Setting a high bar of discipleship
By Ben Spalink
Do we want church to be easy or hard? Maybe a better question is do we want a church that accepts us as we are, or do we want a church that is going to push us, challenge us, and call us to repent? I know for myself, I want my church involvement to be transformative. I want to be challenged. I would hope that wherever I was attending, I was led to greater levels of faithfulness, joy and pursuit of Christ. I’m sure most of you feel the same way.
As a pastor, I have a fear that if we make things too difficult, people will be put off. If we challenge people too much, folks might be offended. I wonder why pastors and ministry people feel this way. Why do we have a fear of offending people or pushing too hard? My guess is that it’s a combination of not wanting to lose people and also a pastoral sensitivity. Following Christ is hard, and we want to be mindful that everyone comes to Jesus at a separate pace. Repentance is ongoing, and we can’t expect people to change every aspect of their lives overnight. I guess whether that makes church leaders overly aggressive or overly accommodating is dependent on the situation and your perspective.
I’m always impressed with Jesus in this regard. He set a low bar for entrance into his kingdom but set an extremely high bar for discipleship. When it came to following Jesus, anybody was welcome: sinners, tax-collectors, zealots, Pharisees, men and women. Jesus even said that violent people were taking the kingdom by force (Matthew 11:12). Jesus welcomed all without discrimination but challenged his followers to an extremely high level of discipleship. He didn’t worry that a high bar would offend people. He expected that many would not be able to accept his word but that his true disciples would remain faithful (John 6:67). He said that his path was akin to cross-bearing (Matthew 16:24) and that his lowly followers must have a righteousness that exceeded that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). Jesus didn’t make discipleship easy.
But Jesus didn’t just challenge his disciples. He also loved them. Some leaders have pushed us hard, but they didn’t always do so for noble purposes. We can safely assume that if Jesus pushed or offended his disciples by setting high expectations for them, it was out of a desire to prepare them for the challenges of the world and to ready them to participate in his kingdom. Why does God challenge us and even at times offend us? It is not to drive us away but to break us down so that he can rebuild us. The Father disciplines us because he loves us (Revelations 3:19, Hebrews 12:6).
In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Cheap grace, he writes, is the Gospel without discipleship. It’s the open welcome without the hard call to repentance. It’s a free ticket into the kingdom without the corresponding all-out pursuit of holiness. Cheap grace, or easy church, doesn’t produce transformed disciples.
So how does this apply to local ministry in today’s church? Personally, I think we need different kinds of environments at church. We need some that are easy, open and welcoming to show that all are welcome. This is what Sunday morning is - everyone can come. But, we also need hard environments. We need environments that require commitment, that are personally and spiritually challenging, and that push us out of our comfort zones. This can be joining an accountability group or a Grace Group, serving in children’s worship, or becoming an elder. Much is required. And when it comes to the church’s message, I think we need to do what Jesus did - we need to communicate that grace is wide (extending to all), but that it’s also deep (calling all to profound change). By doing ministry in Jesus’ way, we can be a church community that is welcoming and is a truly transformative place to be.