Indwelling Discipleship– Back to the Future : Part
3.
Murray Brown
In Part 1 I focused on the theological basis of an approach
to discipleship which I called Indwelling Discipleship. In
Part 2 I looked at some of the practical implications for
the way we do discipleship under an Indwelling Model. In this
final part I’d like to examine programming and how it
needs to be ordered to incorporate an indwelling emphasis.
In doing so, I will look at the five key practices of the
church. These five practices are based on Acts 2:42, 47 and
are teaching, fellowship, worship, prayer and mission.
42 They
joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to
the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the
Lord’s Supper and in prayer,
47 all the while praising God and enjoying
the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added
to their group those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42, 47)
Teaching
Indwelling discipleship has significant implications for
the way we have young people engage with scripture. An education
system based on the knowledge, understanding and retention
of information has adversely affected the way in which we
approach scripture and the way we present it to young people.
Too often, by using terms such as “Bible study”
we present it as a book of information which young people
need to know, understand and retain.
While advocating that young people do need this perspective,
when this is our primary emphasis young people can lose sight
of the fact that there is a transcendent, affective and relational
aspect to scripture. In other words God, who is over and above
all (transcendent), desires to reveal himself to us and to
dialogue with us individually (relational) through the pages
of scripture; touching not only our mind but our emotions
(affective). Or, to simplify things to make a point, the Bible
should be presented primarily as a personal letter –
not an academic textbook.
Secondly, the Bible must be presented as God’s inspired
and immutable word – one that reveals His mind on certain
matters and cannot be altered so that it can be used as a
means whereby more subjective impressions of His voice can
be weighed.
Finally, the Bible must be taught as truth that demands action.
Young people sit in classrooms all week and are bombarded
by information which they then sift through a series of questions:
Is this important? Do I need to know this? Do I understand
this? For much of what is taught in high school there is no
moral, behavioural or ethical imperative. It is no wonder
therefore that when they come to our churches and youth groups
their focus is on knowledge, understanding and retention of
what is taught. Instead they need to have the Bible presented
to them as truth that demands action. They need to come to
see that through the word (the Bible), the Word (Jesus) desires
to not only meet them, but to reveal to them the personal
implications of what they have been learning and how it might
be applied. Our role as leaders is to facilitate this process
and to provide loving follow up and accountability as they
seek to be obedient to what Jesus, through the indwelling
Spirit, has revealed.
Fellowship
There is a common perception in youth ministry today that
young people need and want in depth relationships with others.
While there is truth in this, our attempts at “building
community” too often fail because we lack an appreciation
of the dynamics of Christian community. Our aim is to bring
together a diverse group of young people and to exhort them
to love each other because in doing so they are following
the example of Jesus. Yet in reality this sense of community
can be profoundly difficult to achieve even among Christian
young people who developmentally are often self absorbed and
desire community only so far as it meets their own personal
needs.
An indwelling approach to discipleship comes at this issue
of community from a quite different angle. It recognises the
fact that because Christ already dwells in those of us who
have faith in Him, we must make our primary focus to corporately
fellowship with Him, then we will find ourselves growing closer
together and exhibiting true unconditional love between each
other.
With this understanding, fellowship in youth ministry is
more than having fun together. It is even more than dividing
into small groups and sharing more intimately about our lives.
Such a dynamic is no different than a non church support group.
What is needed is a conscious awareness of the presence of
Christ in our midst as the Head of the church and the unity
we share in Him through His suffering, death and resurrection.
Through times of ministry and prayer this indwelling Christ
brings to the group insights, encouragement and correction
that draw each person deeper into fellowship with Him and
in the process deeper into fellowship with each other.
In other words, our primary focus in fellowship is not how
to get the young people to collectively draw closer to each
other, but how to get them to collectively draw closer to
Christ.
Worship
An indwelling approach to discipleship first emphasises the
immanence of God in worship. Rather than being “out
there” and someone we should “reach out for”,
Christ dwells at the very core of our being. We worship with
an awareness that He is as close to us as can be even if we
do not “feel” it. Rather then a sense of Christ’s
presence being the goal of our worship – something we
strive for, it is something we accept as theological fact
and believe by faith. Awareness at an affective level is not
something we can “work up”. That is best labelled
false emotionalism or self-hype. Instead it is something God
initiated. On occasions He makes this sense of His presence
clear and unmistakable. At other times it is absent. But through
it all we enjoy His presence within us by faith.
A second emphasis in worship under an indwelling approach
to discipleship is to move away from worship that is “led”
to worship that is “facilitated”. If worship is
the response of the human spirit to the presence of a transcendent
God, then the human spirit must be accorded some freedom to
enjoy and experience Him with a minimum of direction. True,
corporate worship requires some degree of order and togetherness,
or chaos and individualism will ensue, so the key is to walk
a fine line in creating worship experiences and sacred spaces
in which young people are free to worship both corporately
as individuals and individually together.
In practice this might mean in a “worship mosh-pit”,
in the stillness of contemplative prayer or in the reverent
exploration of faith through walking a labyrinth. The medium
is not the issue. What is important is that worship is ‘open-ended”
and captivates young people through exposing them to the mystery
of God in a way that inspires awe and worship. Through worship
they don’t just sing a few familiar songs in a musical
style to suit. They are transported beyond the secular and
mundane into an “other worldly” awareness –
not where they reach for God but where they become aware of
a God who has already reached for them and invites a response.
Prayer
Those principles that affect fellowship and worship also
hold true for prayer, namely that prayer is drawing close
in a two way dialogue to a God who indwells us. Prayer is
not petitioning a distant parent to change His mind over something
which must seem trivial to him but is important to us. Prayer
is a dialogue with the One who fills the very centre of our
being - that most intimate part of who we are.
At times our efforts at teaching young people “how
to pray” actually have the opposite effect than what
we desire. Imagine being taught “how to talk to your
best friend”. All the well meaning and insightful rules
and advice we might give, ultimately lead either to a somewhat
sterile and forced process of communication, or of being totally
overwhelmed and confused. Instead try to stick with broad
guidelines and principles and encourage young people to simply
enjoy a “conversation with God”, trusting in Him
to develop in them a love and desire for prayer.
In summary, when it comes to prayer we instill in young people
the understanding that it is a conversation with a friend;
it is not something to be carefully crafted but something
to be experienced and enjoyed.
Mission
Mission is the practical outworking of the other four practices.
Where these practices are present in a ministry and are enacted
in a way reflective of the principles of indwelling discipleship
outlined in these articles, then we won’t have to encourage
young people to be engaged in mission; it will simply be the
natural outpouring of the life of Christ within.
That’s not to say we as youth leaders should just “leave
it to happen”. While young people will look for ways
to evangelise and serve their neighbour when filled with an
awareness of the indwelling Christ, there is also a place
for us to be engaged in mission corporately. In doing so there
is an important emphasis that must remain paramount.
It is that mission is not primarily about us doing something
for God or us doing something for others. It is about Christ
in us reaching out to those whom He made in His image. Therefore
the heart of Christian mission is incarnational and relational
– it is not dropping in to do good; like some masked
superhero and then disappearing off to save the next community.
It is being where people are – being in their world,
and ministering in Jesus’ name to those made in God’s
image. Without a deep awareness of the indwelling Christ it
is an emphasis all too easily lost particularly in a culture
skewed toward self gratification and amongst a people who
developmentally have a tendency toward self absorption.
In Conclusion
An indwelling approach to discipleship is not some new technique
to be integrated into our youth ministry programme. It is
a whole mind shift that needs to take place, affecting the
way we view discipleship and the way we programme within our
ministry. Before us is the daunting task of discipling a generation
steeped in postmodern thought where truth is relative and
mystery is not something to be solved but something to be
experienced. It is a generation struggling to not only answer
the question, “Who am I?”, but “Why am I?”
It is also a generation relationally starving and individualistically
obsessed. What they need is to have an invasive experience
of God through which they then cultivate an awareness of His
practical presence in their lives. Will our discipleship methods
and our youth ministry programmes facilitate this? Or will
they stunt, or worse, hinder this awareness, producing disciples
who simply don’t “know” their Master?
- Murray Brown is the Director of YouthTRAIN
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