I’m a pastor at a large church. In fact there are 12 pastors that I work with. Close to 2,000 people come through the church doors every weekend to attend one of four services. It is a diverse church demographically from infants to seniors and everyone in between. In many ways it has been able to maintain a strong connection to all ages and stages – this is a good thing.

My job title is Pastor of Adult Discipleship. Basically, everything to help adults grow in their walk with God outside of the weekend service experience; this includes electives, seminars, small group ministry, mentoring relationships, etc.

Do you know what would be nice? Do you know what would make my role efficient? Do you know how I could guarantee that everyone in our church would grow together and impact our city and the world?

If everyone would line up and simply follow the 5-step process that I develop and come out the other end fully prepped and ready to be the “fully devoted follower of Jesus” that I have mapped out for them.

You can stop rolling your eyes at me. I don’t have a 5-step plan mapped out and I often question whether I really know what a “fully devoted follower of Jesus” looks like or does.

So, can we admit that discipleship is not simple – it never has been and it never will be?

There is a book that came out in 2006 called Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples. Huh? First of all, read my previous blog and you will understand what I think about the tag line for the title of this book.

But Simple Church? Where does this come from? I do know of some churches that have adopted this model and I just don’t get it. Personally, I think it is more a response from pastors who don’t want to do the hard work of discipleship but would rather move people around like pawns or widgets and track it on a database.

Let me say it again – Discipleship is not simple. In fact, it is probably one of the most complex things you can engage in, since we are not only coming alongside people to help them follow Jesus, be we also have to fight “against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 NLT

Why do we think that we can line people up, send them through a production line and have them come out the other side changed? Why do we think that attending a service each weekend, being in a small group of 8-12 people, having a prescribed devotional time each morning and serving once a month where the church tells you to serve is the formula for maturing in faith?

Look, I am a big advocate of spiritual disciplines and faith routines – they have been a lifeline to me on many occasions. I know that I have developed some methods that I have been using to come alongside other guys for many years. I have had a fair bit of “success” with this (I use that term loosely).

But for me, as a pastor, to lay out a linear path of discipleship for the 2,000 people at my church to go through and expect maturity I’m only fooling myself and them.

The process is messy, and winding, and confusing. And instead of getting frustrated with this, I simply need to embrace it. This is reality. Life is not linear. If you want neat and tidy and organized, then work in a factory and make widgets. If you want to help lives be changes, jump into the swamp and start swimming; it’s a blast.

For the Kingdom.

I had the privilege of speaking to a group of pastors this past week on the area of discipleship – a topic that probably keeps many of them awake at night.

I began the talk with 4 things that we need to admit about discipleship to get the conversation started and hopefully to challenge accepted ways of thinking that I believe are not right. I will share these over the next four blogs and trust that it will push your thinking in new ways.

First: We need to admit that we cannot disciple the way that Jesus did. A great way to begin a talk on discipling people to live like Jesus – it got their attention. Interestingly, I received an email the very morning of the talk. It was promoting a conference that stated the following: “Founded on the process of disciple-making that Jesus taught and modeled, Ignite 2014 will teach how He turned fisherman and tax collectors into some of the most influential men ever to live”. Really? It sounds very spiritual and noble, that we are able to read the bible and take the practical methods of Jesus and apply them today. But really?

Let’s admit that it is culturally impossible to makes disciples like Jesus did. That Jesus simply used the culturally relevant methods of his day but that these methods will NOT work in our context. In fact, unless you are ready to choose 12 teenage boys and live with them for about 3 years and then have yourself killed so that they are forced to carry on the work, then we cannot disciple like Jesus did.

Why do we think that talking spiritually about how Jesus did things makes things better? Jesus lived in a cultural context that involved Rabbis and disciplees – it was normal for this to happen. That is not normal for today. In fact I believe that we have more to learn from secular research on adult learning than we do from the methods used in scripture. And there is nothing wrong in admitting this. Being a disciple of Jesus simply means to be a learner of Jesus’ way of life. So how do we learn best?

This fall I committed myself to spending 3 hours each week at our university library and reading books and taking notes on adult learning methods. I truly want to help others in their walk of faith and I’ll only be able to do this best by learning how people learn in my context, not in a context from 2,000 years ago.

Call me a heretic if you’d like, but I’d like to think of myself as constantly trying to be relevant.

I am typically working with guys who are involved in business. My wife is involved with young women who have mental issues but still want to follow Jesus. Do you think it looks the same when we get together? Absolutely not.

We have the privilege of walking alongside people to help them follow Jesus with all of their heart, mind and strength. Let’s do that, where they are at, and in a way that is relevant.

For the kingdom.