Making everyday disciples through love
/If we are to reach the everyday people in our communities who need to hear about Jesus, we need to reform our discipleship practices that are shaped by university-educated professional values – so that they can more closely align with the Bible’s methods of making disciples.
And it’s not just a problem of method. The obstacles we face – to do with work identity, success-oriented values, individualism, education and class, among other things – reflect a significant divide in our society and our churches between university-educated professionals and everyday people.
Bridging the divide
How do we begin the process of reconciliation and healing with everyday people who may feel overlooked or looked down on?
How do we embrace everyday people who feel like they don’t belong or are regarded as ‘second-class’, and help them to know they are truly valued?
The central biblical principle that can break down all these barriers is love. Deep love.
The Apostle Peter says, ‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins’ (1 Peter 4:8).
The obstacles that we humans create between us can be ‘covered over’ by love.
That is very good news, because there are many offences committed against everyday people, intentionally and unintentionally, by both Christian and non-Christian university-educated people.
But to overcome the obstacles, says Peter, we need to love others ‘deeply’.
What is ‘deep love’?
Well, it’s more than just saying ‘Hi’ to someone after church and offering them a cup of coffee …
Deep love is inviting people into our homes for a meal or looking after their kids on a Saturday afternoon to give them time to sort out issues in their marriage.
Deep love is getting involved and caring for people in their messiness and sin.
Deep love can help repair the damage caused by the cultural differences that have led to hurt and offence and misunderstanding.
Deep love can ‘cover over’ the unintentional sin due to the prejudices and practices we have unthinkingly accepted from our society – like thinking everyday people are less intelligent, or asking someone ‘What do you do for work?’ and thereby making them feel as if they are inferior and don’t fit in.
You’ve probably experienced the power of deep love to do this. If you know another person genuinely cares for you – loves you deeply – you’ll find it easier to overlook hurts and forgive that person when they inadvertently offend you.
And here’s the thing: as we university-educated Christians seek to make disciples of everyday people, we will stuff up; we will cause offence; we will hurt people accidentally.
But if we are working hard at deeply loving everyday people, they will be more likely to overlook our blunders.
This is important in any ministry, but it is especially important in cross-cultural ministry.
Building a loving, trusting community
Due to the grievances and scars that some everyday people carry, caused by university-educated people in our world, it may take many, many years before everyday people are willing to trust a church dominated by professionals.
It will take time and patience – and sadly, if it’s hard to see tangible fruit of their labours, some churches lack the perseverance to continue. Perceived ‘failure’ doesn’t sit easily with our professional cultural values of success, productivity and growth.
But if God rejoices over one sinner who repents – if every single person is valuable to God – then why wouldn’t we be willing to do what it takes, to love deeply for the long term, to see the gospel grow among the many lost everyday people in our communities?
David: factory worker, furnace operator, landscaper … and recovering drug addict
David was 16 years old, ‘dope sick’, and sleepless at midnight. He flicked on the last TV show for the night on the ABC. It was evangelist Gordon Moyes. David, tired of his life of drug abuse, heard what Gordon said and asked Jesus into his heart.
Sadly, nothing seemed to change at that point; but the Holy Spirit’s work in David was underway, and 13 years later, God opened David’s eyes again – and brought him into community with other Christians.
He says:
I was full of rage after someone ripped me off. I said to Mum, ‘My life wouldn’t be in such a mess if I lived the way my heavenly Father told me to live.’
It was strange. I had never referred to God this way before. Moments later the Holy Spirit came upon me, and all the anger and hatred felt like it was being washed out of my body, and I felt deep love.
David really wasn’t sure what had happened. But he did know that had a strong desire to know God. So when his mum suggested that he contact the local minister, he took her advice.
The minister explained that David had been baptised by the Holy Spirit, and David soon started attending an Anglican church. He remembers:
I was pretty apprehensive about going into a church full of what I thought were perfect people, not realising they were sinners too. People in society look down on drug addicts and I thought they would look down on me, too.
Thankfully, he was wrong: ‘They loved me, accepted me, cared for me, in a way that I had never experienced before.’
The people of the church invited him into their lives. They sat beside him in church, took him to events and invited him to Bible study. When his dad was sick, they brought meals. They loved him by teaching him about God, answering his questions and gently correcting him to help him grow in godliness.
When some money went missing and some people suspected David, others stood up for him and made sure he was okay. (The money was later found.)
David has now been a member of that church for 35 years – in spite of the fact that he is, as he says, ‘the only guy in the congregation with tattoos and who’s a recovering drug addict’.
This is what is possible when we love deeply. We can overcome our differences and our prejudices. We can work through difficult feelings like suspicion and hurt.
But deep love comes at a cost.
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™