Many students that I interact with on a daily basis have a great desire to truly be and make disciples. I am so thankful to the Lord for placing them in my life and giving them to the Church. Their enthusiasm is contagious and their zeal is encouraging. But I can also see an underlying attitude toward discipleship that keeps them from truly growing as disciple-makers, especially in the world we live in today.
This unconscious perspective has a few particular points of emphasis:
* Bigger is better
* Structure supersedes setting
* Hangout over holiness
These points, which I’ll expound on below, seem to be less consciously understood than culturally ingrained. Many of our students that have been raised in the Evangelical world hold a particular view of spiritual success that is more caught than taught.
This is what I mean: Most Christians wouldn’t necessarily say that more numbers mean a more biblically-faithful ministry, but we tend to be innately drawn to that conclusion. Many wouldn’t say that you have to have a church/ministry building in order to make disciples, but we tend to subconsciously think that as well. And many Christians wouldn’t say spiritual transformation is less important than loving the lost, but our lives don’t always reflect that. The culture of discipleship stemming from many decades of evangelical life has innately formed the practices and understanding of disciple-making in our current generation of college students.
How do we combat this? When I thought about how these subtle mindsets have been manifesting within our own culture of discipleship on the college campus, I sought to steer our minds back to a biblical standard of faithfulness in discipleship. We have to first acknowledge these functional attitudes we subconsciously hold, then counter them with the biblical attitudes God calls us to hold.
Point #1: Bigger is Better
Students, and many of us, can view success in ministry merely in terms of numbers: more people, more events, more money, more this, more that, etc. etc. But Scripture reveals that God is much more concerned with the small things and our faithfulness in them. Jesus was far more interested in the growth and development of His disciples than having a large following.
In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Talents. The Kingdom of God is referenced as a man entrusting his servants with his property. This man gives these servants varying degrees of ‘talents’, or money to invest for him. Two of the men invest well, and one invests poorly. Even though each servant was given different amounts (5 talents, 2 talents, 1 talent), the master expected each one to faithfully invest the talent they had received, regardless of size. This aspect of the Kingdom of God shows us that God truly desires us to be faithful with the things He has entrusted to us, no matter how big or small.
This is what we need to remember in light of making disciples. God calls us to be faithful in the smallest of things (Matthew 25:21) and to entrust Him with the growth (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). Having a big ministry doesn’t necessarily mean you’re biblically faithful. I could point to plenty of popular examples of that. Being biblically faithful means that you are rightly stewarding the people in your life and the work God has entrusted to you in accordance with God’s Word.
“Being biblically faithful means that you are rightly stewarding the people in your life and the work God has entrusted you in accordance with God’s Word.”
Reese Hammond
This looks different for different people, just as the parable of the talents shows us. The pastor/elder is called to be faithful in his sphere of responsibility just as the mother who is raising her children is called to be faithful in hers. We serve the Lord Jesus; we stand before Him alone to give an account for our faithfulness to His Word in the context of our lives (Romans 14:12). This is the metric that we need to realign our ministry lives with.
Point #2: Structure Supersedes Setting
This subconscious belief means that we see structure, such as a building, discipleship group, or leader as the necessary requirement for them to make disciples. We mistakenly think that making a disciple means bringing someone to the worship gathering, to our discipleship group, or to our pastor rather than understanding that we are all called to make disciples wherever we are.
This can be harmful in the college ministry context, but not for the reason you might think. The college ministry can end up taking on the same form and function of a local church. The church has a building, so does the college ministry. The church has Bible studies, so does the college ministry. The church has a weekly gathering and worship, so does the college ministry. With these common similarities between their church experience and college ministry, students can see no functional difference between the two, and that’s the hidden danger.
It’s crucial that both the local church and her parachurch ministries, such as college ministries, constantly communicate that they are NOT the same. This will not only alleviate the ‘Structure Supersedes Setting’ attitude, but it will also help students see that the local church is the foundation from which the college ministry is built. This will also help students see that the training and equipping in making disciples is to be brought back to the local church gathering and invested back into the Body.
Extinguishing the above attitude will help every individual believer see that they have an individual role and responsibility to make disciples wherever they are: school, work, hobbies, family, friends, etc. When we can develop student disciple-makers that understand their role in the parachurch ministry as a means to build up the church locally, we can then see both the spiritual health and growth that we desire.
Point #3: Hangout over Holiness
This last point is every believer’s greatest temptation when it comes to making disciples. It is for me and, I believe, at some level, yours as well. This attitude often stems from thinking that merely being around lost people or other believers (the “doing life together” terminology) is biblical disciple-making. Most of the time this is not the case.
The temptation is to think that if I’m just around them, then they’ll see my life and what I do, and then, over time, they’ll be saved. This is a half-truth. It is true that our lives are to reflect to an unbelieving world the goodness and grace of Jesus. However, people must also hear the good news (Romans 10:17). Now, here’s where it hurts, myself included: If our lives are to impact others, our lives must reflect God’s goodness and grace through our holiness (1 Peter 1:15, 1 John 2, 2 Timothy 1:9).
Why do I say this is where it hurts? Because many people who claim to follow Jesus take very little stock in pursuing holiness. They look like the world, talk like the world, and act like the world. It is this lack of holiness that actually harms the gospel because it communicates that there doesn’t actually have to be a true life-change in order to follow Jesus. There is no cross to carry, there is no putting to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13), and there is no becoming like Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:3). We desire so much to please the world in order to win it that we will conform to its image in order to do so. But the Scriptures tell us the opposite (James 4:4, Romans 12:2).
We forget that being faithful in the little things means that we must trust and believe God’s will and means for reaching the world. It is the will of God that He uses us (the means) to be a set-apart people that proclaims the gospel of grace to a lost and dying world. We must live loving, holy lives that seek to impart the gospel at every turn with every person.
"It is the will of God that He uses us to be a set-apart people that proclaims the gospel of grace to a lost and dying world." -@ReeseHammond #collegiatedisciplemaker 3 Commonly Held (but Mistaken) Beliefs About Discipleship Click To TweetFighting for Faithfulness
The above three attitudes show just how easy it is to stray from a right perspective of faithfulness to God and disciple-making success. God wants us to be faithful in the little things. He wants us to live the Great Commission every day in every place. And He wants us to pursue Him in holiness in order to win the world. As the Church advances the gospel, we must strive to constantly realign ourselves with the gospel-centered attitudes that fight for biblical faithfulness in all areas of our lives.
