The Cost of Nondiscipleship

I was reading the lesson from Devotional Classics that we will be studying at small group this week. It is an excerpt from Dallas Willard's The Spirit of Disciplines.

The excerpt discusses how our churches are filled with "undiscipled disciples." He says, "Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership—either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or a local church." Most fundamentalist and evangelical churches only require baptism for membership (the church we attend doesn't even require that). The requirement for baptism is proclaiming your belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that you want and need Him to be your Lord and Savior. Once you are a member, you are expected to grow in your relationship with Christ, but there is nothing required of you to do that.

This is very different from the church I grew up (the Catholic church). To become Catholic (as an adult) you enter into RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) and spend several months learning about the Church before making a final decision and receiving the sacraments. That is good, as you do learn to be a disciple. However, it is a difficult and long process (compared to just proclaiming your belief and being baptized), and that probably prevents people from pursuing it. Which reminds me of a G.K. Chesterton quote, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

Which is right? Churches that make it easy to be a member and are filled with lots of Christians, but not many disciples. Or churches that make it difficult to be a member, but have more discipled Christians? I don't have an answer...All I know is that it is best to be a discipled Christian because:

Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As disciples of Christ living the abundant life we want everyone to enjoy the same thing so we start telling people you need to do this, this, and this. Instead of allowing Christ to transform them from the inside out, we try to transform them from the outside in. So, I guess the answer to my question is that it is best not to judge Christians (and their church) on whether or not they are disciples. We must leave that up to God as we can not see their hearts. I must remove the wooden beam from my own eye and allow God to transform me. Perhaps, by seeing my life transformed, others will allow God to do the same thing for them.

(Note: I had a hard time putting this into words. I apologize if it makes no sense and rambles and isn't tied together all nice and neat. Unfortunately, I am not good with words - which is why I'm an accountant and not a writer.)

He is perfecting me

Our small group is going to be using the book "Devotional Classics" for our lessons this year. I was reading through the selection for tomorrow evening's group. It is from C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (which we read in the fall).

Lewis talks about the natural self and how the claims of "morality" interfere with the desires of the natural self. We hope that when the demands of morality of been met that there will still be a chance to do what we want. But how the more we obey our conscience the more our conscience demands of us

"and your natural self, which is thus being starved and hampered and worried at every turn, will get angrier and angrier. In the end, you will either give up trying to be good, or else become one of those people who, as they say, 'live for others' but always in a discontented, grumbling way--always wondering why others do not notice it more and always making a martyr of yourself. And once you have become that you will be a far greater pest to anyone who has to live with you than you would have been if you had remained frankly selfish."

Do you know anyone like that? Have you been like that? I have - it is NOT a happy place to be. In some of Flylady's emails she talks about not being a "martyr," about doing the things you do to keep your home clean and running for YOU (because you love yourself) and not getting angry with people for "not doing their part." I used to get so angry at Sugar Pop for never making the bed (he is usually the last to get up), but then I realized Sugar Pop doesn't care if the bed is made. I am the one who likes seeing the bed made. Once I owned the responsibility of making the bed and stopped grumbling about always being the one who made the bed, I was much happier and didn't carry around those angry feelings any more. I could go on to list other things like that around the house, but I'll spare you all the details.

How does this relate to my Christian walk? So many people live their lives doing what people expect of them and they grumble about it and it is hard and you feel like you are always depriving yourself of fun and what you would rather do. But, when you start living your life for Christ who is IN YOU, you are finally loving yourself. Living my life for Christ is so much easier than living my life to please others. Trying to please others and be good requires a perfection that is unattainable, but living for Christ only requires doing the next thing He asks of me. He doesn't require perfection from me - He is perfecting me. It will probably take all of eternity for Him to do it, but it is so much easier than when I was trying to do it myself.