Followers falling away...
"What happens if your disciple falls away?" he asked.
My spoon paused in its journey towards my mouth. We're catching up in an Indonesian restaurant that was closed last time we tried to visit. I am a big believer in exposing any person that journeys with me to different cultures and the experiences they offer. It's an object lesson of the global perspective God has of humankind - an easy thing to miss as our culture tries to convince us that it is the only reasonable lens in which to view and experience the world.
I've been journeying with these guys for many years now. And I've been encouraging them to take on their own companions for journeying - disciples, for a more spiritual trendy word. My problem is that the term disciple tends to imply the training, encouraging and correcting is primarily one-way. For me, sometimes it is their wrestling with the reality of their faith in their lives that has been so valuable in fanning the flames of my faith or reminding me of how I am straying.
"Just keep journeying with them. They might reject their 'faith' but if you've been around them for a while and continue to be there for them they cannot deny the reality of your faith and the reality of THE faith. Sometimes their faith may be based on the wrong things anyway and needs to be abandoned. They might need to let go of misunderstood or selfish concepts of God or what he actually asks of us...
We also have examples from the Bible of people who fell away from their faith at one time and came back to it later on because people persisted with them. The gospel book of Mark is written by John Mark, who initially travelled with both Barnabas and Paul. As John Mark deserted them on a previous occasion, Paul refused to travel with John Mark and Paul parted company with his former mentor Barnabas over this issue. Barnabas persisted with John Mark and many years later Paul praised John Mark for his helpfulness in Paul's own ministry.
Also for me, there are people I've journeyed with that will no longer identify themselves as 'Christian', but I think in terms of the foundation built into them, they are doing mighty works in helping others experience the kingdom of God around them. I don't consider those people lost. They know God is real for me, and still involve me in their lives and some of their life thinking and decisions.
I don't think our job is to always be keeping score of who's in or out... but helping others see they should be looking to Jesus for the big (and small) issues of their lives."
My spoon paused in its journey towards my mouth. We're catching up in an Indonesian restaurant that was closed last time we tried to visit. I am a big believer in exposing any person that journeys with me to different cultures and the experiences they offer. It's an object lesson of the global perspective God has of humankind - an easy thing to miss as our culture tries to convince us that it is the only reasonable lens in which to view and experience the world.
I've been journeying with these guys for many years now. And I've been encouraging them to take on their own companions for journeying - disciples, for a more spiritual trendy word. My problem is that the term disciple tends to imply the training, encouraging and correcting is primarily one-way. For me, sometimes it is their wrestling with the reality of their faith in their lives that has been so valuable in fanning the flames of my faith or reminding me of how I am straying.
"Just keep journeying with them. They might reject their 'faith' but if you've been around them for a while and continue to be there for them they cannot deny the reality of your faith and the reality of THE faith. Sometimes their faith may be based on the wrong things anyway and needs to be abandoned. They might need to let go of misunderstood or selfish concepts of God or what he actually asks of us...
We also have examples from the Bible of people who fell away from their faith at one time and came back to it later on because people persisted with them. The gospel book of Mark is written by John Mark, who initially travelled with both Barnabas and Paul. As John Mark deserted them on a previous occasion, Paul refused to travel with John Mark and Paul parted company with his former mentor Barnabas over this issue. Barnabas persisted with John Mark and many years later Paul praised John Mark for his helpfulness in Paul's own ministry.
Also for me, there are people I've journeyed with that will no longer identify themselves as 'Christian', but I think in terms of the foundation built into them, they are doing mighty works in helping others experience the kingdom of God around them. I don't consider those people lost. They know God is real for me, and still involve me in their lives and some of their life thinking and decisions.
I don't think our job is to always be keeping score of who's in or out... but helping others see they should be looking to Jesus for the big (and small) issues of their lives."
posted by Andrew Chua @ 4:27 PM
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