I was thinking about what I wanted to share today, and found myself focusing on the issue of apprenticeship. My question is: Is an apprentice the same thing as a disciple? What do you think? One of the things that I notice as a pastor of a small church is the difficulty in finding new leaders. You ask people to pray about it, and consider stepping up to a new role, and after a few days of thought they refuse because there is too much going on in their lives and they don't have time to lead others. Now I am not here to come down on these people. They are legitimately busy, we all are. But my question becomes, are we busy about the right things?
We throw the word discipleship around a lot. I think many tend to think of discipleship in the form of training.
Would you agree? If that is the case then, wouldn't discipleship look like some form of apprenticeship? Now it doesn't have to be a formal training regimen, of course. But I think if this is the right direction it means all of us get involved in growing Christ followers and leaders, not just the pastor. If we took the idea of apprenticeship a little more seriously, I think we would find churches have a stronger presence in North America.
I kind of like how Eugene Peterson puts the words of Jesus in The Message, ""We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing." (from Matthew 10:40, The Message, copyright 2002.) Jesus is speaking to his followers, in turn speaking to us.
If you think I am off base with this line of thinking or maybe you agree, whatever your thoughts might be I would appreciate you sharing them with me in the comments section.
Have a blessed day!
The first thing that came to mind as I read was that the Devil loves busy...the busier we are the less time we havefor what we are suppposed to be doing. Unfortunately doing God's work is not a passion for all Christians and thus it is not a priority in life. Jesus command in Matt 28 was not just for a given few but for all readers of the Gospel...go forth into the world...making disciples. There has to be a paradigm shift from self to others. In my thinking, Christians need to take ownership of their priorities in life and be culpable for their resposibilities not to mankind but to their/our Creator. My question back to you, is their excuse of busyness a way out because they are fearful of stepping out or are unsure of how to take the lead? I know there are some who have confided in me that they do not disciple or evangelise because no one has ever taught them how to and they are uncomfortable in "winging it". Sometimes people think there is some "prescribed way" to desciple or evangelise when in reality it is a simple as taking a friend to coffee and asnwering their questions.
ReplyDeleteShalom brother
Todd