REAL Men RoCK: How a Fun Day Brought Freedom

I recently had the opportunity to spend a Saturday going from flea market to flea market with my wife, Kat. It is something we enjoy doing together. One of the things Kat looks for is plates or pictures with carrots and me I like to purchase books. Imagine a slow reader like me that likes finding books to read. I became interested in books while living with a friend, Dick Mann, who rescued me when I was homeless.

On this Saturday I found several books to add to my library, "Stories of Jesus" by Eugene Peterson, "The Treasure Principle" by Randy Alcorn, "He Spoke to Them in Parables" by Harold Bosley and "The Great Omission" by Dallas Willard. This post is based on thoughts triggered by things I have read in "The Great Omission".

I hope this post will challenge how you view your relationship to the world, the body of Christ and to Jesus. I would probably be correct by saying that most Christian identify themselves by the brand of Christianity they belong to such as Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, or even movements like Vineyard, New Life, etc. If you are honest with yourself you will admit as I have had to that I identify with belonging to a group more than maybe I should.

Those groups in themselves are not a bad thing to belong to because they do bring us into a community of believers. The problem often comes when we approach people who do not belong to a church or who do not believe that Jesus is who He said He was or who do not believe He is the way to salvation. The approach we often take is we need to convert them to Christ, we need to get them to belong to our particular brand of church or we feel we must draw them to God. When we approach the non-churched or the lost in this way we usually get all out of whack and even stressed because they may reject our brand of Christianity.

Dallas Willard puts it this way on page 5 of "The Great Omission": "But in place of Christ's plan, historical drift has substituted "Make converts (to a particular 'faith and practice') and baptize them into church membership."

In "The Great Omission" I found the key to evangelism that is setting me on the road to freedom from that attitude. It is found in Matthew 28: 18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."

For me it freeing to know that it is not my job to convert people or to draw them to God. My job is to be a witness of the Grace and Mercy of God and invest in others by helping them to become disciples of Jesus Christ. By making a person a disciple of Jesus all pressure is taken off of me and all I have to do is share what God has done through me becoming a disciple of Jesus. It is not about me or a denomination, it is all about Jesus and what He taught.

You might be asking what does being a disciple of Jesus Christ mean? I think this is an area that the church organization has dropped the ball. I know from my experience in the church no one ever came along side of me to help me become a disciple of Jesus Christ. The definition of Disciple is "A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other wise figure." Can you see where the church has gotten off track by making people followers of a certain brand of Christianity instead of making people followers of Jesus?

I want to recommend the following to you to help you understand how to become a disciple of Jesus. I will do three posts in the coming days covering the three sides to the triangle.

The Golden Triangle of Spiritual Growth