Are we distracted from God because we are making disciples?

The mission statement of the UMC is to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." This is the standard by which we measure all our local churches and ministries and leaders and clergy. If these things produce disciples then it is valued. There is a lot of discussion about how to define what a disciple looks like. But the overarching (and often unspoken) definition is that to make disciples means, at the very least, to make more disciples. The emphasis is really place on the quantity and not so much the quality of the disciple. 

This is not only a theological conviction but, like most theology, there are real world forces that influence our theology. And the real world force influencing this theological stance may be rooted not only in imperialism but in the face that we are a dwindling Church. We fear losing what we have, we know the Baby Boomers are beginning to die and Gen X is not large enough to replenish the numbers. We also are told that the generation that is large enough to bolster the ranks is assumed to not be interested in Church. So, the push to "make (more) disciples" is a logical position for an organization to take. 

However, the concern might be that when we are focused on making others into disciples we neglect our own discipleship. I see this a lot when there is a death in a family. Everyone is so focused on the health and wellbeing of the other family members that self-care takes a back seat if ever take up at all. Or even when there is a party, like a wedding, and the bride and groom can be so focused on making sure everyone else is taken care of that they forget to eat and enjoy their wedding day.

The point being that when we define making disciples as making others into disciples of Christ we relegate our own discipleship to the back seat. God is working in your life and desires for you to die to self and live into your true self and embrace the shadows as well as the light, but it is tricky to find time to sit in silence when you are always teaching others in Bible study. It is hard to practice Sabbath when you are always leading the worship. It is impossible to go on a pilgrimage if you are the leader.

For all the good that comes with making new disciples it can come at the cost of being distracted from what God may desire to do in our very own hearts. 

The Flatulating Church

In Leonard Sweet's new book he conveys this little story:

"a distinguished older gentleman rose rather decorously. I later found out everyone knew him as a respected medical doctor who was the head deacon in the church that hosted the event. His comment was in perfect English. When the wind blows through the church, he noted, and the church is narrow, it makes a weird sound. From his view, the narrower the church gets and the stronger the wind blows, the more the church can be heard fighting the Spirit, and the sound the church makes when it’s fighting the Spirit sounds like the church is farting. He then sat down."

In all the work that we do in the Church to define with great specificity what we believe (and what we don't), what is orthodox (and what is not), what differentiates the denominations, dividing over LGBT issues, and drawing lines of who is in and who is out - could this all just be an exercise of narrowing the Church. And as the Church narrows, the stronger the wind blows. And the stronger the wind blows the louder the, um, noise? 

Light switches and spirituality

He is 17 months old and deeply fascinated with light switches. His name is Evan and he is my youngest son and like other children, Evan is learning about the world through repetition. Performing the same action over and over. 

And over and over and over and over and over. Ad nauseum. 

Evan will walk up to me with his little arms stretched out displaying the universal signal understood by all people everywhere: "Pick me up." Then, using a series of grunts and finger signals, we walk over to the nearest light switch. With his eyes wide and big smile Evan proceeds to flip the light switch up and down each time looking for which lights turn on and which ones turn off.

This exercise brings him joy like few other activities. Which is unfortunate for my arms because I have the load carrying capacity of a table waiter on their first day. But I stand there for as long as I can to watch something beautiful in the eyes of my boy: his first spiritual practice. 

Spiritual practices are those things that humans embark on that brings a sense of wonder in the life of the practitioner. And there may be nothing more wonder-inducing to a child than pondering how it is that a switch is connected to the light. You can see that the more Evan flips the switch the greater his fascination. The greater the sense of wonder. The greater understanding that his small actions are connected to something beyond himself. The greater the awareness that he and the light are somehow intertwined. And, paradoxically, the more he practices this the more he wants to continue to practice it.

Evan is not at that stage where we adults tend to remain where if we do not understand what we are doing and how it all "works" then we will not continue to practice. On the contrary, it is the sense of not-knowing that drives Evan to practice even more. 

He may not understand electricity or currents or breakers or switches, but he is beginning to understand that there is great joy in just practicing turning the Light on.