The Disciple's Training (Part 1)

written by Will Walker

Training opportunities for “Christian living” are at an all time high. You can take a Sunday school class or get a Christian book on almost anything these days: dieting, of course, and evangelism, suffering, Bible study, prayer, leadership, and on and on. I am generally for training in all these areas in the appropriate context.

What concerns me is that people everywhere are flocking to these gods of spiritual growth, but often do not come away with a sustained fruitful lifestyle regarding their character and service and ministry to those outside the faith. Take, for example, the person who has been through Evangelism Explosion, read Contagious Christianity and The Case for Christ, and has even developed an accountability plan to share the gospel with people in her sphere of influence. This person has most likely shared her faith more than most, but why didn’t her fervor last?

My contention is that she was not transformed, but rather conformed and informed. She entered into an environment that emphasized evangelism and equipped her tactically to do it. She adapted well and met expectations. But when the accountability and momentum faded, she slacked. She still shares her faith at times, but usually because she feels guilty for not having kept it up. The same scenario could be applied to Bible study, watching pornography, serving others, wasting time, and nearly any matter of spiritual growth.

The contrast in the gospels is stark. I’ve been reading through Mark’s account, and what jumps off the page immediately is how people flocked to Jesus … people from all over the region came to Jesus, they piled up at the door where he was staying, he had to get in the boat because the crowd took over the beach, masses of hungry people followed him right through lunch and dinner, three guys tore through the roof so they could get their buddy in front of Jesus … and repeatedly Mark comments how they were amazed, “we have never seen anything like this!" (2:12)

Off the top of my head, I can only think of one instance when Jesus trained someone to do something, and that was how to pray (Matthew 6). I’m not saying there weren’t other training classes, just that I don’t think they are recorded anywhere. What I do see in overwhelming fashion is Jesus teaching about Himself: who He is, how He operates, how He sees things, what His abilities are. Feeding the five thousand was not a course in service, but a demonstration of how Jesus can bring kingdom resources to bear in our world to meet people’s needs. Later in the boat Jesus rebuked them because they still didn’t understand that life is not about what we can do— even the good things we can do— but about Jesus’ ability to do far more.

I don’t get the sense that Jesus was that concerned with the level of equipping his disciples had. When he sent them out for an outreach in Mark 6, there isn’t much of a briefing. How did they know what to say and do? Had they already taken the class on “casting out many demons and anointing with oil many sick people and healing them” (6:13)?

Jesus relentlessly called those who wanted to follow Him to do just that. All his miracles and all his teachings, and finally his death and resurrection, centered on that one objective: to make His life available to anyone who would simply take it by faith. He invited people into an apprentice relationship with Him in which they would learn how to draw upon His resources for everything they need … security, value, food, breath, words to speak, self-control, healing, and whatever their particular life would require of them. He knew they simply did not have time or the mental capacity to take a class for every scenario that life would throw at them. Beyond that, He knew that even if they did, the information alone would not be enough to produce lasting fruit. Jesus did not primarily teach people how to execute the elements of Christian life, but more importantly, that He is life. That subtlety is the difference between knowing how to uncoil the hose from a fire truck and understanding that it is actually the hose’s connection to the hydrant that makes it all work.