RECOMMENDED FOR SERIOUS CHRISTIANS ONLY!
                               by Tom Sine

   So now it's our turn in the footlights.  What does it mean to follow
this visionary Jesus today?  What will happen if we accept Jesus into our
hearts and accept His vision of the present and coming kingdom into our
lives? 

   For one thing, our understanding of what it means to be a disciple is
likely to be radically altered. 

   A surprising large number of American Christians have succombed to a
compartmentalized discipleship and a privitized piety.  We have
compartments in our lives for work, family, recreation, leisure time,
vacations, and shopping.  And, of course, we have one little compartment
for church, discipleship, and spiritual life.  But in all honesty, the
so-called "secular" compartments tend to dominate our lives, and we
Christians are virtually indistinguishable from our non-Christian
neighbors. 

   Those of us who have narrowed God's redemptive activity to that of
rescuing our disembodied souls have particularly tended to trivialize what
it means to be a disciple and minimize the scope of what God is doing in
our world. 

   You see, in the popular understanding of what it means to be a
Christian, Christ comes in and tranforms our hearts--the spiritual
compartment of our lives.  And, of course, He heals our psychological
hang-ups and even gives us a little hand with our dispositions and
relationships.  But our fundamental life direction and life values are set
by the visions and values of our secular American culture. 

   For example, what is our life direction before we become Christian? 
Upward mobility!  What is our life direction after we become Christians? 
Upward mobility--except God is there to help us become more successful in
our high-altitude scrambling! 

   And what were our values before we became Christians?  Materialism,
individualism, and looking out for number one!  What were our values after
we became Christians?  Exactly the same.  In fact, we have found an
amazing array of ways to sanctify and rationalize our greed, autonomy, and
self-interest by embracing the gospel of success and prosperity.  (Ben
Franklin, inventer of the success gospel, once wrote, "Reason is a
wonderful thing because one can always find a reason for whatever it is
that one wants to do.")

   In fact, dissappointingly large number of Christian books, broadcasts,
and sermons seem to encourage this limited view of discipleship by
accepting the visions of American culture as an unquestioned given.  By
default we allow the secular culture to set the agenda for all the
"non-spiritual" compartments of our lives.  And then we try to work our
faith in around the edges of already overcrowded lives.  You can be sure
that in the first century the disciples of Jesus Christ weren't doing
Roman culture nine-to-five with church on Sundays!  They understood that
following Christ is a whole-life proposition that transforms life
direction, values--everything. 

   Whatever commands our time, energy, and resources commands us.  And if
we are honest, we will admit that our lives really aren't that different
from those our secular counterparts.  I suspect that one of the reasons we
are so ineffective in evangelism is that we are so much like the people
around us that we have very little to which we can call them.  We hang
around church buildings a little more.  We abstain from a few things.  But
we simply aren't that different.  We don't even do hedonism as well as the
folks around us...but we keep on trying. 

   As a result of this unfortunate accomodation, Christianity is reduced
to little more than a spiritual crutch to help us through the minefields
of the upwardly mobile life.  God is there to help us get our promotions,
our house in the subarbs, and our bills paid.  Somehow God has become a
co-conspirator in our agendas instead of our becomeing a co-conspirator in
His.  Something is seriously amiss. 

   Listen again to the invitation of the Master:  "Anyone who wishes to be
a follower of mine must leave self behind; he must take up his cross, and
come with me.  Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will
let himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe. 
What does a man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true
self?"  (Mark 8:34-36 NEB)

   Tragically, in contemporary Christianity we keep finding ways to soften
Jesus' radical teaching and ignore His compassionate vision.  As a
consequence, His vision has very little impact on either our lives or
God's world.  But thankfully, Christ never gives up.  He keeps urging us
to set aside our lesser agendas and seek His kingdom first. 

   The Scripture makes it pretty clear that this business of following
Jesus is a whole life propositon.  Listen to Paul's challenge to the Roman
Christians:  "Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to
offer you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--which is
your spiritual worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be
able to test and apporve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and
perfect will." (Rom. 12:1-2, NIV). 

   Urging us to give our "bodies to Christ" is simply another way of
challenging us to give ourselves totally to God, inviting Christ to renew
our minds and transform our values. 

   Therefore, if we want to discover our role in the drama of God, we
won't find it simply by making church on Sundays on compartment in our
upwardly mobile scramble.  Christ reminds us not to worry about our lives
by asking, "'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall
we wear?' For pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt.
6:33, NIV).