Why Disciple-Making?

Why Disciple-Making is the first question exploring the Disciple-Making process using [7] The Seven Questions Frame of the Semantic Ontology Framework. It explores the Prime of Discipleship and Disciple-Making: it’s purpose, center, and coherence. Without knowing the purpose of an endeavor, it is impossible to know whether the endeavor is proceeding on course or accomplishing what it is meant to.

Why do you want to make disciples?

Objective: To Get the DM to consider what their purpose or Prime is in Disciple-Making and what may be the Prime in the organizations and institutions they inhabit?

Clarity about one’s purpose in Disciple-Making is essential. You can do it for various reasons, and your reason will define and control the process. It will determine the results. It will tell you whether you’re succeeding or failing in the process. What is your reason?

[Answer this in a blog or discuss in group?]

In order for the DM to discover their purpose and that of their org, they need to do Prime-finding. Because the purpose (Prime) of a system is beyond (bigger than) the system — for example, part of the Meta-narrative — it is difficult to see from within the system.¹ Therefore, Prime-finding needs to be done, and one key way of doing it is using [3] David’s Bow or a derivative. In this case, [3] The Four Soils and [3] The Four Soils for Organizations.

[purpose revealed in action]

[important to be clear. Deconstruction of modern VS. Focus and measurement.]

Why did Jesus make disciples?

There is one over-arching reason behind Jesus’ disciple-making — which extends to our own. Let’s start with Jesus most famous command about making disciples, found in the Great Commission:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 ESV

It’s extremely important to note that there is a “therefore” embedded in the command “Go therefore and make disciples.” That means that the command is the implication of something: that there is something that comes before it that requires Disciple-Making as the response. Disciple-making is the implication of “all authority in heaven and on earth” being given to Jesus. Since he has all authority, we make disciples of all the nations.

This is essential. We can attempt to make disciples to advance the church as an organization or the cultural project of Christendom. We may wish we could make disciples to affirm the relevance of our faith or religious ideas. But neither of these things are the core purpose from which the Great Commission proceeds. It comes out of the Kingdom of God centered in Jesus — the one in whom all authority in heaven and on earth meets.

If disciple-making proceeds from the authority of Jesus, then it is a continuation of the purpose of his ministry. Consider the meaning of these three events where Jesus stated his purpose:

All three statements of Jesus have these two things in common: (1) they all involve going — activity moving into some new area or layer of society — and (2) they all involve the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

If we wish to disciple because we love the character, comfort, and affirmation of our church or organization and we want others to participate or to contribute to it and maintain it, we miss the Jesus who was willing to forgo swelling the crowds in Capernaum with more deliverance and healings. He left so he could spread the message of the Kingdom elsewhere. Because the Kingdom of God is at hand, true disciple-making will always require us to continually go and find those who haven’t yet heard.

If we wish to disciple by building a program to increase the satisfaction, sanctification, or involvement of “decent Christian folk” or church members who already feel comfortable in their knowledge of God, we will miss the Jesus who wasn’t interested in extending the invitation to the “good people”. Instead, he dedicated himself to making space (mercy) for those without access to the knowledge of God. According to Jesus reference to Hosea, this is because God is not really interested in the increase of religious services and rituals, especially those performed by people who think they already have the mind of God in all matters.³

If we wish to disciple because we want our ideas or our institutions to be seen as relevant, or because we are concerned with the general acceptance of Christendom culture in the general populace, or because we judge our contemporaries as lacking morals or political wisdom, we will miss the Jesus who knew that the Kingdom of God is not compatible with the idol-powered systems of humanity and the decaying world we have created.⁴ The inevitable outcome of the clash of these two Kingdoms is conflict and violence, not performed by his followers, but against them.⁵ Though we shouldn’t expect to be accepted, we should know Jesus has already won the conflict and overcome the world (John 16:33).

Disciple-Making, like all the ministry of Jesus, flows out of his Kingdom authority. He is the Alpha and Omega, the original author of all reality and the authority that will bring all reality to its consummation (Rev 22:13). Discipleship is aligned to the coming of this Kingdom in the here-and-now by those chosen to be signs.⁶ Therefore, making a disciple involves expanding the rule of Jesus over another human life, and through that life to everything they are and all they touch. This is an offensive idea from a purely human perspective because we have always believed we are qualified to rule ourselves. Its is difficult because we react viscerally against extending a system of control over others, even if its origin is from God, unless that system is justified by its direct and complete benefit to us. This is because we fear control ourselves and other people’s potential resentment. It is practically challenging because only a significant investment of time and energy will yield a disciple who will allow Jesus to overcome the limitations of their humanity so they can manifest his Kingdom instead of their own. Given this offense, difficulty, and challenge of disciple-making, we will only be successful if we are motivated from and empowered by Jesus and his Kingdom.

What is the Kingdom of God and why is it good?

The root of this ethical issue is the question: what is a good authority? The current generations resist authorities that make claims of superiority and then threaten disaster if they aren’t listened to exclusively.

Part of the issue here is that the claim to superiority and exclusivity were acceptable and normative for per-modern royalist societies in the Feudal-Agrarian Hero VS complex. When the Republic-Industrial Citizen VS system led revolutions against monarchies, they were reacting against the arbitrary, unpredictable, and inconsistent nature of these types of claims. So, while the Bible, written in a feudal age, may contain superiority-exclusivity statements, they must be used with caution and contextualized by Christians in any modern or post-modern context. If people see first the effectiveness of the Gospel from experience, they can hear the superiority-exclusivity statements with different ears than the person who is presented with those statements before they experience the Gospel and are told they must accept them to qualify for entrance into any experience.

That’s why ideological leaders — like clergy, politicians, and, to some extend, corporate leaders — have largely fallen out of credibility. That doesn’t mean they won’t listen to any leaders; just they find technical leaders — like doctors, techies, and scientists — to be more credible because they demonstrate they know how to do something. [Add all the stats from Squared for support.]

The project of God. Revelation of himself (Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the Age). Jesus. Incarnation.

Authority and justice -> if their is an authority, and also separate autonomous agents, the only ethical expansion of authority is perfect becoming together (otherwise the authority violates the identity and agency of the other agents). [holonic hour-glass vs other two]

Our Response: Immersion into the Oneness and All-ness of God [PRIME].

Shema: Holarchy to Tricotomy.

Answered in the 3Ls: Lordship (from Jesus), Likeness (of Jesus), and Life-on-Life (with Jesus).

1. For the most part, the Prime is assumed until the system drifts off center to the point of alarm.
2. The reference Jesus quotes is Hosea 6:6, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” The Pharisees would have been familiar with the full quote and seen that Jesus was saying he was a physician connecting those who do not know God to God (the Pharisees called sinners people who don’t know God).
3. Core to the Gospel is the idea of repentance — the change of heart and mind. If God’s ways are higher than human ways (Is 55:9), then every human must become a life-long-learner in pursuit of repentance — the continual transformation of our own limited perspective into the infinite perspective of God. In this way, those already religious can be discipled if they humble themselves in pursuit of God’s mind alongside anyone on the same quest — even “sinners”.
4. The problem, in Biblical terms, is the human world, built on our weakness and the power of idols and Satan and his demons, stands against the universe as God made it. A contemporary analog of this would be climate change, where humans have attempted to transcend the limitations of natural systems (the Kingdom of God) through the uncontrolled burning fossil fuels (idolatry), and are now unable to escape their dependence on oil, their own greed, and the dramatic environmental consequences.
5. See Jesus before Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” There Jesus makes clear that his Kingdom is not part of the human system, therefore it doesn’t resort to violence. That doesn’t mean it isn’t involved in struggle, just that violence is part of the worldly system and Jesus is fighting on a whole different level through the power of truth and love.
6. Jesus occasionally called his disciples his children. In Hebrews, when Jesus completes the mission of his incarnation, he says “Here I am, and the children you have given me.” This is a quote from Isaiah 8:18 which adds: “Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.”