In spite of impediments to discipleship rooted in fundamentalist theologies within evangelicalism there are many reasons to be encouraged. A new “Wind of the Spirit” is blowing through the church that is leading to a deeper understanding of discipleship. In his recent book, The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change the World, Jim Wallis documents this new movement. He says of 21st century revivalists, “When asked if they are liberal or conservative, many answer ‘yes,’ depending on the issue. And because they don’t easily fit the political categories of left and right, they could become bridge-builders, bringing a divided nation together on the politically transcendent issues of poverty, human rights, climate change, energy transformation, and the urgency of peace” (3).
I will expand briefly on some of the signs of hope that I see on the horizon and, indeed, on the ground in front of me.
First, there is a renewed focus on the Jesus of the Gospels, and an understanding that Jesus’ message is indeed good news for this world, as well as the next. As Jim Wallis says it, “Let’s start with a fundamental principle. Faith is not just for the next life, the hereafter; it is precisely intended to transform this world in the here and now – otherwise, most of the Bible makes no sense at all” (54).
Beginning before the turn of the century, but especially in the last decade, I have noticed in contemporary Christian literature repeated reference to two books written by Anabaptist authors: The Politics of Jesus, by John H. Yoder, and The Upside-down Kingdom, by Donald Kraybill. If you have read these books, you will know that since the 1970s they have been advocating the notion that to be a Christian includes being radical disciples of Jesus in ways that are often counter-cultural in any setting you may find yourself in.
And then there is the long-awaited book by Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith, which came out this past summer. As the Director of “The Anabaptist Network” in London, England, Murray documents how, all over the world, Christians of every stripe are beginning to take seriously the story and theology of the early Anabaptists and finding them relevant for their contemporary understandings of discipleship in the way of Christ.
Murray’s thesis is that we are in the process of entering a “post-Christendom” era. By that he means that the central place the church has had in society since the fourth century is now pretty much over. The church “militant and triumphant” is being replaced by a church on the margins which means that the church will increasingly find itself on a different page than our society in general. In this context, radical discipleship will take on new meaning and become more costly. Murray asks, “Could it be, as some have suggested, that Anabaptism is a ‘vision whose time has come’”? From my perspective, I would tend to agree with him. This book is a must read for all church leaders interested in disciple-making.
The other place where I see hope for a renewal of authentic discipleship is that evangelicalism is beginning to move past the constricting confines of the singular penal/substitutionary atonement theory that once reigned supreme.
In his book, Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, Mark D. Baker makes a convincing case that the New Testament does not allow us to exhaust the meaning of the cross by making it say only one thing, and especially not what the penal/satisfaction theory holds. He insists that reading the entire New Testament leads us to multi-faceted dimensions to the meaning of Jesus death on the cross. Of Paul, he says, “As he moves from community to community, Paul weaves a theological language that moves between the story of Israel as this is reflected in and interpreted by the advent of Christ, on the one hand, and the exigencies and settings of his audiences on the other…This means that Paul can use one set of metaphors with the Colossians, another with the Galatians, while remaining true to the gospel and bearing witness to the same reality” (66).
According to Baker, when we speak about the atonement in any given setting, we must find the language and metaphors that communicate biblical truth in that culture but also challenge that culture. His conclusion is that legitimate, biblical images of the atonement always assume and lead directly to discipleship in the way of Christ in this present age. We would do well to reflect on his conclusions.
I have personally done some study and writing with respect to Biblical Images of Salvation. What I discovered, as I combed through the New Testament to identify images of salvation found there, was that virtually all the images used to speak about what happens to a person who truly encounters Christ imply, directly or indirectly, that the result is a life of discipleship in mission. To be born again, to enter through a gate, to eat living bread, to have your eyes opened, to be recreated or converted, for example, all assume a radical life of discipleship in its wake.
Perhaps looking at salvation through the word-pictures of Scripture is a better way to think about and respond to the work of Christ on the cross than to wax too eloquent about “atonement theories” because they keep us closer to the ground on which we walk as disciples.
It is one thing to say in our statements that being and making disciples is central to who are and what we do. To actually make it happen we will have to think about much more than what we do inside the walls of our churches. We will have to find new ways of being Christian in the public square. We will have to pray regularly, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and then volunteer to help make that happen here and now.
