Influence Our World
The Following is the Script for this Video:
When most of us fill our garbage cans, we know someone will come and take the trash to a waste-disposal site. But what about the moral rubbish that surrounds us? It seems that the whole world is littered with actions and words that make us cringe. Does it sometimes appear that the whole world has become a dark trash heap with no waste-disposal site? Actually, none of this has taken God by surprise. As Paul foretold: “But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be . . .
• Lovers of themselves
• Lovers of money
• Boastful
• Proud
• Abusive
• Disobedient to parents
• Without love
• Unholy
• Unforgiving
• Ungrateful
• Slanderous
• Without self-control
• Brutal
• Not lovers of the good
• Treacherous
• Rash
• Conceited
• Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
• Having a form of godliness but denying its power
Living in a world full of morally dark hazardous waste can leave us feeling discouraged. At times, a sense of helplessness can overwhelm us. Is there any way we as Christians can even make a dent in all this disorder?
In an interview with Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Os Guinness spoke about the “culture of chaos” in the United States. He said: “If every Christian in the spheres in which they live—their neighborhoods and so on, their workplaces—stood up, spoke out, the country would be turned around in ten years.”
Ten years! There is no instant fix. The needed changes in our culture will not come about by marching in the streets or electing some candidate who claims to be the next messiah.
Instead, we need to play the long game—making the moves today that will bring the hoped-for results in the future. Doing so, of course will call for wise strategy plus the faith and patience required to wait for the outcome.
Imagine a world in which each dot on this map represents a minister. A minister committed to seeking first the Kingdom of God. A minister who sees Scripture as God’s written message to people everywhere. A minister faithful to the call of God. Imagine a world full of so many ministers that wherever you were to go, you’d probably bump into several in the course of your day.
Impossible! you may be thinking. Seminaries could never turn out that many ministers. But look closely. Does this objection contain a clue to what has been blocking us from playing the long game?
Let’s open the Dictionary of Today’s Church-Speak and look up the word “minister.” The usual “minister” definitions go something like this:
• A seminary graduate
• Preaches on Sunday
• Does weddings and funerals
Walk into just about any church on Sunday and “the minister” soon becomes obvious.
But the New Testament presents a much wider definition of “minister.” Church leaders, says Paul in Ephesians 4, are “to equip his [God’s] people for works of service.” That word “service” means ministry. So the church’s “ministers” include far more than professional Christians. God calls every child of his to serve as a minister.
As we saw in Eph. 4:12, church leaders, such as pastors and teachers, are to equip these people of God for their work of serving in their various spheres. Equipping means to make them fully ready for action. That’s what Jesus meant when he said to “go and make disciples.”
And yet, Dallas Willard wrote that “Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church.” It’s the giant obstacle that’s easier to tiptoe around than to engage. Why? Why have we walked so softly around this nondiscipleship “elephant”?
A paraphrase of one of G. K. Chesterton’s statements may well fit here. His original said: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” To paraphrase: Discipleship has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult; and left untried. Why is discipleship so difficult? Because it takes so much time and hard work.
The English word that best describes discipleship is apprenticeship. Someone has said apprenticeship is “Learning from others who’ve done what you hope to do.” Jesus apprenticed Peter, James, John, and the rest of his disciples. Paul apprenticed Timothy.
In apprenticeship, I watch and listen as you do it. Next, we do it together. Then I do it while you watch, listen, and provide feedback.
Listening to sermons has a place, but sermons alone cannot produce disciples. The disciples of Jesus and Paul spent time with and watched as their mentors faced various situations. The apprentices were given assignments. Jesus and Paul were not after instant results. They were playing the long game.
Apprenticeship—or making disciples—involves the head: asking questions and getting answers. It involves the hands: practicing skills. And it involves the heart: learning how to lay down one’s life in love for others.
Where do God’s equipped children carry out their ministries? Nearly all of it outside the church building. Follow them through a typical week, and you’ll find them them among four main groups: family members . . .fellow Christians . . . neighbors . . . and coworkers.
How can church leaders find apprentice-makers? By searching out mature Christians within Christ’s body who have learned how to serve in each of those spheres. Each part must do its own special work.
Who are the older parents in the church whose adult children are now living loving, fruitful lives as mature believers? How did they train and discipline their children? How can church leaders devise ways in which these mature parents can share with the younger ones how they did it with their kids?
How can church leaders create settings in which those gifted in stimulating love and good works and in encouragement can benefit others as they form relationships with fellow Christians?
Which members of the body have found especially fruitful ways to reach out to those in their own neighborhoods? How can they pass along their insights and skills through apprenticeship?
What working members of the church are spoken well of by their non-Christian co-workers? How can church leaders link younger workers with those who have established solid workplace reputations in that arena?
What would happen if we were to play the long game? What if we were to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples, lighting up families, neighborhoods, and workplaces throughout our society? “You are,” Jesus said, “the light of the world.” This poor world needs us to shine the light of Jesus into its darkness.
What if we do?
What if we don’t?
For Disciples in the Workforce
Offers a biblical antidote to the sacred-secular-divide virus that has infected the church for centuries.
