaching and feedback.

More than 30 men and women are mentioned by name as fellow-workers with Paul. It seems likely that many of these were discipled by Paul, and there may have been others not mentioned. In a ministry spanning roughly 30 years, Paul could easily have raised up 30 or more disciples.

In one famous passage, Paul instructs his favorite disciple, Timothy, to carry on the work of discipleship:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:2)

We can see Paul was concerned with duplicating disciples down through 4 generations: 1) himself 2) Timothy 3) “reliable men” and 4) “others.” From this single verse, we see clearly that Paul used personal discipleship as a conscious strategy for developing leadership in the early church. He also urged women to disciple other women (Tit. 2:3), a practice unknown in Judaism.

In the New Testament church, where there were no seminaries or graduate schools of theology, the church’s leadership was apparently all raised up by a process of personal discipleship. In the absence of any mention of other means for raising up leadership, we can only suppose that such discipleship was likely not just the main means, but the only means used. Apparently not only leaders, but most Christians were discipled at some level in the early church. Paul says, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” (Col. 1:28).

Filed under: disciple, early church, leadership training by Dennis McCallum
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After recently noting the dread of human leadership evident in Pagan Christianity, I thought it would be good to review some points about the relationship between divine empowerment and leadership on one hand, and human leadership on the other.

The key to success in ministry, as God defines success, is getting in line with what God wants to do, or is doing. The biblical concept of ministry is serving God or other people in a way that furthers God’s will or purpose. Further, true ministry must be empowered and directed by God. God is clear that “it is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing.” (John 6:63) He warns in the Old Testament that, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they do labor in vain that build it.” (Psalms 127:1) Paul said the apostles were those who “glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” (Phil. 3:3) These passages and many others all suggest the same thing: If God’s power moves through us in ministry, spiritual fruit will be borne. If his power is not animating our ministry, nothing we do will help the situation.

Over against the biblical teaching about the centrality of God in ministry, the Bible teaches that human agency is also significant. In each case where a church is planted in the book of Acts, one or more humans went to that city and were used by God to plant it. Paul teaches that God presents members of the Body of Christ with gifts, ministries, and effects for his glory, and for the common good. (1 Cor. 12:4-7) Paul goes so far as to say that people cannot believe unless they hear, and they can’t hear unless someone preaches. (Rom. 10:14) He also says God has “committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2Cor. 5:19)

In other words, God wants to work his will through the agency of cooperating Christians servants who understand his ways and actively move out to become “fellow workers with God.” (1 Cor. 3:7) The degree to which God has delegated the task of reaching the world to humans is remarkable. One important function that God expects many Christians to carry out for him is leadership. From one end of the Bible to the other, God worked through human leaders. Most of the great heroes of faith from Abraham to Moses to David to Paul were leaders. In the New Testament the role of human leader is expanded further. No longer is leadership reserved for kings or priests. In the Body of Christ, the apostles regularly appointed leadership in every locality from common people.

Jesus’ observation that “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” and his call to “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field,” both imply that God’s intentions on earth may be thwarted by a shortage of qualified leaders. (Mat. 9:37,38) In order for home churches to replicate themselves, leaders must be raised up. Therefore, for those of us who are concerned about following God and seeing his will done on earth, the matter of finding and establishing human leadership is urgent.

Obviously, if human leadership didn’t matter—if all ministry is up to God alone, all groups would be the same. But this is not the case. How often we see God’s power restricted in groups with poor leaders! Meanwhile, other groups seem to flourish both inwardly and in outward growth. God sends leaders into his flock to galvanize and excite people, reminding them of their mission, and firing their imagination for the future. Our tasks can seem routine and uninteresting when carried out without the benefit of leadership. Yet when a good leader arrives, those same tasks seem exciting and worthwhile.

Questions to be answered:

If we accept this view, what does it mean for our actions and attitudes?

What are the signs that we are placing adequate emphasis on God’s part in ministry?

What signs would suggest we are putting too much onto God (super-spirituality)?

Filed under: church leadership, discipleship, leadership training, theology of leadership by Dennis McCallum
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