'We have all we need – if we take discipleship seriously'

Baptist minister Tim Sutton reflects on his new book Disciple Gate: Moving into Life with Jesus

 
I had never heard of Vampire Christianity, The Seven Myths of Discipleship, or The Five Essential Moves Every Disciple Makes. Have you?!?

It was the summer of 2023, and I thought I heard the Lord say, “I don’t simply want a bigger church, but a stronger one.” And, as I think about it, in a shaky world that makes more sense than ever.

I feel so blessed to be able to pastor the church I grew up in and came back to eight years ago. It is a Bible-loving, Christ-focussed, caring, active and growing community. Over the years this church family has shaped my own adventure with Jesus more than any other that I’ve been part of.

My long-delayed sabbatical was approaching, and I was praying about what to focus on during that time – besides the European Road Trip and lots of nice little things Annemarij and I had planned.

Going deeper into the whole area of discipleship seemed the natural answer to the “stronger church” question and something that would enrich my own spiritual life. I spent a good chunk of my sabbatical deep in reading. I reflected on my own sometimes haphazard (i.e. lack of a plan, logical order, or direction) experience of trying to follow Jesus over almost 40 years. I looked for traceable themes in how Jesus has so patiently met and moulded me – the pinch points and breakthroughs.

I began to write… and Disciple Gate emerged.

During the sabbatical I had discovered Vampire Christianity, in Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission. Willard observes that many seem to be Vampire Christians, who say to Jesus, “I’d like a little of your blood please. But I don’t care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won’t you just excuse me while I get on with life, and I’ll see you in heaven.” (p14) That felt a little close to the bone.

There are so many myths, misunderstandings and obstacles to discipleship, not least that “If we believe in Jesus and are going to heaven, then what else is there?” It is this approach to the Christian faith that resulted in the word Gate being part of the title of the book. The suffix-gate is of course used to denote a scandal of some kind. In this case the scandal being the existence of a discipleship-free Christianity.

The more I reflected on my own journey with Jesus and read of others’, the more I saw that there were five key moments for disciples – or essential ‘moves’ to make. In the book I call these moves Beginning, Becoming, Being [with], Battling, and Birthing.

While my book was sitting in the publishing queue, another book on practising discipleship came out. I was a little startled to see that the famous author had [coincidentally of course] used two of ‘my’ Bs in his title! I realised that what I had heard the Lord saying, so of course had others.

This was further confirmed when I recently became a virtual delegate in waiting of the Lausanne Congress, Seoul 2024 (to be held from 22-28 September) and came across ‘The State of the Great Commission Report,’ published this year. Lausanne carried out a series of listening sessions with 1,500 evangelical leaders across the globe and came away convinced of the global need for more effective and focussed discipleship. They discovered that only 5 – 15 per cent of leaders felt that Christians in their contexts were being adequately discipled in the Great Commission mandate. Other findings included the perception that less than half of churchgoers know what the Great Commission is.

How are we going to address these needs and rise to the challenge of what God is apparently saying to the Global Church in these days? The answer, I believe, isn’t necessarily to be found in elaborate new programmes, but in what God has already given us in the Bible, Holy Spirit and the Church. The claim of Disciple Gate is that ordinary followers of Jesus in normal Christian churches already have all we need – if we only pay attention to it and take discipleship seriously.

We have started reading Disciple Gate as a church and the book looks set to become a key part of helping disciple our congregation in the years ahead. In 2025 we hope to start regularly running a simple course we’ve developed and experimented with this year. It’ll be called “M.A.D.E” - The Missional Adventure Discipleship Experience, a 12-Week Intensive for Whole-Life Disciples. It will include discussion, prayer, practical challenges, and of course food.
 

Tim Sutton is the minister of Westward Ho! Baptist Church 

Disciple Gate - Moving into Life with Jesus by Tim Sutton is published by Wipf and Stock

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