THE MAKING OF A MODERN DISCIPLE

 

So, what is a disciple? A follower of Jesus, for sure. But someone who follows in a specific way. At a key moment in his ministry, Jesus said they were to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. It was an astonishing image to present. Those who carried crosses were mainly slaves, the lowest of the low. We talk loosely about walks of shame in public life today, but these pale in comparison to a long, painful, stooping walk in full view of others where your legs turn to jelly, carrying the wood on which you would be put to death. Jesus intended these words to shock. But he also meant them to inspire.

 

A follower of Jesus is to deny themselves, to renounce a selfish way of living and replace it with one where God and other people are the priority. And in choosing this, Jesus says his followers will receive their life back in all its fulness. The key to life, in other words, is to give it away to others. No wonder we find it hard.

 

Though every generation struggles with selfishness, each generation faces specific challenges. Here are some of ours.

 

People learn and develop by copying others, but in person community is taking a hit today, and so there are fewer roles models to copy as people gravitate to the online world. We prefer to relate to others through the medium of screens – TVs, computers, smartphones. This opens us up to a huge range of other influences that we find it hard to choose from, not least because hidden algorithms are deciding for us what they think we should see – and these algorithms do not have our interests at heart, only the maximisation of revenue for the platform we are using.

 

Many of the sources people turn to online do not lead them closer to Christ and may actively hinder this journey. That’s why it’s worth each of us doing a reality check from time to time on the online sources we consume. I am starting to hear more about Christians who are turning to false conspiracy theories and extreme opinions because they spend far more time reading the views of trolls, bots and angry people online than they do reading their Bibles.

 

The second very specific challenge our generation faces is being distracted. Linda Stone, an American professor working in tech, noted early in the internet’s development that her students were trying to do twenty things at once now they could access so many sources. She coined the term: ‘continuous partial attention’, where people are doing too much and their brains don’t function properly. That sense of distraction is present in so much of life now. We don’t listen to other people properly, we miss what’s important among the trivia we consume, and we struggle to pay attention in prayer.

 

What this distraction does to our prayer lives is under-researched, possibly not researched at all, but it makes sense. When your mind is buzzing with information, it becomes harder to meet with God and for him to guide our prayers. I waited patiently for the Lord, says the Psalmist. Try doing that with continuous partial attention.

 

But there are ways of addressing these problems and here are four to share with you.

 

One is to make a point of seeing people face to face, and especially not neglecting to meet together for worship and prayer. It’s clear that from as early as the New Testament Church, people were getting lazy about meeting with other Christians. Going it alone is not a new fad; it’s a human tendency. When we meet with others, we create a space in which God himself will be present. We find good roles models to copy and, just as importantly, we can be a role model for others. A big part of following Jesus is realising just how much of an influencer we can be over other people’s lives.

 

Technology is endlessly distracting us and often in ways that mean we miss the promptings of God. Our eyes, glazed from staring at screens and our minds, deadened by consuming so much slop, are simply not as alert to the subtle whispers of God in our ears. We have to set boundaries to the things that distract us, because there is no end to the ways in which online platforms are trying to distract us from doing anything purposeful. One way of doing this is to create a digital rule of life that guides our life online. Another is to have a digital sabbath, where we step back from technology, do things face to face and enjoy creation without putting a smartphone camera between us and its beauty.

 

In John’s Gospel chapter 1, two things stand out as we seek to make disciples in this world. The first is how happy John the Baptist was that people turned from following him to following Jesus. There was no envy or bitterness, no sniping behind Jesus’s back. His goal should be our goal: a desire for those we know to find the love of Jesus and to follow him. The other thing is the way Andrew so simply told his brother Simon Peter about Jesus. Andrew could not have known where this would lead: to Peter being the rock on which the whole Church is built. Our faith sharing is at its most influential among family and those who know us best.

 

Jesus chose ordinary people. He always has, and he always will.