The Narrow Road

As I was speaking this weekend I was challenged again by the fact that we are called to walk a narrow path and we are calling others to a narrow path.

It is the road less travelled – the less desirable road – the road of true, cross carrying discipleship.

This is what Jesus says:

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Mat 7:14

For an evangelist that’s a hard message to hear! We all want to see as many people as possible come to faith, but I have had a gutful of trying to motivate people who don’t want to be disciples to live like disciples.

Dallas Willard sums it up well when he says:

“The leading assumption in the American church today – and the Australian one I’ll add – is that you can be a Christian but not a disciple. That has placed a tremendous burden on a mass of Christians who are not disciples. We tell them to come to church, participate in our programs and give money. But we see a church that knows nothing of commitment. We have settled for the marginal, and so we carry this awful burden of trying to motivate people to do what they don’t want to do. We can’t think about church the way we have been.”

It seems that Jesus sees disciples as being few and far between – a rare commodity. I am still wondering what this means for how I lead and live my life in this community.

24-7

These are the fantastic bunch of people I had the privilege to spend this weekend with. In 2002 a small group of them moved out of the local Church of Christ in the WA mining town of Kalgoorlie and reconceived of themselves as a house church network, seeking to travel light in regard to building and staffing and also looking to be flexible and open to God in their direction.

My brief over the weekend was to share some of the ideas that undergird a missional approach to church and to offer some tools to help the movement keep (or even re-ignite) a missional edge.

As with most things where a visiting speaker breezes into town and then breezes out, the proof of the pudding is in what happens next – what the people choose to do with the challenges presented. I’m looking forward to staying in touch with Peter and Carolyn and hearing more about the next leg of the journey for them.