Discipleship

Intro

When I served with St. John, one of the projects I worked on was creating an intentional discipleship system. How do we welcome a new person into the church, help them find a sense of community and belonging (a place to be known), and then invite them deeper into faith and discipleship?

Really, these are questions every church should be asking.

What eventually inspired me and the group I was working with were my experiences visiting Denali National Park. Many of you are probably familiar with the Park Entrance Area. It is where most of the development is, as well as the only part of the park with maintained trails, educational events, and the sled dog kennel. If you are planning on going deeper into the park, it is also where you check in and get an orientation.

On my first visit, I rode the bus out quite a ways and went on a ranger-guided half-day hike. Although I had spent plenty of time hiking in bear country, Denali was new and different, so having the ranger around to orient me was super helpful.

The next day, I rode the bus back out again to around mile 68 and spent two nights backpacking solo. It was incredible. No trails, no other people, just wilderness. It was a chance to explore, and then come back and tell the rangers I was alive and what I had been up to.

The path of discipleship is kind of like that experience. You show up and there are people to guide you: people who help you learn the traditions, the sacred stories, the songs of our faith, and what we believe and why. We all hang around in the entrance area (Sunday worship for most of us) where we have shared experiences. Maybe next you take a guided adventure: a Bible study or small group, joining the choir, or volunteering for a service project or an event. Through these guided adventures, you learn more about what it means to walk the path of discipleship. Then eventually, maybe you set out on your own. You have developed your personal spiritual practices, maybe you volunteer to lead something, or, heaven forbid, you have an idea and get told YES, go do that!

What Do We Mean by Discipleship? A Disciple’s Path

So if that is what the journey looks like, what about the content of the journey? What are we taught? And what are the activities of a disciple of Jesus Christ; what do we do?

In the United Methodist Church, we characterize our communal life of discipleship as expressed through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.

One of the best resources I have found for adults who are ready to dive a little deeper into holistic spiritual practices is Rev. James Harnish’s small group workbook, A Disciple’s Path. Those five activities or expressions of discipleship (prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness) become the outline for how we holistically practice our faith. Each chapter dives into one, not prescriptively, but descriptively.

1. Prayer, including scripture meditation, comes first. It is absolutely essential in cultivating our love of God, and I would argue our love of neighbor.

2. Make presence a priority, both in corporate worship and in small groups. I have said this many times before: we are made by and for community. Our journey of faith is not one that can be practiced in complete solitude. After all, how can we love a neighbor we know nothing about?

3. Giving, financial generosity, and money matters. It goes beyond just giving, beyond even striving toward the Biblical idea of a tithe (10 percent, however you calculate that). It goes beyond even giving first, from the idea of giving the first fruits of your harvest.

a. Early Methodists routinely asked themselves Questions for Self-Examination, including: "Am I praying about the money I spend?"

b. Methodist clergy are asked about our debt.

c. Patterned after a John Wesley sermon, we have long taught practical wisdom for managing money summarized as: Earn All You Can ethically and morally, Save All You Can, which enables you to Give All You Can.

4. Service: The path of discipleship asks us to serve within and outside of our church community. We are called to use the gifts God has given us (Spiritual Gifts) and the skills we have learned to build up the community of faith, to serve one another in praise and love of God, and to extend our witness into the community through:

5. Invitational Evangelism. We say "witness in the vows" because frankly we are either scared of or scared by evangelism. That is fair. But at its core, evangelism is an invitation rooted in good news. It is rooted in a desire to invite someone into the friendship and community found here, rooted in the experience of grace and love.

Ephesians 3:7-21 (Paul’s Prayer for the Church)

In the part of Ephesians we read today, Paul again reassures us that we are plenty qualified. After all, he is the "very least of all the saints" (3:8). Self-deprecation aside, he reminds us that God’s plan is to make known the gift of grace and the wisdom of God through the Church.

As foolish as that plan may seem sometimes, God’s wisdom is to be made known through the church. Through us!

I read this and am reminded that over and over again, God extends the invitation to humanity to collaborate, to be co-creators of heaven on earth, and to work together to restore the right relationship between God, humanity, and all of creation. And thank God, we are not expected to be qualified to do that. We are simply asked to be willing.

Hear Paul’s prayer for the church again: (verses 14-21)

"For this reason I bow my knees before [God]… I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory… you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

"More Than We Can Ask or Imagine"

Faith and trust through the discipleship journey allow us to accept God’s invitation as collaborators, accomplishing more than we can ask or imagine in bringing forth the Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

When I think about what that really looks like, I get excited. I get excited because I imagine the things I stress the most about disappearing. I see a future where my children and yours, and their children, and their children’s children are flourishing. I see a present where the visions of the prophets are fulfilled: where swords have become gardening tools, where cities and towns have been restored, and where there is no longer anyone in need among us because we believe and live like there is enough.

Can you glimpse those visions as well?

And what about the journey from here to there?

For me, admittedly, that is where it gets a little bit hard: seeing the journey.

But maybe it is a little like exploring the wilderness: having faith and committing to the adventure of discipleship where there are plenty of resources to equip us, but not always a defined path to direct us.

And if we practice, our steps become more confident.

If we pray,

If we show up,

If we serve,

If we give,

If we witness.

In all my years in church leadership (20-plus years, because I can look back at some of my first sermons and see the same messages), what I have noticed is that of those five activities of discipleship (Prayer, Presence, Gifts, Service, and Witness), we struggle the most with gifts and witness. Money and evangelism.

What I really mean is that it is almost taboo in most churches to talk about money and evangelism. Both have gotten a bad reputation thanks to some seriously abusive tactics from... churches.

Yet, if we are accepting God’s invitation to collaborate on this Kingdom of Heaven group project, and if we have faith that our "yes" to the invitation will accomplish more than we can ask or imagine (as Paul writes), then shouldn't we be just as excited to offer up our financial resources as we are our prayers? Shouldn't we be even more excited to talk to others about the transforming power of God’s grace in our lives than we are about the weather or the ball game?

I know it is not that simple. My family feels the pulls, pressures, and constraints on our time and on our money. Milk is $4.59 a gallon, so a little cheaper than gas. Both Laura and I work for small nonprofits, often 40-plus hours per week... and yet we are so richly blessed. I may worry about how we will eventually replace a car, but never about food for our table; about when I will have time to rip out that old carpet, but not about whether we will have a home.

Henri Nouwen & A New Communion

In a compilation of Henri Nouwen’s writings titled A Spirituality of Fundraising, Nouwen writes over and over again about transforming our security base. Angst gets in the way of faith and casts clouds over our spiritual life, leading us to cling to what we can control for security, like money. So how do we become a people whose security base is in God and God alone?

Prayer, Nouwen writes, "is the radical starting point… because in prayer we slowly experience a reorientation of all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves and others. To pray is to desire to know more fully the truth that sets us free… Prayer uncovers the hidden motives and unacknowledged wounds that shape our relationships. Prayer allows us to see ourselves and others as God sees us."

We are coming into that time of year when we ask one another for commitments for the coming year together: commitments to serve in leadership roles in 2027 and beyond, financial pledges to support our communal ministry, and new this year, we will also be sending out a time and talents survey asking you how you would like to be asked to serve.

But before we do all that, I would like us to heed Henri Nouwen’s wisdom and commit to prayer. Maybe you do not have words and just need to listen. Maybe you have some harsh words for God; go ahead. Maybe you need to ask for guidance. But most of all, commit to gratitude.

Gratitude for all you are, for all you have, and for the love that surrounds you.

Wesleyan Covenant Prayer

A prayer discipline I have turned to for years, after whatever prayer I feel I need, is to turn to the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer. It is a reminder of whose and who I am, and of my commitments as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Church, let us pray: (UMH #607)

"I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to laboring.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen."