Journeys | A Life on Life Discipleship

The late Dallas Willard is one of our heroes, here at Broom Tree. He famously called the lack of attention to discipleship in the local church “The Great Omission.” He wrote:

The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.

If it’s true that “every system is perfectly designed to produce the results that it gets,” then it’s fair to ask: Are our churches designed to produce strong, mature disciples of Jesus?

We believe the church in the West is in crisis, and we agree with Dallas Willard that the heart of the crisis is the lack of deep discipleship in the local church. We believe this needs to be addressed with urgency, specificity, and intentionality. We believe that every ministry leader should be able to answer the question “What is your plan for ‘teaching [us] to obey everything Jesus commanded?’ (Matt. 28:19).” Every church leader needs a vision and plan for discipleship.

Disciples are formed in many ways: engaging in spiritual practices, attending weekly worship, listening to thoughtful and inspiring sermons, joining small groups, to name a few. But at Broom Tree we believe the most effective way men and women are formed as disciples of Jesus is through intentional life-on-life relationships. Spiritual formation is most effective in small, dedicated groups.

Yes, Jesus addressed larger groups on occasion (John 6:2, Matt. 5:1). And we know that he had more disciples than the 12 (Luke 10:1). Luke tantalizingly adds that with the twelve “were some women” (Luke 8:2). Yet the gospels seem to indicate that Jesus’ primary plan for reaching all nations and the ends of the earth was to focus deliberately and patiently on the formation of twelve ordinary men, whom the New Testament calls “disciples.” 

What is a disciple? In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard suggests that apprenticeship captures the Biblical vision. According to Willard, apprentices are (1) with Jesus (2) to become more like Jesus so that (3) they might be able to do all that they do in the manner that Jesus did all that he did. A disciple is a real-life apprentice of Jesus who, by grace and by choice, is learning from Jesus how to live in the Kingdom of God today. 

Discipleship in the Bible was not situated in classrooms or books – Jesus never wrote a book (and neither did Socrates, Confucius, or Buddha). And while followers of Jesus can rightly be called “people of the book,” discipleship in that book happens through personal relationships. 

Is that surprising? Anecdotally, if you ask someone who knows Christ today to talk about how he or she came to faith, the answer almost always involves the significant investment of another person. 

Following Jesus is about more than theology (what to think about God) or ethics (what is the right thing to do). Discipleship is, fundamentally, a way, a way of life, a way of living, following the Master – the Jesus Way. In fact, the earliest Christ-followers were sometimes known as ‘The Way’ (Acts 9:2). 

We need to see this Jesus Way lived out. We need to overhear men and women ahead of us on the Way wrestle through applying the gospel of God to every situation of life. We need to learn, alongside others, how what we hear on Sundays translates into every part of our lives. 

We don’t believe information alone changes people. A curriculum merely contains seeds, which need skilled farmers to plant and water. Like any farmer, we are dependent on God to give the growth (1 Cor. 3:7). 

Our 22-week curriculum was designed with one overarching question in mind: 

If there was someone under my care whom I cared deeply about, and I had one year to impart to them, by my life and my words, what was most ESSENTIAL for a disciple of Jesus to know, deeply and experientially, what would I want to help them come to know?

We believe that how we learn is just as important as what we learn. If you’d like to learn more about our vision for how strong and mature disciples can be formed through relational discipleship, sign up for our mailing list HERE.

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 Quote: Dallas Willard. The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship. HarperSanFrancisco, 2006. (xv)