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Some Christians sometimes isolate themselves while cuddling with books and famous online people, hoping to find safe, private, personal, marriage, or family transformation. Though the temptation is understandable, it’s not primarily the Bible’s way for one another sanctification. The most frequent email requests I receive from people are questions regarding specific situations in their lives. Each morning I wake up, there are emails from real people with real problems, looking for practical answers. They are not interested in what a book says.
These hurting people don’t want to hear another sermon. They’re looking for someone who will take the time to listen to them, understand them, and give them valuable biblical feedback. Even the best Christian books and well-crafted sermons cannot do what a Christian can do when sitting in front of a person, offering real answers. This kind of vision for discipleship requires work. It needs the discipler to dedicate real time to an individual. It requires patience, courage, discernment, and wisdom. It requires the struggling person to be humble, open, honest, and vulnerable.
One-to-one interaction is how Jesus built His team and followers. When you read the four gospels, you notice how Jesus rarely taught in a monologue-type format (teaching). Though He was a teacher, the Bible does not give us a lot of scenes showing Him teaching. If you pull out the Sermon on the Mount, you will not find much monologue teaching from Him (Matthew 5-7). Using monologue was not His specialty. Jesus was a dialogue guy.
He spent nearly all His time interacting with folks, showing them how to be Christlike. One of the most significant weaknesses of the modern-day church is how we’ve given discipleship to famous authors, Bible studies, podcasts, and sermons. While there is a place for media for discipling others, it should not be the primary method. The monologue discipleship model has created two adverse side effects on the church.
Side Effect #1 has led to the biblical counseling (BC) movement, especially para-church organizations like mine. The BC movement deals with real people with real problems in a practical way—similar to the way Jesus did. The church seems to be more focused on teaching. Still, when somebody has a problem, they refer the hurting person to a—so-called—professional because they don’t have the time, resources, or expertise to deal with sanctification issues. Read that sentence again. Did it sound odd to you? The church seems preoccupied with programs and ministry demands while—perhaps—assuming their people know how to counsel themselves.
Side Effect #2 is a breakdown in the community because of an isolationist mindset where people feed themselves in private. People retreat to their books, podcasts, and personal devotions to find answers to their most perplexing problems. Rather than running to the community, the temptation is to become remote, insecure, and guarded about their authentic selves. There is a distrust of the community. Confidentiality is one of the more frequent questions individuals ask me: “I don’t want anyone to know what I’m going through.” Essentially, they say, “I want you to fix me so I can go back to church.” It is as though everyone wants a private room to separate from each other until they are doing better.
You see a different picture when you read how Christ built His church or how the early churches poured themselves into each other. Read Acts 2:42-47 about the early church. See if you can “feel the community” in that passage. The people have all things in common. There is mutual sharing, caring, and communal intrusion into each other’s lives.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had a need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-47).
The early church does not have a lecturer-to-student feel. It does not have the hurting-isolationists-with-a-book feel. A sense of transparency, vulnerability, and humility bleeds through the passage. Gospel-centered people have nothing to protect and nothing to hide. They have one common goal, laid out in three parts. The goal is Jesus, and the parts are as follows:
The early Christians were in each other’s business, and what they were doing had a far different feel than the guardedness of the average Christian today. Regarding matters of the heart, today’s Christians prefer getting fixed in private, only to resurface later to do community with fellow believers. The New Testament Christian was not that insecure or image-conscious. They came just as they were, integrated with fellow strugglers, and mutually matured in a community. They were well aware of what was going on in the lives of those around them—including their thought lives.
The New Testament believers learned this gospelized living from Jesus’ leaders. The folks Jesus trained passed on what they learned to others (2 Timothy 2:2). How did the Savior do it? His primary discipleship style was living with the folks He trained. Jesus knew the buckshot, monologue approach would not get the job done. He needed to get with the people, love them, learn about them, and lead them from within their social context—discipling within the milieu.
You will not get to know a person the way you should by attending a safe and sterile Bible study or a church meeting staring at the back of a person’s head. I am not saying biblical training and studies are unnecessary or ineffective. Knowing the Bible is essential, but growing in Bible knowledge and being Christlike are different. Paul was one of the most learned students of his day. He was a Bible scholar. But poor Paul did not know how to take what he knew about the Bible and live it biblically (Acts 22:3). Somebody had to teach him.
Nicodemus was another learned Bible student who stumbled all over the new birth. He knew a lot but was unaware of how to take the Old Testament, which he had, and practicalize it into his life. He, like Paul, needed someone to teach him (John 3:1-8). The Samaritan woman was also well-trained by her culture and religion. She was a hybrid in more ways than one. Her religious training was just as deficient as Paul’s and Nick’s. She needed someone to cuddle up beside her to unpack her. Jesus did not send her to a Bible study or ask her to listen to a sermon.
Christ exegeted her on the spot—at a well. He took a real person and got into her real business by customizing the gospel for her while hanging in her social environment (John 4:7-26). Paul, Nick, and the Samaritan woman had one thing in common. They met Jesus in the milieu—in the natural social environment in which they lived. Jesus interacted with all of His counselees where they lived. His discipleship method positioned Him to be an effective discipler. He did not offer Paul, Nick, or the Samaritan woman an excellent book to read. He read them and told them what He was learning. He pulled this off because He spent time with them. He knew them.
Too many leaders meet their people at the church building or in other environments that are ministerially sterile or artificial. They listen to their problems, offer counsel, make a book recommendation, and send them on their way. It does not work well. I’m in a similar boat. When people call me, they want to bring their world into my office to converse. I’m glad they are willing to come; I’m happy to serve them in the minimal way I can help someone.
But this puts me in a dilemma because I cannot help them comprehensively. They need someone onsite in their lives to serve them, observe them, and bring discipleship care to them. Jesus spent time eating, drinking, and relaxing with His friends. He did life with those He developed. Jesus knew them inside and out. He was aware of the nuance of their lives. What He got out of them by living with them was priceless information.
The local church is the closest approximation in our culture today to what the Savior had in His day. Jesus lived in a small group, and within that small group, He divided His leadership development time differently. His calendar looked like the following:
Jesus was a methodical man on a mission. His mission had two primary parts: die for the sins of the world and get His main guys envisioned and equipped to carry the gospel message to the church. We only have to do one part of His mission, as outlined in Ephesians 4:12-14. However, in our zeal to get the gospel message out, we can be ineffective in developing our infrastructure—the local church. We provide books and Bible studies, while assuming our people are practicalizing the Bible into their lives. We don’t follow up well. A decade later, you learn a leader’s marriage is on the brink of divorce, and you’re perplexed. How did that happen?
We say, “I never saw it coming.” We were not involved in their lives. It’s a miscalculation of the doctrines of sin and sanctification, and it’s an assumption that sound preaching, good books, and ministry busyness were what they needed. Jesus did not leave sanctification solely to the preaching of the Word. The best discipleship is hands-on discipleship. We are two thousand years removed from when the Savior trained His group, and His method is still the best. Yes, we have better technology. We have excelled in theological precision regarding our beliefs through councils and creeds. We have written a dizzying amount of books and Bible study materials.
Even with all of these things, none of them can supplant building relationally, one-to-one, the way Jesus did, with another human being. The functional centrality of the gospel working practically in the lives of the local church is today’s most significant need. The way I seek to serve my church with this vision is pretty simple. There are three groups of people in my life today: our family, our church, and everyone else. I know bits and pieces, more and less, and this and that about group three. I don’t know them well and have minimal impact on their lives. Then there is my family and church. I cannot even begin to tell you what I know about them, what they know about me, and how we engage each other. Here are some examples:
The local church is a dangerous and vulnerable group of people for the glory of God. After all this interaction, we are still not as effective as we need to be. I’m not discouraged. No, not at all. It’s sanctification progress. It took the Savior three years, with fewer distractions, to get His group up to speed.
Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.
In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).