Friday, July 13, 2007
Business, Media, and Discipleship
Dan over at Cerulean Sanctum is wrting about a lack of disciple making in the church today. Any regular reader knows that I agree with Dan 100% about the lack of disciple making, but I wonder about the symptomology Dan uses in this particular post.
Or maybe, just maybe there is a deeper underlying discsipleship question. Just because society "demands" something does not mean we have to answer the demand. I mean after all, wouldn't discipleship mandate a different path? Longer commutes come from living in better homes farther out when often there are sufficient homes for less money in town. You see my point?
The underlying casue for a lack of discipleship is not a society that creates these expections, but a church that succumbs to them. Why aren't we teaching a really different path? Rather than demand discipleship be mantainable with a certain standard of living, why aren't we teaching people that discipleship comes first and we must adjust our standard of living accordingly?
Related Tags: discipleship, standard of living, society
Yet we now…It's funny, but the first scripture that ran through my mind when I read that post was
…spend more time away from home performing our jobs.
…spend record amounts of time commuting or shuttling our kids here and there.
…have more time-pressed, dual-income families than ever before.
…work harder for less money, often necessitating multiple jobs.
…have no time for social groups that help maintain the fabric of our society.
…feel more guilty than ever that we can’t mirror the perfect family that well-meaning Christians tell us we must be.
Why should any of this matter, though? Why should Christians address the underlying causes for these problems?
As someone keenly aware of the state of disciplemaking in this country, I believe it matters because all these things work to undermine the Great Commission.
1 Tim 6:1 - Let all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and {our} doctrine may not be spoken against.I did not think this because I think the people Dan is discussing are slaves, but because I think the passage says the idea of being a Christian is to be Christ's person in whatever circumstances you find yourself. Thus if being a part of American culture demands two jobs, then the idea is to learn how to be a good Christian while holding two jobs.
Or maybe, just maybe there is a deeper underlying discsipleship question. Just because society "demands" something does not mean we have to answer the demand. I mean after all, wouldn't discipleship mandate a different path? Longer commutes come from living in better homes farther out when often there are sufficient homes for less money in town. You see my point?
The underlying casue for a lack of discipleship is not a society that creates these expections, but a church that succumbs to them. Why aren't we teaching a really different path? Rather than demand discipleship be mantainable with a certain standard of living, why aren't we teaching people that discipleship comes first and we must adjust our standard of living accordingly?
Related Tags: discipleship, standard of living, society
