I am feeling very challenged today by the low bar of discipleship set by many churches in America. I have had to work through some anger in this area but as I come out on the other side I must admit that I simply don’t get it. Everything in our lives requires commitment. Getting married should be a life time commitment, having children the same – life time, buying a house is on average 30 years of a commitment, heck even a car is on average 5 years. But we claim to believe in this God who sends his only Son to model the Christian life for us and end that perfect life with the ultimate sacrifice of death on a cross and commitment is just too much to ask!?? What?!
I’m sorry if this offends any of you but it’s irritating at my core. For the past 7 years I have witnessed continued lowering of the bar of discipleship. Have we ever thought that those really watching people who claim the name of Christ may give a little more credit to the ones who are TOTALLY committed? Listen folks the luke warm people get spewed in the end. (Revelation 3:15) It would be better for you to believe nothing or to live totally sold out. But this middle crap is just that- vomit! It is not the church that “requires” commitment, it is life of Christ. It is Christ himself who has showed us how to live and asks us to walk in his footsteps. It is God who desires our life of worship. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit and our ABSOLUTE surrender that we can live the life that God desires.
So I come back to this same question, why is it that when the church finally grows some courage to ask for commitment and receives less than desirable feedback do we retreat in fear? Did you ever think that not everyone approved of Jesus’ messages? That people found His calling to a life of discipleship too difficult? It is not and never will be okay with God to live this life on a fence. Sunday mornings you may show up in “worship” and live the rest of the week however you want. I believe that if we as followers of Christ were a little more willing to take the plunge, get both feet out of the boat, and live a totally sold out life people might just be attracted to Jesus Christ, and they might just want to know what it is about you! But people who claim to follow one thing and live some thing totally different, well the world sees enough of that.
Now don’t get me wrong, we will all fail at times, I’m not challenging those who are sincerely trying to live as an authentic follower of Christ. We will never be perfect. BUT, there’s a huge difference between striving to follow Christ and claiming to believe one thing but living in the total opposite direction.
I guess I believe if you set a high bar, people will rise, and if you set a low one, they will just get by. I believe in the practice of spiritual disciplines in order to stay connected to Christ such as, prayer, reading scriptures, worship, acts of mercy, silence and solitude. How exactly do you live the “Christian life” without practicing at least some of these?
Maybe for me it’s both and – commitment and spiritual disciplines. You know I started this group spiritual direction process over the summer, it’s called Restoring Eve and I expect it to be a phenomenal journey. But in order to participate you MUST commit to be there EVERY week AND attend TWO retreats! I didn’t realize just how important these commitments were until I had a potential conflict with the first retreat, and I had to make a decision to solve my conflict or simply NOT participate in the process at all. So, I chose to solve the conflict because I believe in the ability for this time to be one of the most transformational experiences I have ever had.
What if people saw the church in that same way? An opportunity for real life transformation? Then would it really be too much to ask for a real commitment?
