The Rushed Contemplative

I’ve wrestled with this question over the past several years. It started when I was meeting with some buddies for accountability, prayer, mutual encouragement, and so on. One of the guys is on staff with The Navigators – a discipleship-focused organization – and he emphasizes discipleship in his ministry. Since I’ve been heavily influenced by the Navs throughout my life, I understood John’s emphasis, but the question remained, Did Jesus want or expect all those who follow him to be his disciples? I have concluded that the answer to that question is No. Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus was followed by a great many people – throngs, multitudes, crowds. Seldom did Jesus condemn them for following, though he did acknowledge that following alone would not earn them entry into the kingdom of heaven. (“Not all who call me Lord, Lord will….”) Also, his words on discipleship usually included a conditional statement: “If anyone wants to be my disciple, [then]….” I can’t think of o

I spend a fair amount of time over at Todd Rhoades' Monday Morning Insight and find the discussions riveting, to say the least. But I thought I'd post a few thoughts here to see if anyone from there wants to jump on. Many of the conversations over at MMI end up being arguments for or against "Purpose Driven" and "Seeker Sensitive" methodologies. So here are some questions I'd like to hear some answers to - and I would really be interested in contextually-accurate, biblical support. 1. Should church be for believers or should it be open and inviting to non-believers - an evangelistic experience, if you will? 2. With which of the following statements do agree more? Why? The book of Acts prescribes for us what church should look like and what it should entail (including leadership structure, methodologies, and so on). It should be a manual for how we ought to "do church" today. The book of Acts describes some of what transpired in the early churc