A guest article from Alyssa Lillo, a student at Oral Roberts University.

Introduction

Educational principles in North America reflect the ways in which young people are taught, trained, and developed to become responsible mature adults in society. Similarly, Christian discipleship is the way in which new believers are developed to become mature Christians in the Body of Christ. In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus commands his disciples to go and make disciples, known as the Great Commission. Jesus spent his entire ministry, which lasted three and a half years, training his disciples.[1] Jesus purposely called his disciples, established relationship with them, travelled with them, taught them to pray, and showed them how to live in light of his message. The Great Commission is an exhortation from Jesus who wanted his disciples to go and do likewise. Jesus’ methods of discipleship were influenced by his Jewish heritage and the Greco-Roman world. Additionally, the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20) provides an example of how the disciples were to continue training new followers of Christ.

“The Exhortation to the Apostles” by James Tissot

Discipleship

Historical Background to Discipleship in the Greco-Roman and Jewish Society

Jesus was a Jewish man trained in Torah. He also lived in the Greco-Roman world, which influenced the way his disciples perceived discipleship. In ancient Rome, it was a common practice for young men to become students to older or more experienced men for their chosen vocations.[2] Whether it was manual labor or educational, many would spend considerable time to learn in specific areas.[3] To the culture outside of Judaism, the closest form of discipleship was better known as an apprenticeship. A student or the student’s father would seek out and pick a teacher to learn from for an agreed period of time.[4]

Philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, championed discipleship in the Greco-Roman period. Socrates, a Greek philosopher, developed the Socratic method, which was teaching by asking questions.[5] He gathered a following of several young men. Plato was one of Socrates’ students and Aristotle was one of Plato’s students. The Greco-Roman teaching method exemplifies master-student relationships that would have been familiar to Jesus. Although the religion was very different, some of the methods of discipleship of the Graco-Roman society was similar to the Jewish culture.

Doug Strong and Jess Bielman offer this short volume intent on reimagining and reoffering an ancient medieval metaphor (the “workshop”) for contemporary practices of theological education that are integrative of the life of the academy and the church together. The volume proposes to take readers on a journey of recovery. Chapter 1 introduces the ancient construct of “apprenticeship” as a means of education in theology and ministry that is intentionally hands-on and oriented around a relationship of discipleship rather than simply courses taken independently with hopes that the student will gain integrative mastery on their own. Foundationally this is a call to mentorship that is facilitated via Spirit-empowered transformational experiences in community, discipline, and vocational holiness and wholeness.

Despite the noted issues with this volume, it still offers a refreshing rethinking of the moves within theological education that have tended to turn it into business and a cognitive intellectualist project rather than the personalizing and transforming Spirit empowering encounter it is meant to be for the sake of the individual, the Church, and the world. This book might function well for a group of professors, administrators, pastors, and students to read together over several weeks of discussions centered around the journey into the “workshop” re-storying proposed. As such it might just offer the “academy opportunity to make it a place of spiritual and intellectual flourishing for the sake of the church’s health” (144). May it be so.

Reviewed by Rick Wadholm Jr.

Publisher’s page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781532689093/workshop-of-the-holy-spirit/

Preview Workshop of the Holy Spirit: https://books.google.com/books?id=SyKcEAAAQBAJ

In this guest article by David Redden, he discusses what an integrated paradigm of worship and discipleship might look like for today’s Pentecostal/charismatic.

There is much talk about today as to what is Postmodern. You can read books and articles from Leonard Sweet to Peter Wagner and get as many variations on that theme as you read. To suffice for this article, a “post-modern” approach to ministry is one that is anything but what you have been accustomed to. Unfortunately, many of our traditions keep us from even being able to conceive of a variation to our own repetitious themes. The church has strived for so long to become “modern” that our identity has become lost in two areas. First, our identity becomes lost in the things which we have brought into our beliefs merely for the sake of seeking acceptance from the world. Secondly, our identity becomes lost in things which we hold on to that do not help us progress forwards with our mission. What we need today is a “Post” modern approach that will enable us to let go of poor traditions, cling to what is vital to keeping us on course, and adaptable enough to allow new methodologies into our practices that will enable us to reach a more diverse culture.

And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands. (1 Samuel 17:47 KJ2000)

During WWII’s Battle of the Coral Sea, 5 warships were sunk and over 1,600 men killed. The historic nature of the battle is not in the numbers since other naval battles were much larger. For the first time in human history, none of the naval vessels in the battle fired directly at each other. In fact, none of the combatant vessel sighted an enemy ship.

USS Lexington during the Battle of the Coral Sea, seen from USS Yorktown (foreground), 8 May 1942. The large number of planes on deck and low sun indicate that the photo was taken early in the morning, prior to launching the strike against the Japanese carrier force.

The decks of the carriers landed and launched aircraft in rapid succession. The deck crews worked feverishly to keep planes in the air. Despite their skillful and valiant effort, all of the carriers in the battle took damage. Two sank.

The pilots and aircraft of the Japanese and American carriers ended the era of battleship dominance. The heavy guns of the cruisers and destroyers were effectively silenced while the carriers and their planes dueled. The pilots, not the big gun batteries, prevented the Japanese from landing troops at Port Moresby, New Guinea.

Current Realities

The Battle for Souls rages on. The enemy continues his mission to land sinfulness in the hearts and minds of men and women everywhere. As the Battle continues in full fury, the Christian Church has the opportunity to respond as never before.

Surprisingly, the Church Herself does not engage directly with the culture. Instead, the Church fuels and equips, trains and instructs, Christian men and women. After arming them with Scripture and the Spirit, the Church launches believers into the fray.

Is the Church important and vital to believers? Of course. Yet, it’s the individual Christian who does the heavy lifting in reaching and wining souls. Large outreaches often draw large crowds, but its one-on-one, or one-on-few relationships where the essential work of salvation and Discipleship gets done.

The need for teaching and training new saints has been present from the beginning. Jesus discipled the Disciples. The Disciples discipled the Roman world. Not even the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has altered the process.

Immediately After Pentecost

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41 KJV)

Peter’s Pentecost sermon can easily be called an outreach event. The one day addition of 3,000 to the Church is clearly a desirable outcome. Who wouldn’t be delighted with Sunday after Sunday of wild growth?

Pentecost Sunday was an unique event, even for Peter and the Disciples. For most ministers and ministries, growth requires a lot of hard work and long days. 2^nd Chapter of Acts results come less often than we would like.

Still, we pray, plan and perform. What we don’t always emphasize is the follow-on discipleship. After you get them, what do you do with them? More importantly, how do you turn newly redeemed lives into soul winners?

Making your church a modern-day Addullam: Reach, Teach, Release.

As you finish your prayer, you realize that the weeping man at the altar has come to Christ. The leather, tattoos and body piercings clearly no longer agree with the transformation you know has changed his soul. As you praise God for this new soul, a realization hits you. I have to help make a strong saint of this man.

Churching, or re-Churching men is a key task in developing a dynamic and growing body of believers. The differences in background, appearance and even style of your new brothers can seem intimidating. God’s Power and your heart are more than equal to the task. You can become a modern day “Captain of 400″ in a 21^st century Adullam.

Adullam Assembly

David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men (1 Samuel 22:1-2 KJV).

David, hunted and hated by his own father-in-lay, has hidden himself in a wilderness cave. Penniless and burdened with his unjustly persecuted family, David needs help and assistance. God faithfully guides men to his loyal servant.

Cave entrance near the ancient ruins of Adullam.
Image: Davidbena / Wikimedia Commons.

Deadbeats, troublemakers and whiners arrive at Adullam. With Saul and all of Israel’s armies looking for him, only the losers arrive at David’s side. However it looks to David, this is God’s Plan.

Whatever they were before, these men change when they stay with David. A rag-tag group of malcontents become an elite force of warriors. Losers and castoffs are transformed into courageous champions.

The Church is made up of men and their families. Souls progress from converts to new disciples, to growing disciples and then disciple makers. This is the intended pattern for God’s Church.

Your church or ministry can become a modern day Adullam. A place where men can become transformed in God’s Spirit and Power. All it takes is a heart, and heard, for working with the men that God calls from the darkness. If it ever seems too much, ask for more of His Grace.

Nothing can remain the same in the presence of God’s Grace. Not the situation. Not the men. Not even the leader.

Transformation Assembly

The military and law enforcement know how Christian leaders feel. They take in men who know little or nothing of war or law, then transform them. In too few weeks, they make seasoned professionals of inexperienced boys. Then they send them into the streets and battlefields to accomplish a difficult mission against incredible opposition.

Dr. Gary Tyra has served in pastoral ministry and is currently a professor at Vanguard University where he teaches theology courses. He is also the author of several other books, these include Getting Real and The Holy Spirit in Mission [Editor’s note: See the review by Malcolm Brubaker]. In The Dark Side of Discipleship he addresses the subject of spiritual warfare. He has written this book because he has seen many believers who are not well prepared in this area of their Christian lives.

The main body of the book begins with an introduction, after that the text is divided into four major parts. One of the subjects Tyra raises in the introduction, and refers to at other points in the book, is the subject of faithfulness. He feels that there are three key areas in which disciples of Jesus need faithfulness. They need to have spiritual faithfulness, moral faithfulness, and missional faithfulness (page 1). One thing that can disturb or disrupt this faithfulness is the activity of the devil (page 2). He attacks believers in such key areas as “worship, nurture, community, and mission” (page 9). Though the reality of the devil is downplayed by some believers, especially in the West, he should be taken seriously (pages 2, 7). The author says that there are at least 238 references to an evil spiritual being in the New Testament (page 3). In the introduction Tyra states that the purpose of the book is to enable believers “to experience a vibrant, fruitful, enduring walk with Christ” (page 4) in spite of the attacks of the devil. He sees spiritual warfare as an important component of “spiritual endurance training” (page 6).

Part Two is called “Forewarned is Forearmed: How the Devil Seeks to Derail Christian Discipleship.” This section is made up of four chapters. The chapter titles pretty much explain the focus of each chapter. Chapter 3 is called “Seduction: The Devil and Christian Worship, Chapter 4 is “Deception: The Devil and Christian Nurture, Chapter 5 is “Alienation: The Devil and Christian Community, and Chapter 6 is “Temptation: The Devil and Christian Mission.” These chapters deal with four key areas in which Christians will be attacked by the devil. Tyra mentioned them in the introduction of the book (page 9). In these chapters he identifies various ways in which Christians are attacked and how these attacks can be dealt with.

Part Four is called “Standing Firm in the Faith: Why the Devil Must be Dealt With.” This section is made up of two chapters, chapters 9 and 10. Chapter 9 deals with the ultimate “why” question. This question is “If God is both great and good, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?” (page 226). As he seeks to address this question Tyra interacts with the writings of Gilbert Bilezikian and Gregory Boyd (pages 227-445). Both of these authors hold to the open theist point of view (page 233). While Trya values some of the insights of these writers he does not agree with everything they have written. In Chapter 10 the author writes about God’s end game. Here he offers some adjustments to the theology of Bilezikian and Boyd. He also writes about God’s justice with regard to things like the world (pages 260-261), the cross of Christ (pages 262-263), and the church (pages 269-273).

In the conclusion, Tyra wraps the book up with mention of a Bible verse that he has cited a number of times in the course of the text. The verse is the one in which Jesus speaks about receiving the commendation of the Lord for being good and faithful servants (Matthew 25:21). It is possible, and defeating the devil is one of the things that needs to be done in order for it to happen.

One thing you will not find in the book is a section on exorcism. The author does allude to it a couple of times (pages 197-198) but does not go into any detail about it. He knows some readers would be interested in this aspect of spiritual warfare. But he does not cover it because while Scripture does speak about this ministry Tyra believes that the majority of the New Testament focuses on the believer’s drawing near to God (page 198). The main focus of the book is discipleship. That is, preparing yourself, and others, to stand up against the attacks of the evil one. In this regard, I think The Dark Side of Discipleship has some good information and insights to offer. Christians will find profitable material that can help them identify and defeat the devil’s  work in their lives.

Reviewed by John P. Lathrop

Publisher’s page: https://wipfandstock.com/9781532691218/the-dark-side-of-discipleship

These Things

Matthew 6:31-33 says, “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”

Why then, if we are not suppose to seek after ‘these things,’ are we encouraged to do exactly that from many pulpits? This type of error in teaching serves only to create disillusionment in the hearts of the people of God. Instead of being happy with what God has blessed us with ‘from day to day’, we sit in discontentment blaming God for not fulfilling His so called promises. (These teaching state that it is God’s will for us to all to drive a Lexus or something comparable and to wear the best of clothes, etc.) We feel like failures for not having ‘enough faith’ to even be able to buy the same kind of suit that the ‘Man of God’ is wearing — though he has thousands of people throwing money in his bucket at every service and we hold a nine to five job.

Let’s look at what the apostle Paul taught Timothy. Timothy had the responsibility of rearing the young church in Ephesus and was instructed to teach these things as ‘foundations for a godly life’ because false teachers had come into the young church who saw religion as a way to get rich (vs. 2b-5)

1 Timothy 6:6-11 Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth. After all, we didn’t bring anything with us when we came into the world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, Timothy, belong to God; so run from all these evil things and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

So what are we to pursue? According to this scripture, we are to pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. According to Matthew 6, this is summarized as the kingdom of God. It is clear that we are taught by both the apostle Paul and by our Lord Jesus to be content.

Every follower of Jesus is called to be a disciple maker. In this excerpt from his book, The Community of God, Pastor Doug Bursch shows us that the New Testament says discipleship happens in and through community.

God cares equally about the individual and the group. He does not give preference to the development of one over the other. With the formation of Eve, God created humans to exist as communal beings, dependent upon each other and their Creator to be one. Before sin entered the world, God declared that “it is not good” for Adam to be alone. What was true for Adam, remains true for every human being. For the children of God to understand fully the goodness of God, we must dwell in meaningful ways with each other. Consequently, community plays a crucial role in any healthy discipleship process.

Jesus discipled through community

This article is Chapter 12 from Douglas S. Bursch, The Community of God: A Theology of the Church from a Reluctant Pastor (Seattle, WA: Fairly Spiritual, 2017), 240 pages, ISBN 9780692868386. Read the review by John Lathrop.

Community was central in New Testament discipleship. Jesus ministered through a group of disciples. The New Testament church continued Jesus’ ministry and discipleship model after Christ’s ascension. In the New Testament, almost every stage of discipleship and growth occurred within the gathered community, specifically through ministry pairings.

Jesus did not minister the kingdom of God alone. Instead, he began his official ministry on Earth by gathering a group of disciples. Jesus ministered to and with disciples because he was fully God but also fully human. Just as it was not good for Adam to be alone, it would not have been good for Jesus to be alone or minister alone. God created humans for community. To rightly express his humanity, Jesus needed to abide with and work through meaningful human relationships. If Jesus had not shared his ministry with other people, he would not have been the perfect expression of a righteous human. To exhibit the perfect expression of humanity, Jesus shared his ministry with others. Through his incarnation, Jesus allowed himself to be dependent upon human relationships. He shared the plan of God with a community of disciples. In gathering the twelve, Jesus showed us that the gospel is fully realized in and through community.

In Jesus’ communal method of discipleship, he did not individually disciple his followers before bringing them into the larger group. Instead, he asked each disciple to join him and learn about him within a community of followers. The disciples discovered God and themselves within and through fellowship with each other. Their knowledge of God and their ministry giftings developed together. Jesus took twelve equally ignorant disciples and discipled them as an interactive group.

What has God called you to do? In this chapter from Your Call to Work & Mission: Following Jesus 24/7, Lois Olena shows why and how followers of Jesus should participate in caring for the creation God has made.

It’s Sunday morning, and your adult class welcomes the day’s speaker. She steps up to the microphone and begins talking about the environment. The “E” word! “Oh my,” you wonder, “Is this church turning liberal? Has it started down the path of political correctness that will lead to new age, tree-hugging, nature worship—against which the Bible warns” (Rom. 1:25).

Image: Tim Swaan

You cringe as the speaker continues on about the state of the earth. She shares statistics about air and water pollution, water scarcity, the destruction of rainforests, global warming, and desperate polar bears. Your mind questions, “Isn’t this just propaganda?” She goes on about the state of our oceans and waterways, biodiversity issues, habitat destruction, extinction of species, depletion of the ozone layer, and more.

Overwhelmed, your head swims, and your blood pressure rises. “What can I do about all this?” You think, “Besides, isn’t the earth going to just burn up anyhow at the end of days?¹ What difference will it make if I recycle in the face of such massive global problems?” You let out a quiet sigh and find yourself wishing this class would focus on something relevant to living as a disciple of Jesus.

“Creation Care as Discipleship” by Lois E. Olena is chapter 12 in Stephen Lim, ed., Your Call to Work & Mission: Following Jesus 24/7 Whole-Life Discipleship (AGTS, 2015). Available from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary online bookstore.

Too often these questions characterize the Christian approach to what has traditionally been called “environmentalism.” Believers have approached the topic of care for the earth with doubt and confusion. How we answer such questions, however, depends on the extent to which we can understand the why of God’s call to steward creation and how to do so.

Why Should Christians Care for Creation?²

Believers should care about creation because of what is happening to it. But even more important for Christians is what God’s Word says about it. Let’s look at both reasons.

Environmental Realities

It only takes a few moments of searching the Internet using phrases such as, “state of the environment,” “global warming,” or “pollution,” in order to see the earth’s “groanings” written about so long ago by the Apostle Paul (Rom. 8:22). Although various political, scientific, and religious groups differ on the causes of these realities—most contemporary environmental maladies are easily recognizable as crises in need of increased human awareness, cooperation, and action in order to improve global health.³ Global realities require that we tend to the earth if creation is to avoid continuing damage and thrive as God intended. To show no concern for these environmental realities, notes biblical scholar Christopher J. H. Wright, is “to be either desperately ignorant or irresponsibly callous.”⁴

David Augsburger, Dissident Discipleship: A Spirituality of Self-Surrender, Love of God, and Love of Neighbor (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006), 245 pages, ISBN 9781587431807.

Augsburger, an American Anabaptist author, currently professor of pastoral care and counseling at Fuller Seminary, explains that his book’s purpose is to unfold a “radical, spirituality” that he defines as “tripolar in combining love for God, others and self.” He opines that Anabaptism is “revolutionary stuff” in the present century when “spiritual passivity, collective helplessness, a sense of religious futility, and exhaustion with the disciplines of traditional spirituality have turned so many away from formal religion, church doctrine and theology”. He further considers that the Anabaptist tradition, as experienced in the Mennonite, Amish and Brethren faith communities, exceeds its spiritual contexts and appears also in Catholic, Protestant, and predominately in Charismatic and Pentecostal forms of spirituality. He views the Anabaptist alternative as having “an attitude of subversive spirituality, a stubborn set of commitments, and a radical obedience to the Sermon on the Mount” that seeks a new and closer relationship with Jesus Christ.

The author enlarges his discussion by defining the eight practices inclusive of Anabaptist spirituality: “radical attachment; stubborn loyalty, tenacious serenity; habitual humility, resolute nonviolence, concrete service, authentic witness and subversive spirituality”. It is through the understanding and practice of these disciplines that one avoids monopolar and bipolar spiritualities to practice tripolar spirituality: an inwardly directed, upwardly compliant and outwardly committed lived theology that connects “the experience of personal transformation, divine encounter (the God-ward journey) and the relation of integrity and solidarity with the neighbor”. The author explains that the unity of tripolar spirituality is essential to Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. This spirituality is also evident in the Pentateuch, Prophets and Psalms; in the Magnificat in of Luke’s Gospel; in Paul’s epistles, and historically throughout the Middle Ages in, for example, St. Francis of Assisi, the Waldensians, and the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century.

David Augsburger is Senior Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Augsburger provides the reader with soul searching questions. For example, no longer need we ask “What would Jesus do?” but rather “What do I do with Jesus”? as I meet him in the enemy, the abandoned, the needy, the sick and the dying. He poignantly illustrates the validity of the previous question by quoting the prayer of a volunteer serving food to homeless people near the White House: “‘Lord we know you’ll be comin’ thru this line today. So help us treat you well’”.

Augsburger does well in his nuanced theological discussion of authentic community, as he contrasts the meanings of “false” versus “true” community. He opines that community is where one learns virtues, not where one chooses values. In particular he connects Gelassenhiet, defined as serenity, contentment and calmness of spirit, to the experience of fulfillment in community, through sacrifice and service, as opposed to an isolated self-actualization. Gelassenhiet combines the qualities of “fortitude and faithfulness” that lead one away from the self-serving aspects of a false spirituality.

A major strength of Augsburger’s presentation is his emphasis on the lived theology of imitation as practice: the call to mimetic behavior in following Jesus. He embraces “the politics of Jesus” which he explains as a movement downward rather than the embrace of power, influence and success. He explains dissident discipleship as the practice of reverse theology: countering the prosperity gospel and reassessing one’s present culture to compare cultural philosophy and its practices in the light of biblically-defined discipleship. He emphasizes the contrast between triumphalism versus the theology of suffering: Christ’s triumph was in and through sacrifice and suffering; the Savior’s self-giving for others. The author is careful to make a distinction in the differences between teaching religion and actually living religion. He emphasizes that “Authentic embodiment is the basis for [valid] witness.” Authentic witness is not based on the charisma of one person, or “the perfection of a particular life”, but is “the presence of a community of witnesses who verify, validate and authenticate their life together.”