DISCIPLESHIP : CHRISTIAN LIFE AND THE MEANS OF GRACE

Andrew C. Thompson

Most Christians don't have to be convinced that following Jesus should be at the center of the Christian faith. We can all agree with the basic idea. But what does "following Jesus" actually look like? Is it a matter of the head or of the heart? Or does it also have something to do with the day-to-day habits of our lives? Jesus said to his disciples, "Believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1). But when he called them, he also said, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people" (Mark 1:17). Jesus wanted a faith from his disciples that included their belief in him. But he also wanted a faith that involved their willingness to learn from him how to live a certain way.

The current generation of Jesus' followers in the church are restless, wanting to find a fuller way to unite their professed belief with their active discipleship. That's a good thing. All of us who would call ourselves followers of Jesus today must wrestle with what it means to both believe and follow. Discipleship requires nothing less. It's a real challenge, to be sure, particularly in our present culture. But it is a challenge that we can meet with confidence and hope.

The word disciple means "student" or "learner." Disciples are not born. They're made. And while Scripture affirms that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), his disciples have lived in times and places radically different from one another over the past two thousand years. Learning is hard work, but it is worthwhile work when it's directed at some good end. The end of all our learning and training as Christians is life with God—the best end there could ever be! Because real, deep learning requires much, we need to be aware of the challenges we face in our world if we want authentic discipleship to take root in us. And so I want to suggest three things that are necessary for us to learn to follow Jesus in the present:

• First, following Jesus is something other than living the easy consumer lifestyle to which most of us have become accustomed in this culture. It is a life made possible by grace, but it is also a life that requires a response of disciplined practice on our part. • Second, following Jesus cannot be done individually but instead must be done together. When God calls us to faith in Jesus Christ, it is a calling that is always into the life of a Christian community. We call that community the church. Its purpose is not as an end in itself but is instead oriented at glorifying God, enabling our life with God to proceed by learning the skills necessary to follow Jesus, and witnessing to the redemptive work of God in the world.

• And third, both the doctrine and practices of any particular church really do count. It is through these means that salvation can be known. In other words, the way a church teaches and acts makes a difference in whether it is forming its people into the way of faithful discipleship.

These three points allow us to begin imagining what following Jesus looks like for us. I won't argue that the United Methodist Church is more faithful than other Christian bodies. I think we need reformation and renewal of our church (and our own lives) as much as anyone. But I do want to show that we Methodists have the resources in our own tradition to provide a way for committed disciples of Jesus to live deeply committed lives in this day and age. Recent work on recovering the Wesleyan impetus to ministry and discipleship in the United Methodist Church has described early Methodist practice as a whole "way of life." Rather than accepting the thin version of church "participation" seen in many congregations today, our forebears understood that their faith was the overriding force in determining all their day-today habits and practices. So they committed to shaping their lives "in responding to Christ's call to discipleship, in cultivating their graciously-empowered growth as disciples, in supporting one another on this journey, and in serving as ambassadors of Christ inviting others into the journey." When we aren't distracted by the über-busyness of our lives, absorbed by conspicuous levels of consumption, and gripped by the techno gadgets that surround us, we can look at that statement with a great deal of longing.

We may know just enough of the Christian life to recognize that the first calling on the people called Methodists was a calling to something more true and more beautiful than anything we've seen in our own lives. Do we have it within us to hear a similar call? Do we have the resources such a life would require? To make that kind of life our kind of life?

I think we do. Let me explain.

CHURCH PLANTING IN SATELLITE CITY

As a pastor, I've been fortunate over the past few years to form a relationship with the Methodist Church of Peru. Ten years ago I was asked to help lead a group of college students on a trip to the Peruvian coastal city of Chincha Alta, and I keep finding myself drawn back there time and time again. A pastor there named Rev. Pedro Uchuya, who serves as district superintendent of the area, has become a close friend. On a recent trip with pastors and church members from congregations in North Carolina, my friend Pedro wanted to show our team a couple of new church starts near Chincha Alta that were helping to revitalize the energy for mission and evangelism in his district. Since church planting is a much-discussed topic among Methodists in the United States as well, I was eager to see what our Peruvian brothers and sisters were doing in that area.

Pastor Pedro carried us in three tiny taxis one afternoon from the Plaza de Armas in the center of Chincha Alta out of town and toward the foothills of the Andes Mountains. A half-hour ride took us off of the paved streets of Chincha and down an uneven, dusty road to an outlying area called Ciudad Satélite. The name literally means "Satellite City." It is a suburb of sorts—a satellite to the main town of Cincha Alta—but not a planned one....