Matthew 11:28-30 New International Version (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
One of my passions about what I do is that I get to participate in the spiritual journeys of other people and I really enjoy that journey. That is, I get a variety of input and expressions from so many people engaged in Short-Term Missions (STM’s) and their epiphanies. STM’s have a way of impacting people and I get to see the initial impact of their new journey. Sometimes that appears for the first time in the lives of people and sometimes it is the reigniting of a lost passion in their life and the spark of that flame begins with their STM adventure. Either way, because of what I do I get to be a part of that.
Invariably, it begs the question of why this happens. I have pondered on that very question and am amazed at the phenomenon of transformation and learning. I mean, really learning something that goes beyond mere academic and cognitive response. The learning that I speak about is the kind that ultimately leads to transformation. I see that quite often in the lives of participants that engage in STM’s. It seems that those “aahh-haaa” moments make indelible marks in the lives of those sojourners.
As I study the life and ministry of Jesus, I often wondered why he utilized the teaching methods that he did. Matthews verse challenges us to come and learn from Jesus. It seems to me that he didn’t seem to utilize the traditional avenues of the religious community of his day. He didn’t dismiss it, but he didn’t focus on it as his way of reaching people. No, on the contrary, it seems that he actually went against the grain in his methodology to inculcate true spirituality in the lives of his disciples. Why was that? After all, the religious community of his day stemmed from a life long string of years of tradition and practice. Why didn’t he utilize those avenues to make disciples?
If you ever had a conversation with educators and psychologists on the meaning and significance of “learning” you quickly find out that no one can come to a consensus on how learning takes place. There are as many theories and techniques as there are people that walk this planet. But it is interesting to see how Jesus taught his disciples and the methods that he used that were most effective.
It seems to me that Jesus wasn’t all that concerned about lectures even though he taught; he didn’t seem preoccupied with measuring and quantifying the disciples knowledge base even though he asked plenty of catchy questions to his oponents as well as to his disciples. He didn’t appear to be engaged that much in long winded preaching even though his longest recorded sermon on the mount takes up a few chapters of the bible. Yet, this is how we propose to make disciples in our churches today. “Sit still while I instill” can best describe my experience as a pastor, unfortunately. People come in, they sit, they sing a few lines, recite a couple of catchy slogans, I speak, they wonder off, we stand, sit, meet, greet, etc. and then we move on.
Jesus’ method of making disciples seemed to be contrary to the religous practice of his day. While he did attend the synagogues, the rest of his week was something else. He seemed to lead not only by example, but was engaged first hand in the mud, dirt, dust, sweat, and hardship of the very pulse of the lives of those who would follow (this speaks volumes on what true leadership is and what it is not). The lectures followed and augmented what he did. I guess this is why he actually was interesting not only in speech but his content was out of this world. “The word became flesh . . .” Takes on new meaning to me. “Word” was no longer just verbal or a written grammatical element that you read, it was his whole being, his whole life, it was what he did that spoke the loudest.
I guess like any university or professional school (this is especially true for seminary), when I graduated from my first graduate school, I quickly discovered that much of what I learned was impractical and I pretty much had to ignore a lot of what I was taught. I have heard this very same thing from many professions who claim, “Forget most of what you learned in school, it’s useless. When you go to work for the first time, there you will learn what you really need.” While I recognize that professions require knowledge, skills, and compentence in content, I wonder about the task that Jesus gave us of becoming his disciples and how that is to be accomplished.
How people learn is interesting. The Learning Pyramid as developed by The National Training Laboratories in Bethal, Maine provides a heirarchical paradigm of how people learn comensurate with teaching technique. Lecture is the most ineffective means of learning as people only retain 5% of what they hear, reading 10%, audio-visual 20%, demonstration 30%, group discussion 50%, but doing affords a 75% retention rate and teaching others approximately 90% retention.
While this pyramid paradigm is much discussed and offered counter viewpoints, it does bring interesting questions on the dynamics of how we currently attempt to make disciples. It drives me to ask several questions like, “How effective are we really when it comes to making disciples?” “Why do we do church the way we do and how effective is it in making disciples?” When discipleship and membership slowly go into a decline it is easy to cast off the blame to those who attend our churches as not really committed, or we just settle on lowering God’s standard of what is expected of a true disciple to raise our numbers. We can accept occassional Sunday morning attendance and periodical tithes and support to the church. But sold out discipleship seems difficult to achieve for many reasons I am sure.
STM sojourners are engaging in ministry and disciple-making the way Jesus did. Jesus walked among the crowds, he healed the sick, fed the hungry, comforted the hurting, and spoke very little. In doing rather than speaking about it, he “fleshed out” and demonstrated to his learners by engaging and doing. This is why his words made sense, action augmented his example. Forging disciples will never come by talking about it, reading about it, discussing it, nor preaching about it. It will only happen when your feet and hands are put to the ground and we begin to “do.”
This is where my job comes in and why I love it. As a leader, promoter, and very strong advocate of missions (even STM’s), I get to see people’s reaction when walking through the jungles of where I live and visit the residents that live in straw huts in abject impoverished stricken barrios, with big smiles on their faces and eyes wide open. When they receive the love and appreciation from those constituents, it seems that “epiphanys over floweth” in their spirituality. They begin to sense something, capture a moment where they connect the dots of their faith and what it means. Things begin to make sense.
My friend, learning has taken place and the kind of learning that leads to transformation. The kind of transformation that begins the journey to complete change over time that becomes a “living word” like Jesus. It becomes a lifestyle. The process of making disciples by “getting on mission” and experiencing the transformation that motivates us to stay on mission in our home context. But sometimes it just takes getting out of the boat to walk on water and begin that adventure of discipleship. Come and learn from Jesus and be transformed. Welcome to the journey . . . Changing the world one life at a time.
Happy Journey,
David Ceballos, Ph.D.
Beingonmission 