From "iPad" To "iDisciple"

The other day I went to my son’s “Student Led Interview” to see how he was doing in school. They used to call these things “Parent Teacher Interviews.” You remember those days don’t you? When the parents and the teacher got together and talked about your progress. Apparently this former way of doing things was all wrong as students may have felt “bullied” so now we have students there to defend themselves. Heh…The old way seemed to work but who am I to question these new psychological paradigms.

So, I found out in this “student-led interview” that my son was struggling in some area of school. We were shocked because we had never heard this before but even more shocked when the teacher turned to my son right there and asked him for a possible solution! He sat there drawing a blank. You might as well have asked him to solve an advanced math problem. He had no clue - because he is six years old! I find it laughable that he was supposed to solve this problem. That is why he is in school, because he needs teachers to teach him! How can he solve a problem if he has never encountered it before?

Here is the thing; I fear that this mentality maybe creeping into the church when it comes to discipleship as well. There is a line of thinking that attempts to “customize ones experience with God.” The idea is to ask a new Christian what they would like to see happen in their spiritual life much like a trainer would ask someone what they want to accomplish with their gym membership. The disciple then plans their own course, determines their own outcomes and goes about to fulfill their own intentions. Great idea, but not biblical and could actually stunt their spiritual growth.

My experience is that most Christians struggle to understand what a relationship with God is supposed to look like. That is not a put-down, just a reality.

There is a dangerous line of thinking creeping up in the church that places the individual in charge of their own spiritual development and worse, their own measuring rod of spiritual success. If I think I am growing than I am - right? Perhaps I need someone to speak into my life and tell me that I am focused on the wrong things or my theology is way off base. But as long as we make the individual the sole determiner of spiritual development then they determine if they are growing or not. The whole “iPray” and “iFaith” rip off from culture doesn’t help matters either. What is next?- The “iDisciple” program that is all about you?

Don’t get me wrong, “iPads” are great and I will get one soon. But, when using a friend’s recently, I did get the sense that the world is customized and formed all around me the individual rather than having something that I need to adapt to. What if discipleship is having to adapt my thinking and way of life to something transcendent and almighty? We have all heard the joke about the boy who shoots arrows at the barn wall and then goes and paints targets around them. By doing this he shoots a “bulls-eye” every time. Perhaps letting people customize their own discipleship sets them up for a similar fate.

The most spiritually forming times of my life were when someone rebuked me or showed me something about God that I had never known or seen before. It was times that I was pushed to read something that I might not have chosen naturally, or the times I begrudgingly went on a service project only to find my life by losing it. How does an individual’s plan allow for that? Perhaps, we need to somehow allow for the individual to be part of the process but not in charge of the process.

What if we saw spiritual formation and discipleship as a submission? What if we saw it as trusting someone to tell me the things I need to know and not presuming that I already know them? Paul unashamedly and repeatedly came out in is letters and said, “Follow my example.” Or “Put into practice what you saw me do.” Even though our postmodern North American minds are offended by this perceived arrogance, this modeling and mentorship is the biblical way. What would it do to your faith this week to say, “follow my example?” Or better yet, what would it do in the community of faith to see these mentoring relationships all throughout?

I don’t know about you but, I need someone older, wiser and more spiritually mature than me to say like the Apostle Paul, “Follow my example.” So what about you, are you plotting your own course spiritually or are you letting others more mature speak into your life?