The mission of The United Methodist Church is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” I wholeheartedly agree with this mission, and I believe disciple making is the most important undertaking with which we should be engaged.
We have assumed that if a church provides consistent events, biblical information, and appealing programs for the people, and the people consume those offerings, then people will grow. But this isn’t what Jesus had in mind. When Jesus began his public ministry, his top priority was to recruit and train disciples. So what if we followed his model, which can be found in Matthew 4:18-22: As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee, their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
To fully understand the process Jesus used to “make” disciples, we should begin by looking at how 1st century Rabbis taught their students. Because Jesus was a Rabbi, he may have followed the same pattern. At that time education was made of 3 primary sections: Bet Safar, Bet Talmud, and Bet Midrash. When students (culturally young men) were ages 5 to 10 they would attend Bet Safar. During this time they would memorize the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), word for word by age 10. The best students of that group were invited to continue their education, while the rest were sent back to the family trade.
This group, the best of Bet Safar, would begin Bet Talmud until they were 14. During this season of their education they would continue to memorize the Psalms, Prophets and the rest of the Hebrew scriptures. Students would also begin to learn the art of questions and answers or what we would consider religious debate. At the age of 14, the best of the best were invited to continue in Bet Midrash, while the others were sent home to learn the family trade.
Finally, the best of the best studied years and years of commentary on the scriptures. Learning how a Rabbi interpreted the way the Torah should be lived out. There was only one place the best of the best could study the Midrash, they learned it from a respected Rabbi. So at 14 – the best of the best would approach a Rabbi and request to become his disciple. The Rabbi would then quiz the student in order to determine if they could “do what I do, could this student also become a Rabbi?” If the answer was yes, the student would leave everything, home and family; Synagogue and community and follow the Rabbi. In essence they would belong to the Rabbi, so that the student would become like the Rabbi and do what the Rabbi did.
Now, let’s put this into the context of Jesus. He was a Rabbi so we know he studied the Torah (scripture), the Talmud (commentary) and Midrash (religious debate), AND he was one of the best of the best therefore he studied under another Rabbi. Now he was ready to receive his own disciples. But instead of waiting for students to come to him, we read in the above passage (Matthew 4) that Jesus sought them out, which was not the norm. It just wasn’t done, and he didn’t pick the best of the best. He chose those who had studied some, but weren’t good enough to continue. These were the ones sent home to learn the family business; they didn’t make the cut. Jesus thought they were good enough, even if others didn’t think so. He’s giving them a chance to fulfill their dream so of course they drop what they’re doing and follow after the Rabbi. This began their three-year long “apprenticeship” where they learned to Belong to Jesus, so they could Become like Jesus in order to be able to Serve like Jesus.
This is what it means to be a disciple, therefore discipleship is a process where we learn how to belong, become and serve. More on this in a future post.