Developing Disciples: A 3DM Lesson About Maturing through Invitation and Challenge

I hope going forward in this journey you will return to this circle frequently to help you process what God might be trying to teach you.

Today, let’s talk about why we believe discipleship to be so important. There are more and more articles, books, and teachings that have surfaced recognizing a critical error in most churches through the past few decades. The error has been that churches have tried to keep with culture instead of keeping with scripture. America is the land of opportunities. In many regards that is a good thing. However, we in America are over stimulated. Few really take a break. We are constantly running from one thing to another. In that frenzy we have also become ultra consumers.

As opportunities and options in our lives continues to grow, businesses have worked extra hard to promote and market themselves which subsequently caused our economy to be even more consumer oriented. The American church worked to keep up with these standards that people may choose church to be one of their choices among the rest of things pulling for their time and attention. The church (in general - though not all churches) believed that in order to make the cut they needed to keep up with other industries. They felt that to be able to connect individuals with Christ they had to have better and more exciting worship, bigger buildings, better effects,

cooler estatics, and most importantly easier access and lighter demands. Churches have worked hard to give powerful no commitment experiences that match other secular tactics.

The problem that people are realizing is that most people never went deep with their faith. All they really received were good experiences and a false belief that what the church was giving them on Sunday morning was enough. Furthermore, when things got rough with their faith they would falter, because they were not deeply rooted. If a tree doesn’t have hard seasons and challenging times in its life - if all its nutrients is easy access (right on the surface) it will never dig its roots deep and therefore can easily be uprooted. With this discovery came the realization that we don’t have to keep up with culture. In fact, what we have to share is different than everything else on the market, because it is real! We don’t have to try to keep up with everyone

else. Actually, to really be successful in making and maturing disciples and to help people to find a real and authentic relationship with Christ we have to push against cultural currents. We can’t make church easy and surface level, rather we need to help people dig deep.

One of the first people to really recognize this error of the church and work towards true discipleship was Francis Chan. He wrote in his book Until Unity, “Do I give the people the kind of Church they want or can I force them to become the kind of church I saw in scripture (p. 131)?” The good news is that the two options Chan noted are not the only options. A third option is to more slowly transition the church from their cozy culture into an empowered discipleship focused culture by a calibration of invitation and challenge.

While we would like to believe we can seamlessly move the cozy culture church into the discipleship quadrant, that is unrealistic. Ultimately, wherever you are, you will have to first dip into the other quadrants before getting where you want to be. If you are in the cozy quadrant you will have to dip into the stressed quadrant and maybe even the boring quadrant to get to the discipleship quadrant as you turn up areas of challenge. Some will not like it, but that is what strengthens us. Likewise, if you are in the stressed quadrant, you will need a higher invitation. For a moment it may feel cozy after so much stress until challenge is reintroduced. But when done with careful calibration you should land in the discipling zone. We can calibrate nearly everything we do through invitation and challenge from a vision for moving the church or person towards Christ down to each individual conversation.

Let’s consider one example of Jesus using Invitation and Challenge in a simple conversation from Matthew 16:13-20.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Here Jesus intentionally engaged with the disciples and it was lightweight. Jesus wasn’t asking for a well crafted theological answer. He simply asked, what have you heard from others? Invitation is about lightweight engagement. Invitation can be an invite to coffee. It could be a brief text: “Hey how are you doing?” But it can’t stop there. It should be followed up with a challenge. Maybe not in the same conversation or outting but in the near future.

Jesus’ next question contains a group challenge asking,

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

The challenge moves people to reflecting and responding. Not just thinking but doing. Simon Peter stepped into Jesus’ challenge and responded. Jesus blessed that and was then able to go further by depicting the life challenge of Peter’s calling.

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”

Invitation & Challenge:

We invite you to follow along in this monthly article or get a hold of Pastor Kimberly or myself (Pastor J.P.) if you want to learn more.

We challenge you to begin to reflect on this concept of invitation and challenge in your personal relationships with others and even in daily conversations.

Peace and Grace,
Pastor J.P.