Are You a Christian or a Disciple?

Another book which kicked me in the teeth this past vacation was Dallas Willard's book: The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship.

The excerpt which hurt exceptionally follows:

...If we do seek him, he will certainly find us, and then we, ever more deeply find him.  That is the blessed existence of the disciple of Jesus who continuously "grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

But just there is the problem.  Who, among Christians today, is a disciple of Jesus, in any substantive sense of the word "disciple"?  A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice--a practitioner, even if only a beginner.  The New Testament literature, which must be allowed to define our terms if we are ever to get our bearings in the Way with Christ, makes this clear.  In that context, disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth.

In contrast, the governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be "Christians" forever and never become disciples.  Not even in heaven, it seems, for who would need it there?  That is the accepted teaching now.  Check it out wherever you are.  And this (with its various consequences) is the Great Omission from the "Great Commission" in which the Great Disparity is firmly rooted...

Jesus told us explicitly what to do.  We have a manual, just like the car owner.  He told us, as disciples, to make disciples.  Not converts to Christianity, nor to some particular "faith and practice."  He did not tell us to arrange for people to "get in" or "make the cut" after they die, nor to eliminate the various brutal forms of injustice, nor to produce and maintain "successful" churches.  These are all good things, and he had something to say about all of them.  They will certainly happen if--but only if--we are (his constant apprentices) and do (make constant apprentices) what he told us to be and do.  If we just do this, it will little matter what else we do or do not do.

Dallas Willard, The Great Omission Introduction pp. xi-xii

I hope my readers will chew on those words as I did, because I found a huge nugget of truth in them.  I realized many of my own shortcomings as a pastor and would be disciple of Jesus.  I realized my own need for spiritual growth and formation--an area I had been sorely neglecting.  And I realized the disservice I had been doing in my congregation--being content to have a lot of Christians, but not willing to lead them toward discipleship.

I also know leadership begins with my own work and attitude.  I cannot force anyone to become a disciple, but I will offer opportunities.  Whether anyone will take those opportunities, I do not know.  But Willard's words helped show me the path I was missing for a time, and even though I'm sure I'll stumble off it from time to time, I hope I can head in that general direction.