Yesterday, I preached on discipleship from Matthew 28:18-20 as a reminder that discipleship is the holistic mission of the local church (pulled from the words 'all', 'baptize' and 'go' - which summarize the teaching of the entire Scriptures about what it looks like to follow Jesus or to 'walk in the way of the Lord').
My main point was this - God's mission in the world is to set things right...to put broken things back together. Created in his image for his glory, that mission must become our mission as the Church. Discipleship is teaching and equipping people to join God in his mission of fixing the broken things in their world.
From an Old Testament perspective, discipleship is learning 'the way of the Lord' (ex. Deuteronomy 10:12-19) - doing righteousness and justice for the sake of the oppressed and against the oppressor. This means that in the context of our particular communities, we must do what needs to be done in a given situation ('justice') if people and circumstances are to be restored to conformity with righteousness. That might help us understand how we shape our discipleship in the suburban church - we must teach actions (there is something we must do) because there is something God intends to achieve.
From the perspective of Reformed theology and our penchant to do cognitive discipleship that struggles to connect to affections and behavior, this biblical focus on action-driven discipleship is a needed counterbalance. Theology is critically important - but it has little value apart from its connection to our mission of righteousness and justice in the world around us.
So let's be about a discipleship that weaves together doctrine, ethics and mission. God has chosen and created a community of people who live in such a way that God's purposes to bless the nations actually happens. Mission shapes what we believe about the church - we exist to put broken things together. Mission shapes what we believe about election and predestination - 'God's choosing is not an end in itself but a means to the greater end of the ingathering of the nations. Election must be missiological, not merely soteriological.' (Wright, 369).
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