“Follow Me”: The Simplest Path to Discipleship

Welcome to the Cross Community Blog. We are delighted to have a space to share what we believe God wants for us as His children and as followers of Jesus. For 10 months now, my husband, Rob, and I have been teaching a targeted and intentional message at our Sunday Brunches. We have grown weary of the bad rep that Christianity has acquired in recent times, based on the behavior of many professing Christians who are acting—as Jesus put it—like “children of hell”.

We live in a time when being Christian is associated with being judgmental, conservative, or foolish. Some of the most hateful things I’ve heard of late come from public people who think they are doing God favors by marginalizing and oppressing people who apparently don’t align with their values.

Keeping It Simple

We imagine that God must be heartbroken over the things some of his image-bearers say and do that oppose the basic mission and message of Jesus. The heart of God is for his children to be like Jesus, following His lead. We are to obey Jesus’ commands. Love God. Love people. Simple.

 It doesn’t take much to instruct believers in Christ how they should act. Seminary and intensive workshops aren’t necessary for our behavior to be more attractive and pleasant to the world and those around us. We don’t need to study Hebrew or Greek to be less repulsive to those observing the conduct of God’s children. So, we just decided to make the concept of being a disciple as plain as possible. We decided to teach Jesus.

Following the Teacher

We have shared what we think Jesus would have thought, said, and done, not from our own self-made or limited understanding, nor from popular Christian culture. Rob and I studied Christ. When I say “studied”, I mean that we investigated the word of God and found the most simple, palatable, relatable, relevant, applicable and loving aspects of Christ’s personhood and encouraged our listeners to do and be likewise. We tackled some clear, and perhaps obvious, messages that we knew, despite the simplicity, would be hard to live out. So, we have dedicated a year to teasing out and defining what it means to be a Disciple of Jesus, not just a good Christian, but a true Christ-follower.

Each week, we have repeated a quote by Tim Bartee describing how young scholars of the Torah would be invited to intern with a rabbi. The student (disciple) of 14 or 15 years of age would then leave his home and live with the teacher to learn how the laws and words of the prophets were to be applied to life. They were to observe and mimic the rabbi to gain a greater understanding of God and His purposes. This is what Jesus did when he called the twelve disciples. Tim Bartee said,       

As one would leave and begin to follow, others would say to him, “May you be covered with the dust of your Rabbi.” The students followed him so closely that the dust from the road that came from the feet of the Rabbi would cover the disciple. That should be the desire of every disciple of Christ, to walk so close to him that we would be covered with his dust.

Being covered in the dust of Jesus means we have studied him so closely, we cannot help but be like him, even without thinking. The WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) slogan seems to emerge periodically among Christian circles but often fizzles out like a fad. There was a campaign of the 90’s but WWJD merch is scarce nowadays. This slogan always has relevance for a Disciple of Christ because we should be constantly asking ourselves that very question. To get the Christian walk right, to be a good Disciple, we simply must be like him. No new math. No secret formula.

Getting to Know Him

We must engage our minds and take what we know about Jesus and emulate it. Take the love you’ve been given through Christ’s death on the cross and turn it on someone else and model Christ at every turn. It doesn’t take an emotional reckoning or loud shouting, speaking in tongues, mystical music, or following man-made rules to the letter. We just learn, watch and emulate, but to do this you must get to know Christ. Our goal is not just to introduce Him in a way that others might know Him more, but it is also to whet the appetite of the listener to want to know Him better, and to understand the great love He offers us.

Each month the subtitle of our message begins with “Following Jesus with ….” We have covered what it means to follow Jesus in these ways:

• With Love

• With The Gospel

• With Compassion

• With Grace

• With Surrender

• With Faith

• With Light

• With Humility

• With Inclusion

• With Sacrificial Giving

• With Restoration

  
  

This is not an exhaustive list of Christ-like qualities, but we thought these aspects of Jesus’ personhood and life, these attributes, would be a good start to help others consider being more of how Jesus would be in our day-to-day circumstances. If we could just adopt half of these eleven qualities, how might today’s culture perceive Christians? How much more attractive would we be to those who don’t know Christ?

For the Sake of Christ and Others

We are not about memberships, or conforming to culture or standards, but we care most about the great commission.

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus says that He is always with us, even until the end of the age. His presence with us is primarily through those who are covered in Jesus’ dust. He is seen, known, and felt through those of us who choose to duplicate Him, His teachings and His love for others. We should be representative of Jesus in word and deed to the community around us and at Cross Community we believe it is as simple as obeying Jesus’ commands: Love God. Love people. We pray that in your following; you will be the image and the essence of Christ to someone who needs light and love.