"He said to them, "Therefore, every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." Matthew 13:52
"...do you want to become his disciples too?" John 9:27
What do I do for a living?
I don't have an office. I have completed four seminary classes. Most Sunday mornings I am sitting in a pew; singing, praying, listening and hoping my 18-month old stopped crying after I left the nursery. Yet, I am a "professional Christian", seeking wholesale transformation at college campuses throughout the Inland NW.
In my mid-20's I dreamed of pastoring a church. I had begun to regularly preach at local churches and I loved how much it made sense. I sat with a piece of scripture, I prayed and I delivered the message that Jesus seemed to be saying. Most of the time, people seemed to enjoy the sermon and seemed to be genuinely thinking about what I said. I felt respected. I was occupying a role that everyone in my life understood. A pastor (or at least the Sunday morning version of the job) is an known job. Every town needs a mechanic, a store owner, a cook and a preacher. Why couldn't I be that?
(I should point out here, that my understanding of what a pastor ACTUALLY does was laughably limited when I was thinking about this. I respect the church pastors I know. Their job is ridiculously hard and I would likely be terrible at it. If you have a good pastor, write her/him and note. Let them know that they are good and you appreciate them. They probably need to hear it.)
I am increasingly realizing that the reason my job is hard to explain is because so many of us have the same view of "pastor" that I did. We see Sunday morning. We see a person (usually a man) talk for 20 minutes to an hour about some bible stories. We hear a couple Greek and Hebrew words sprinkled in. Sometimes we are expected to write some words down or fill in some blanks. But we are rarely invited to participate. Can we ever imagine being that pastor? Maybe...but the distance seems substantial. There is our mortgage. And kids. And maybe we dislike public speaking. To be honest, maybe we dislike Sunday morning church. The reality is for many, ministry feels like an option that has already passed them by.
I believe that church pastors can change this mindset, but they not only need to lead in an empowering way, but they need to swim upstream from what is expected within congregations. I am in awe of the pastors who equip their congregation for ministry.
So...what do I do for a living?
To steal a definition from someone else (Mark Scandrette. He is a pastor who inspires me), "I help people live out the teachings of Jesus."
My work, is to see college students living like Jesus actually expects them to do what he instructs disciples to do. I expect to see students make decisions with their money, time, education, vacations and families that reflect Jesus' teachings. I expect to see students lead their peers in scripture, pray for the transformation of their floors, halls, majors and campuses. I expect to see them live honest, open and vulnerable lives. I expect them to develop abiding friendships with Jesus; friendships that are so pure and real that decisions about money, time, education and families are done with joy, not obligation. I expect these things.
Why?
Because Jesus says we should.
In the kingdom, merchants sell everything in order to buy one, perfect pearl. Wanderers stumble over treasure and leverage everything they own to buy the field it's in. Small seeds of teachings become giant trees that provide shade and shelter. Almost invisible portions of yeast dynamically transform dough into rising, growing and nourishing bread. (all from Matthew 13)
Last year, I was sharing at a very supportive church. I spent the better part of my weekend with them, in awe of how many of their member participated in mission. I was inspired and humbled by the faith that I witnessed. I shared about a freshman student at WSU who was going to be sharing his faith with his hall that night. I shared that he was not dynamically charismatic or had ambitions of being a pastor. He just loved his hall, saw that Jesus calls us to proclaim our faith and was willing to do so when asked. Dozens of people came up to me with dozens of questions. But all of the questions came down to one simple word; "really?!"
In reality, most of us have limited discipleship to small changes, usually concerning what we watch on tv, view on the internet or how much we give to the church. We secretly wonder, "does Jesus really want me to do that?" and "what would happen if I really did what Jesus asked of me to do?".
At is best, InterVarsity provides the structure within students can experiment with taking Jesus at face value. It is the place where students can see what happens if they give their extra coat to the poor, go out of the way to love the person who is most demanding and demeaning of them, reconcile broken relationships, proclaim the gospel and vulnerably confess their sins.
At our worst? We talk at them. We underestimate their ability to participate in mission. We look at our own training and assume that no one can make disciples unless they have exactly the amount of training that we currently have. At our worst, we take an enthusiastic young disciple and accidentally convince them what their friends and neighbors need is a vocational minister like us. We rob their friends of the most effective missionary they could have; the friend God already sent them.
We are learning, We are learning to make disciples of Jesus, not followers of us. We are learning to train on the job. We are learning Jesus never called professionals, but faithful, normal folks. We are learning not to replace the Holy Spirit with training, but instead to partner with the Spirit in training others.
I believe that it is possible that this past weekend freshman moved in who will be leading their friends into new or deeper faith in Jesus this semester. I believe that these disciples who will see mentoring others as part of their life-long devotion to Jesus. I believe students like this are also at University of Idaho, Whitman College, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga College, Lewis and Clark State College, Heritage College, Columbia Basin Community College, North Idaho College and every other school in the Inland NW.
Please pray for me and for my staff. Pray that we would do what Jesus tells us to. Pray that we will mentor young students to become disciple makers. Pray that we will see young believers leading friends to faith, new converts reaching their friends and small groups of students planting new small groups.
Then dream. Dream about these students coming to your church. Not as pastors, but as engineers, nurses, lawyers and teachers. Dream about reaching their peers. Dream about them leading Sunday school classes. Dream about them serving the homeless. Dream about them equipping other lay people in disciple making.
It's happening right now.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked through all the dough." Matthew 13:33
Further reading:
http://markscandrette.com/
http://www.releasetheape.com/
Further reading:
http://markscandrette.com/
http://www.releasetheape.com/
