Platt: I think this is part of the reason many people are hesitant to even think about this side of it, because this takes Christianity to a whole different level. To say to others, I’m going to live a life that’s worthy of imitation — how many are really willing to take that step? And if we’re not, there’s a deeper spiritual issue here. Disciplemaking raises the bar of being a disciple in a way that it needs to be raised, but the beauty is that the Spirit of God is in us for this purpose. So for people to remember, disciplemaking is designed not to put our strength on display but our weakness on display and God’s strength in us on display.
Chan: I think it starts even with the pastor, and again, the pastor can get so busy doing so many things he/she isn’t stopping to look at his/her own life and say, “Do my actions resemble that of Christ?”
What are we multiplying here? We’ve lost the simple, obvious, “a Christian is Christ-like.” We have to look at our lives. Like you said, we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals this to us when we look at our lives and think, A lot of people say that I’m an awesome leader … or I’m doing these great things … but am I like Christ? Do I serve people the way Christ would? Does my heart break over them the way Christ’s heart broke?
Even as pastors, we get so busy doing this stuff, and we’re even looked at as being successful or even awesome or a role model, and we don’t stop to ask ourselves the question: Do I resemble Jesus? What the world needs to see is Jesus. Just put Christ central. It’s not all these methods that make a person great and awesome. We use those words. This guy is the best. And yet, we’ll say that about people whose lives do not resemble Christ’s at all: His humility, His servant attitude, His willingness to sacrifice and put others before Himself. Yet a person can be looked up to in this model, even for pastors to look up to, and we’re not asking the question, are they following Christ? Are they imitators of Christ? Does that person make you think if Jesus walked the Earth today in an incarnate, physical form, that would be pretty close right there?
Are we multiplying that, or are we just admiring people the same way the world does?
Platt: What do you say to people who say, “I can’t make disciples because I’ve never had someone do disciplemaking in my own life,” or “I’ve never seen disciple making in action”? What do you say to folks who say that?
Chan: I think we’re spoiled in this country. We have this expectation that we should have this perfect role model in front of us in order for us to do it versus in other countries, as you’ve seen, they don’t have that. In a lot of places, it started with a person who didn’t have a whole lot other than the Word of God. They didn’t have someone who had been living and modeling that life for 5, 10, 20 years. They became a believer, and they were dropped into this city, and maybe they weren’t discipled well, but they go to the Scriptures, and they trust that the Lord’s going to provide.
Even if you haven’t been discipled well, I really believe you’re supposed to go for it. Try it through the Spirit of God and through His Word. Be discipled by reading what Jesus did back then. I think there’s going to need to be more and more of that: people who are serious students of the Word looking at how Jesus led and taking on His characteristics. I hate to say this, but in some ways, I think people are better off without maybe following some of the earthly models out there and going back to Scripture and seeing how Jesus lived and becoming more of a picture of that to someone else in the 21st century context.
Those who really study the Word are going to realize, at least here, there aren’t that many models of people to look at, to follow and to imitate. It’s almost like a new generation is going to have to rise up and dig deeply in the Scriptures and be those models of 21st century Christians, followers of Christ, having that aroma of Christ.
