Contract Pastoring and Discipleship

Posted by Alan Knox on Dec 9, 2008 in blog links, discipleship | 4 comments

Lew from “The Pursuit” is a good friend of mine. We worked together before he moved to Georgia. I’m hoping to see him and his wife in a couple of weeks when we’re in Georgia. Over the last week or so, Lew has written two excellent posts – some of the best he’s written.

First, he wrote “Contract Pastoring“. He talked to a vocational pastor and found out what was in the pastor’s job description. Then, Lew put a contract price on each item. While it seems laughable that someone would pay a pastor per service rendered (although, isn’t that what most churches say they are doing anyway?), I do know several “pastors” who are paid by their churches a certain amount only to preach each Sunday morning.

Next, Lew wrote “Who Are Our Disciples?” While the previous post was very good, this one is excellent! A must read – especially the final two paragraphs and the last sentence:

So what are we producing, if not disciples? Judging from many things I have seen and read over the past couple years, it seems like we a producing angry people. Angry because they feel like they’ve been deceived. Some of them have been promised a changed life, but instead were taught Christian doctrines and precepts. We’ve produced Apathetic people. Apathetic to the gospel, to the Church, and even to Jesus. We’ve produced people with false-security. These people went to all the classes, they attended all the services, and followed all the rules, little do they know that these actions won’t save them. There are probably other types of people that we have produced but I think Jesus had a phrase that best sums up these false-disciples, “White Washed Tombs”. On the outside, they look brilliant, pure, and white… but on the inside, they are filled with death.

Who are our disciples? Our disciples are the people who truly follow us… and hopefully watch us truly follow Jesus. Jesus did not force people to follow him, he did not even try to prevent people from leaving him, his disciples were those who recognized him as savior and could do nothing but follow. Basically, Jesus shared his life with everyone, those who shared it back were his disciples.

The ones who shared their lives with Jesus were actually his disciples. The ones who share their lives with you (not attend a class with you) are actually your disciples!