Last week I was on a teleseminar conference call with Eric Bryant of Mosaic in Los Angeles and Alan Hirsch, missional guru and author of many books including The Forgotten Ways.
Here were a few highlights from the conversation...
Alan mentioned that there is a radical difference between traditional discipleship and missional discipleship.Traditional discipleship is done in the context of a church, usually based around personal morality/personal holiness. But we've missed the other half - that of missional discipleship - where we’re concerned about where we're hanging out and who we are hanging out with, what we’re doing for the poor - where we're concerned about being Jesus out in the world.
He mentioned that oftentimes we put way too much emphasis on personal morality and we’ve not emphasized where we stand. Great line: "What you see depends upon where you stand."
Another marker of missional discipleship is a mindset that says its not just about stopping doing things, its about starting new rhythms as well.
Then he asked this great question: What cultural idols tend to disciple us more than Jesus?
That question deserves about a week of my attention.
JR, I like the "starting" mentality (vs. "stopping") mentality; its like we are breeding a generation of victims (relying on grace for salvation but to change our lives); we are new creations (or are we?). The OT is a fascinating place to get a look at idols; e.g. Ezekiel digging thru the wall to see all the hidden idols of God's people (taken from other nations). Q: What do each represent? DougG
Posted by: DougG | January 31, 2009 at 12:25 PM