Missional Discipleship

January 27, 2012

At Heartland Worship Center, where I serve as one of the pastors, we believe that biblical discipleship = knowledge + mission. Knowledge without mission leaves us “puffed up” and filled with useless pride and information. Mission without knowledge leaves us superficial and reduces us to a charitable organization that misses eternal significance by merely alleviating some temporary pain (which is a good thing in itself but it misses the eternal purpose of the church). Therefore, those who are being discipled into the imitation of Jesus and into living by the logos of His cross will have both. Discipleship = Knowledge + Mission.

The following quote is so excellent that I had to send it to you. It comes from the book “The Faith of Leap” by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (my favorite book of theirs is without a doubt “Re-Jesus”). Not only does this blurb address the crisis of a lack of missional urgency, but it also explains why a crisis of knowledge exists even in the midst of so much biblical teaching. Here it is:

“People resist mission because they are under-disciplined, but they are also under-disciplined because of the absence of any missional challenge. We seriously question whether Christians today need more teaching and training before being sent into mission. The memberships of most of our churches are full to bursting with Bible teaching. The reason it seems they haven’t retained much of it is because they have never had to utilize it in a misisonal context. We say, take people into mission, confront them with the risk of godly service, and we guarantee they will be desperate for a biblical perspective on life.” (pg.
139)