Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom

Notable Posts

No Mission Without the Gospel of the Kingdom

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Early on in my explorations of missional theology, I remember thinking that this stuff was so brilliant that all people really needed was permission to do it, and it would take off. I figured all this missional energy was just bottled up inside everyone and they were just waiting for someone to release them and bless them in it. I thought the reason people weren’t doing it was because they didn’t know they were allowed to.

You probably know what’s coming. Excitedly I began giving people permission to live missionally, explaining why it made sense, illustrating the possibilities. And people basically nodded in agreement. Some even got excited with me. But nothing changed (including me). Even people who wanted to couldn’t find their way into a way of life that was naturally joining God in the renewal of all things as a matter of course. A deeper problem was manifesting itself, one that I was just beginning to understand.

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Why We Don’t Make Disciples

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A few days ago Mike Breen posted a series on his blog that essentially asked the question, “Why does most ‘innovation’ in the church revolve around technology instead of discipleship?” In other words, why do we spend so much intellectual and creative capital tinkering with technological niftyness instead of investing that capital in finding out how to make disciples well?

Most of the possible reasons he offered revolved around the fact that discipleship is difficult, and therefore left untried (like that great G.K. Chesteron quote, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”) While I think there’s an element of truth in that, I think that the real issue lies much deeper, and has to do with how our unspoken theological assumptions invariably guide our lives. And everyone has theological assumptions. You can’t live without them. But if they remain unexamined and un-articulated they could lead you to waste your life tinkering with things that don’t really matter in the long run.

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The Gospel, Evangelism, and Discipleship

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“Does the gospel I preach naturally lead to people becoming disciples of Jesus?” – Dallas Willard

Put another way: Is becoming a disciple of Jesus the natural way to say ‘Yes’ to the gospel I preach?

This question has been revolutionizing my understanding of the gospel, evangelism, and discipleship. For example, if we see the main message of the gospel as “Your sins can be forgiven,” it does not naturally lead to becoming a disciple of Jesus, because once you’ve got the “forgiveness contract” signed, discipleship seems like an optional extra-curricular activity for people who are into that kind of thing. Gospel-as-forgiveness is an anemic understanding of what the New Testament proclaims.

Here’s the way I am beginning to understand this, and the simple way we are going to be teaching our leaders at Christ Church to practice evangelism. Do you think this adequately captures things? What do you think?

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Do We Actually Trust the Holy Spirit?

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From my previous post (reflections on the triumphal entry):

Even among his disciples, though, there was an incredibly high level of misunderstanding about what kind of king he was, and what was going to happen in Jerusalem. In this aspect, Jesus displayed a tremendous trust in the Holy Spirit to bring his disciples into “all truth” after his resurrection and ascension.

If I were Jesus, I think I’d be a bit worried. His disciples, who have been with him the whole time, learning about the kingdom of God, still don’t get it. They have been personally mentored by the Son of God for three years, and on the eve of his crucifixion, they’re still arguing about who will be Secretary of State when Jesus kicks out the Romans and restores the glory-days of Israel. He’s entrusting his movement to these people?

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Counting the Cost of Discipleship

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“Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:33).

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).

Sometimes we make a big deal about the “cost of discipleship,” as though the people who heed the call are a special elite brand of spiritual heroes: the ones who have “paid the price.” The few, the proud, the disciples.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Because part of “counting the cost” is adding up what you gain, not just what you lose. Disciples aren’t people making special sacrifices for God, they’re people who have realized this is the bargain of a lifetime.

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