Walking With Jesus: Discipleship Is Not For Everyone

Walking With Jesus: A Study Through Mark
What follows is what I feel Jesus is teaching me as I read through the Gospel of Mark

Discipleship is Not For Everyone
When I say this statement, don't misunderstand me. I believe discipleship (that is, an active adherence to a relational commitment to Jesus Christ) should be for everyone just as Jesus Christ should be in everyone. Discipleship is something Jesus calls all of us to. My goodness, if we really want to follow Jesus at all, Christ himself says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24) Christ Himself says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple ... 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?"m(Luke 14:26-28)


The call to being a Christian is the call to being a radical Christian. a true disciple of Christ, who loves God with all their heart. Who loves God with all their soul. Who loves God with all their strength. Who loves God with all their mind. Who loves their neighbors and people they come across as much as they love themselves. 


There is no greater call as a Christian, then the call to discipleship. But its not for everyone. 


I'm reminded of Mark 4:10, "Later when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant" or again in Mark 4:34, "In Jesus' public ministry he never taught without using parables; but afterward, when He was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them"


What differentiated the crowd from the christ-followers was not listening to the main course of Jesus' teaching. The crowd as well as the disciples would gather for the big events of Jesus dishing out the cool illustrations and the broad statements. But it was only alone, only with the few, that Jesus went more in-depth into the meaning and specific application of the "nice stories."


it was only for the few, that would engage in discipleship. going deeper. asking questions. 


Jesus knew people would make different commitments. He knew the whole crowd wasn't going to gather up after and really seek what all the parables meant, really seek after how to apply Jesus' words to their lives. And so He didn't call the the whole crowd to radical discipleship. He made an invitation if you will, He taught in such a way to get them to ask questions, but He didn't expect of the crowd to all go out casting out demons and proclaiming the gospel ...


If I'm honest, I don't teach that way. I teach and challenge my students as if each person should be and do what Christ is calling them to do: be a radical disciple. And I think its good, its good to challenge them. But did Jesus do that?


Not all of my students are committed Christians (shock!!) But i'm teaching in such a way, half-expecting they are. I mean, I preach the gospel on youth nights all the time, and that has yielded to it, many students deciding for the first time to commit to Christ. but the rest of my teaching is very sanctification/Christian-in-process-of-being-radical-disciple oriented. And for once, i'm thinking ... maybe that's not right.


Jesus didn't do that. The passages about taking up your cross and following me? guess where Jesus is and who He's talking to? He's alone. With His disciples ...


I think if I seriously want to consider teaching like Jesus, I need to make more room for the uncommitted Christians (the churched but not changed) and unChristians (the i already know who Jesus and the church is and I don't like it) and non-Christians (don't know anything really about Christianity) existing in my youth groups, and make more room for them not physically speaking (there's plenty of room in the youth room :), but make room for them through and in my teaching. Otherwise, how can I expect them to be saved otherwise? if i'm just expecting all of them to be little martin luthers & timothys?


What does "making room for the crowd" look like? Well, on some level I think we have to consider a fact: Jesus taught the twelve differently than He did the crowd. With crowd-level entry at Youth Nights (potentially) how am I as a youth minister going to accommodate my students' different commitment levels to Jesus?


Like any speaker, you have to know your audience. and speak accordingly. 


for real, in some ways, I have no doubt that I have failed many of my students, particularly in the high school youth group, because I expected radical discipleship and for many students (especially the older high school students) this prospect was a very new thing, and a very new change. I made the assumption, without knowing them, that they all were ready and willing and wanting spiritual solid food (Heb 5:14), when instead, many of them were still on spiritual milk in many ways (Heb 5:13), not quite yet ready for the unapologetic, burden-bearing Christian expectations I couched upon them. and I lost some High School youth. of course i lost them, for they felt edged out because of my false assumptions, they left the group. and in many ways, left the church as a result too. They became C&Ers (Christmas & Easter)-like attenders. I'd see them at a youth event maybe, like Laserquest! or Paintball! but not at the gathering. not @ and with the church. not to be built up in Christ at all anymore. For when I talked on those youth nights and looked into their eyes ... it was clear to them, that I was not even trying to talk to them personally. 


Discipleship is not for everyone. I know that's a scary thing to say, but its true. Some aren't ready yet. And as pastoral caregivers, me as a pastoral caregiver to youth, I need to make room for "even them" not only in my schedule but in my teaching. 


--is there room for the uncommitted Christian, unChristian, and non-Christian in your church or church gathering?