The Fisherman's Line: 2014

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Clues You Have Found the Discipler of God's Choosing

–by the Rev. Canon Dr. Jon C. Shuler, PhD– I spoke last week of the intentional challenge of finding someone who will help us grow up into Christ Jesus. That if we are to be more than “babes” we must begin to crawl, then walk and become people who can take food and become capable of not only knowing and following Jesus, but being able to help another to do so as well. How then do you know you have found the person that God wants you to relate to in your journey from newborn believer to disciple-making disciple? More than anything else, that person must be in love with God in Christ Jesus. He or she must be alive with faith that is transparently real. That person must be a student of God’s Word, and a person of prayer. He or she must be someone who is teachable, as well as able to teach. He must be someone knit into the body of Christ in some specific location, and himself accountable to God through others. All these things are essential, or so I believe. After that, one of the first and clearest signals you have found the right person is that they are someone you believe you can quickly be comfortable with. I was taught to use the word affinity, to describe this. Affinity, used in this sense, means I really want to learn from this person. I have a desire to be in a godly relationship with them. I see in them a walk with the Lord that I want to imitate. It does not mean I know them well, or have been with them a great deal. It does usually mean that when they speak I regularly “hear the word of God” through them. Inwardly, the Spirit of God in me “quickens” when I attend to their example, or their teaching, or their speech. Not surprisingly, the next evidence is that when approached the person is open to the idea of working with us in a discipling relationship. They too, have a sense that the connection may be of God. They see the possibility of walking together, to mutually grow in the Lord, as a possible call from God. When we approach them with our request, they are open to it. A biblical phrase that applies here is: they “receive your peace” (Luke 10 and parallels). Being translated, that means “they think the idea is good too.” What about gender? Unless the person you are approaching is your spouse or your parent, they should be of the same gender as you. Men disciple men. Women disciple women. This is both biblical and sensible, to say nothing of making it easier to uphold moral righteousness. Usually, the discipler will be chronologically older than the one being discipled, though sometimes the “eldership” may be in spiritual years rather than calendar years. How much time must this take? The answer will vary, but the more time together the quicker the process. Most modern experience would suggest no less than one hour a week is necessary to make any progress at all. The pattern of Jesus was to share life together, day by day. Nothing can improve on that.