As we journey into “deep discipleship,” we continue to get our feet wet in exploring ideas, these unconscious assumptions and principles that power and govern us.
Today, we face a key question: Are our churches equipped and ready to guide us through the latter stages of discipleship? Do we experience this exploration of ideas and desires through our customary Christian institutions?
Does the modern Christian institution recognize that we are integrated creatures living in an integrated world? Our heart, mind, and body are intimately woven together by our soul, and we are “formed” as integrated beings. Is this how the modern church approaches our humanity?
We’re digging way beneath the surface today!
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TRANSCRIPT
The Six Stages of Discipleship
Some time ago, a pastor friend of mine referred me to a book called The Critical Journey, the first edition of which was published back in the eighties. If you like systematic theology or a meaningful Bible study, this book is not for you. Itโs more of a sociological perspective about our spiritual formation versus a Biblical exposition.
Weโve been exploring what Dallas Willard called the โGreat Omissionโ: modern Christianity talks about making disciples but rarely does so. The Great Omission has had a horrible impact on culture, and itโs caused all sorts of issues in the church.
At the individual level, it manifests as a sense of disconnection. We wonder whether there is more to the Christian life than what we typically experience. The Bible promises a life of peace, of inner stability. It suggests our lives should be characterized by us doing greater things than Christ did. That seems to make at least some rational sense. After all, God Himself does live in us.
Here at Soil and Roots, weโre diving into the Great Omission from a somewhat unique perspective, which we arenโt taught or trained to explore, about the hidden ideas that govern and power us. If discipleship can be defined as the progressive transformation of dark ideas into light ideas, we should learn to identify these ideas in our culture, the church, and ourselves.
There are times in our lives when a crisis shakes us up. Our church services and Bible studies may not answer some of the questions our hearts are wrestling with. Our intellectual belief systems sustain us when things are going well, but we wonder if there is something beneath those belief systems when tragedy or disruption inevitably visits us.
We may find some greater clarity about this Great Omission, this longing for the deeper end of discipleship, by evaluating what Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich proposed in their book, The Critical Journey.
They suggest that our journey of spiritual formation can be broken down into six stages.
Six Stages of Discipleship
Stage 1 is a Recognition of God. This is when we become aware of God or perhaps become a Christian.
They call Stage 2 the Life of Discipleship. I wish the authors had chosen a different name for this stage, as it essentially means a period of learning. We come to know God, then take time to learn more about Him. This includes Bible study, lectures, classes, mentoring, and more.
Stage 3 is the Productive Life. This is when we start to give back. We begin to serve. Maybe itโs through volunteering at church, working in the nursery, mentoring others, or going on mission trips. We know God; we know more about God; and now weโre ready to share God with others through myriad opportunities.
So far, we recognize these three phases. Many of our stories involve us coming to Christ, joining a community of faith, learning more about Him, and then taking on a more serving role.
When I first read the book, I wondered which phases might come after the first three. I thought the first three were all there was.
Stage 4 is called The Inward Journey.
โIt almost always comes as an unsettling experience yet results in healing for those who continue through it. Until now, our journey has had an external dimension to it. Our life of faith was more visible, more outwardly oriented, even though things certainly were happening inside us.โ
โAt this stage, we face abrupt change to almost the opposite mode. Itโs a mode of questioning, exploring, falling apart, doubting, dancing around the real issues, sinking in uncertainty, and indulging in self-centeredness.โ[1]
Near the end of stage 4 is what they call โThe Wall.โ St. John of the Cross called this type of experience the โdark night of the soul.โ
โThe Wall represents the place where another layer of transformation occurs, and a renewed life of faith begins for those who feel called and have the courage to move into it.โ
โThis experience is perhaps the most poignant example of mystery in the whole journey of faithโฆExperiencing the wall is both frightening and unpredictable.โ[2]
They cite biblical examples of the Wall: Jonah in the belly of the whale, Job in the midst of his illness, Elijah when he hid in the cave, Sarah’s long barrenness, and, finally, her giving up and giving Hannah to her husband.
The wall is often brought on by a crisis: a job loss, a cancer diagnosis, a death in the family, divorce, betrayal, a move, or wondering whether our career, our ministry, or our perspective is valid, โright,โ or honoring.
When we hit the wall, we have a few options. We may press into it and engage in the struggle and introspection it brings. Or we may turn back and settle into a previous stage because we just arenโt willing to dig beneath the surface. In some cases, a person simply abandons the faith altogetherโฆthey โdeconstruct.โ
The wall is a pivotal part of our journey because it often causes us to revisit the truths and the ideas we assumed when we were younger. And we discover God in new ways. We experience Him more deeply, and that draws us into a more trusting relationship with Him. We learn to surrender.
After the Wall, Stage 5 is the Journey Outward. And Stage 6 is the Life of Love.
Their description of someone in Stage 6, a life of love, sounds somewhat paradoxical.
โAt this stage we reflect God to others in the world more clearly and consistently than we ever thought possibleโฆWhen we are at stage 6, we have lost ourselves in the equation, and at the same time we have truly found ourselves. We are selfless. This factor allows us to do the most extraordinary things. We may figuratively wash other peopleโs feet or give our very lives in the service of GodโฆWe are at peace with ourselves, fully conscious of being the person God has created us to be. Obedience comes very naturally without deliberation because we are so immersed in Godโs work.โ[3]
They list other characteristics: wisdom gained from lifeโs struggles, compassionate living for others, including our enemies, detachment from things, and stress. They argue that someone living in Stage 6 may appear unusual to the rest of us. They arenโt trying to perform or accumulate much. They may appear slow. Theyโre so unconcerned with things that concern us, we arenโt sure quite what to do with them.
The Missing Stages
The book also claims that Western Christian institutions are well-suited for Stages 1, 2, and 3. They introduce us to God, provide ample opportunities to learn about God, and are ready to plug us into serving God in many ways.
The problem is that very few churches are set up to help guide us into Stages 4, 5, and 6. We find little help with the Inward Journey, the Outward Journey, and living a Life of Love.
I network with several pastors from various denominations, and Iโve yet to find one that disagrees with this conclusion. So far, every church leader Iโve discussed this with acknowledges that our modern institutions arenโt aware of and arenโt particularly interested in these deeper stages of discipleship.
When I asked why, one former pastor put it rather bluntly, โBecause churches can raise enough money on Stages 1, 2, and 3. The later stages require a substantial commitment to the individual, and itโs a lot of work.โ
You may or may not agree with how the authors present the stages of discipleship, but if we accept the general outline, it does provide some clarity on the Great Omission. If the purpose of our spiritual formation is to become more like Jesus, and that process requires these latter stages, and most of us donโt even know theyโre part of the journey because our churches donโt guide us through them, that might explain a lot.
In the language weโve been using, this progressive transformation of ideas may well occur, at least in part, in these latter stages. But if we donโt choose to move through โthe Wall,โ we may never come to embrace the need to mine our hearts for these hidden assumptions. We miss the deep end of discipleship.
The purpose of Season 1 is to help us get our arms around this Great Omission and to describe discipleship as the transformation of ideas. By episode 14, weโll pivot into answering the next important question: โHow do we uncover these hidden ideas in our hearts?โ
But for now, letโs continue to practice identifying the ideas that shape us and their impact on our hearts, our families, and our communities.
A New Way to Be Human
The folks at the Colson Center and Breakpoint often say that โideas have consequences โ bad ideas have victims.โ We see this victimization occur when Godโs original good ideas become distorted or corrupted.
Weโve been exploring ideas of anthropology โ what it means to be human. The center, the core of who we are, is our hearts, or our spirits. However, we live in an age that assumes our formation is largely about the mind. But thereโs a difference between information and formation.
Another crucial idea of the Kingdom of Light is that we are unified, integrated creatures.
The On Being Human image on the website illustrates a direct, intimate relationship among the heart, mind, body, and soul. In addition to the word โintegrated,โ I think we could also consider the word โindivisibleโ โ not able to be divided up.
Our heart, mind, and body are all woven together, without division, in the context of our soul. And this is key: any impact on one of our dimensions impacts them all.
Nancy Pearcy wrote a powerful book called Love Thy Body. Youโll note she uses the terms โbodyโ and โsoulโ a little differently than we do here. She uses โsoulโ to refer to our invisible dimensions and โbodyโ to refer to our visible dimensions. She is discussing a modern-day theory called โpersonhood,โ but listen carefully to how she talks about human beings as unified.
โโฆChristianity holds that body and soul together form an integrated unit โ that the human being is an embodied soul. By contrast, personhood theory entails a two-level dualism that sets the body against the person, as though they were two separate things merely stuck together. As a result, it demeans the body as extrinsic to the person โ something inferior that can be used for purely pragmatic purposes.โ[4]
Pearcy is rightly arguing that many people operate on the assumption that they are, in fact, parts stuck together. They just arenโt conscious of it.
She writes, โDescartes is best known for his famous phrase, โI think therefore I am.โ In that phrase he located authentic human identity in the mind alone. The implication is that the body is not an aspect of the true self; instead the body is a mechanism that services the needs and desires of the mind, the pilot of a ship or the driver of a car. Philosopher Daniel Dannett explains, โSince Descartes in the seventeenth century we have had a vision of the self as a sort of immaterial ghost that owns and controls a body the way you own and control your car.โ[5]
This is tremendously important for us to understand. Why do we have such a horror and aversion to death? Because we arenโt meant to be dis-integrated. We arenโt meant to come apart, for our spiritual dimensions to be split from our physical ones. We are designed to be indivisible, not divided.
Dark Ideas of Anthropology
The kingdom of darkness promotes a distorted, very different idea of anthropology.
The kingdom of darkness strongly promotes the idea that we are disintegrated, that we are the sum of various parts. So, we can satisfy the desires of our hearts through the body or through the mind. That we can disassociate parts of ourselves without any consequences for the rest of us.
Our Body as our Core.
When we embrace the idea that our deepest desires can be met through our bodies or minds without affecting the rest of us, we quickly head off course. A simple example is found in the current culture of sex.
Letโs say a Christian man is sleeping around. The typical response is to remind him that sleeping around is a sin, and perhaps pair him up with an accountability partner. Maybe that works, maybe it doesnโt.
But whatโs going on beneath the surface? This man is sinning, but is this just a behavior of his body that has no ties to his heart, to his nature as a spiritual creature? To call his behavior a sin without looking beneath the surface to explore his heart’s desires does him a disservice. There may be several factors at play, but one is that he has a distorted view of anthropology.
His heart has legitimate, good desires for closeness, for intimacy, to be known. We all desire to be known. His heart yearns for good things. However, heโs attempting to dis-integrate himself. He believes his desire to be known can be satisfied through his body without affecting his mind or heart.
In some cases, his heart has been broken โ maybe through his childhood, maybe through betrayal or other harm. And so, he basically scrambles to satisfy his spiritual desires through his body to cover up the pain and anger in his heart.
And sleeping around works about as well as any other attempt to numb the heartโs pain: it provides temporary, fake relief with no lasting fulfillment. In this case, he drags the women he sleeps with down with him, and he harms himself and them in an attempt to fix his own broken desires.
When I said that the ideas of darkness are designed to kill us, just consider that bad ideas of anthropology related to sex alone result in one in five people in the U.S. experiencing a sexually transmitted disease on any given day. It costs around $16B a year to treat them.[6]
The body is most certainly a necessary and vital part of our spiritual formation. We are unified beings. But our bodies cannot complete spiritual fulfillment. In fact, in Christianity, we practice depriving the body. We call it fasting. We purposefully deny the body its desires for a period of time and dive into our hearts, reminding ourselves that spiritual formation is centered in our spirits.
Our Mind as Our Core
Is the mind important and essential to spiritual formation? Yes. Romans 12:2 says we โare transformed by the renewing of our minds.โ Letโs just make sure we note Romans 12:1. We are to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, which is our spiritual service of worship. Spiritual, meaning of the heart, in our core. Paul reminds us that we are integrated. Body, spirit, mind. Just like the body does and must integrate with the spirit in our formation, so also the mind does and must integrate with the spirit in our formation.
Jonathan Edwards wrote about the necessary role of the mind in the transformation of the heart. He said, โAll truth is given by revelation, either general or special, and it must be received by reason. Reason is the God-given means for discovering the truth that God discloses, whether in his world or his Word. While God wants to reach the heart with truth, he does not bypass the mind.โ
I suspect thatโs why youโre listening to this podcast or reading this blog. Our minds are focused on the assumption that our hearts will be affected.
But is it possible to have hundreds of Bible verses memorized, a brilliant systematic theology, the worldโs most accurate doctrine, and still be a jackwagon? Sure. There are far too many stories of amazing theologians and teachers who are ill-tempered, deeply insecure, and power-hungry.
Is it possible to have hundreds of Bible verses memorized, a brilliant systematic theology, the worldโs most accurate doctrine, and still have a heart that embraces ideas of darkness contrary to what is being preached and taught? Again yes. Iโm not going to name names, but there have been many Christian leaders over the past few years who have unfortunately made the news for the wrong reasons. Authors, apologists, mega-church leaders, writers, musicians, speakers. Publicly teaching, affirming, and promoting the Ideas of the Kingdom while their hearts were embracing entirely different ideas. Our minds can espouse all sorts of Biblical truth while our hearts are entangled in ideas of darkness.
In modern Christianity, we tend to read these types of unfortunate stories and just chalk it up to sin. โWell, weโre still sinners,โ we say to ourselves. While thatโs true, itโs a surface answer that doesnโt dive into the human heart to ask, โWhy did we sin?โ
We donโt sin at random. We sin because we want something that the kingdom of darkness offers. Whether we sin in thought, word, behavior, or relationship, what we do is tied to what we desire. Thatโs why dismissing sin without investigating our hearts is so dangerous. We can be sorry – we can even claim repentance. If we donโt do the hard work of uncovering the ideas and desires that drive our behavior, weโre just going to keep repeating the same sin over and over again.
Anthropology and the Sinnerโs Prayer
Sometimes these harmful ideas of anthropology can very quietly, very subtly show up right in the middle of modern Christianity. They arenโt as plainly evident as a sex-saturated culture or some unfortunate, public scandal involving an intelligent, charismatic, Christian leader.
When I was six years old, I remember lying in bed and having a conversation with God. I told God I didnโt want to go to hell when I died, and I really wanted to go to heaven. So, I became a Christian. When I was around thirteen, I was sitting in the back row of a Methodist church in Erie, Pennsylvania, listening to a presentation of the Gospel by a man named Ray Zimmerman. His words struck me like lightning, and when he offered an altar call at the end of the service, I walked down the aisle, tears streaming down my face, knelt, and repeated a prayer commonly known as the โSinnerโs Prayer.โ After a few minutes, I stood up from the altar and felt, very meaningfully, like a brand-new person. In fact, I was.
If youโre not familiar with the Sinnerโs Prayer, also known as the Prayer of Salvation, itโs a prayer offered to someone typically at the end of an evangelistic church service or a one-on-one conversation about the Gospel of Salvation. A short version goes like this:
โLord Jesus, Iโm a sinner. I believe You died for my sins so I could be forgiven. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for coming into my life. Amen.โ Chances are if youโve been a Christian for a while, you may have prayed a Sinnerโs Prayer or at least heard it offered at some point in person or on a video.
Hereโs an important question: How many people have become Christians by repeating the Sinnerโs Prayer? The answer? None. I didnโt become a Christian by repeating the Sinnerโs Prayer just like I didnโt become Brazilian by repeating Brazilโs Pledge of Allegiance.
What does this have to do with Ideas of Anthropology? We need to be very careful not to presume that salvation is solely the work of our minds and our mouths. That we are saved because we said a prayer or provided some verbal affirmation of our belief.
A little history here. The concept of the Sinnerโs prayer, developed in the 1700s by American revivalists, was codified and standardized in the 20th century by two American evangelists, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.
The Sinnerโs prayer is an American tradition that has spread worldwide, primarily through the influence of Graham and other evangelical organizations. So, the use of the Sinnerโs Prayer in modern evangelism is less than one hundred years old.
There are no examples of the Sinnerโs Prayer in Scripture.
When Peter finished his first mass-evangelism sermon in Acts 2, he didnโt ask if anyone wanted to receive Jesus into their hearts, nor did he lead them in a prayer. In Acts 17, Paul makes a brilliant case for the Gospel in Athens without even saying Jesusโ name. Some people came to faith, but there is no evidence of a prayer of salvation. In personal conversations or public sermons, there are no biblical examples of a prayer being used to offer or indicate salvation.
But Billy Grahamโs influence has been so profound that many evangelism training programs today contain instructions and points on how to offer the Sinnerโs Prayer, and it is widely seen as โclosing the deal.โ Iโve been trained on a few of these evangelism programs.
Ray Comfort, an evangelist and YouTuber, no longer uses the Sinnerโs Prayer in his efforts. In his book God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message, he claims that 80-90% of people who make some sort of profession of faith (such as the Sinnerโs Prayer) fall away from the faith. Meaning they were never truly converted in the first place.[7]
His concern is that to โclose the deal,โ modern Christianity is not actually preaching the full Gospel of Salvation. Rather, we are providing a few cursory facts from Scripture and leading people in a prayer, in some cases consciously or unconsciously leading them to believe the prayer itself saves them. All they need to do is repeat some words like some sort of incantation.
And while we are quick to share with people that Jesus died for their sins and they can have eternal life in heaven, weโre not as quick to teach them repentance, the recognition of the weight and horror of our sin from which we are to turn. Christianity is often positioned, consciously or unconsciously, as fire insurance with no expectations on the insured.
But a true disciple is a whole new creature with a whole new identity in a whole new kingdom โ at the moment we repent and believe. And although the price of our sins was certainly paid on the cross, the Christian life nonetheless comes with a price.
In other words, are we running the risk of evangelizing based on an idea of anthropology that suggests we are converted by repeating a prayer or giving mental agreement to a set of facts (something the mind can easily do) without the transformation of the heart and a deeper, fuller understanding of what the Gospel actually is?
A friend of mine approached me after a Soil and Roots class, where we discussed this, and shared a story that illustrates the point.
My friend had been following Jesus for several years when she got into a conversation with an older Christian woman whom she adored. When the older woman found out my friend had never prayed the Sinnersโ Prayer, she became visibly concerned and tried to pressure my friend to say it. She was concerned my friend wasnโt actually โsaved,โ because she had never repeated words from a script.
Evidence of conversion may include a spoken prayer, but it may not. If we believe a person must pray or repeat some set of words to be converted, we have apparently nullified every conversion story in the New Testament.
I mentioned that I wept as I walked down the aisle of my church when I was 13. I wasnโt weeping because I was glad Jesus saved me; that came later. I was weeping because the weight and despair of my sin came crashing down on me. I was sorry, terribly sorry, for the sins I had committed and realized I had no hope to save myself. I had to be rescued. I was desperate to be rescued.
I recall saying a sinnerโs prayer, but I canโt recall what I said. But I do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God granted me repentance, and because of that, I accepted Jesusโ invitation to place my faith in him. Repentance and beliefโฆin my heart.
Is the use of the Sinnerโs prayer or some sort of invitation bad? Iโm not convinced of that. I think evangelism can take many forms, as long as it clearly explains, educates, and clarifies repentance and belief. God is loving and holy. We canโt properly share Godโs love and forgiveness without clearly explaining what weโre being saved from.
But if inviting someone to pray is not required for evangelization, and repeating a prayer is not necessarily evidence of conversion, why should we use it? Thatโs a fair question and one that anyone concerned with the Gospel should consider. Many churches and organizations count prayers of salvation and report those numbers in their communications and fundraising efforts. If we need to report numbers, we may report the number of disciples rather than converts.
Someone might argue that we canโt have disciples without first making converts. I think thatโs backward. If 80-90% of people who make a profession of faith arenโt actually converted, we might have far more converts if we were far more intentional about making disciples.
We should ensure we view even evangelism through the correct anthropological lens. Is our intention to try to get a verbal profession from someone as an act of the mind, or take the time, energy, and effort to disciple people, in hopes that they passionately, willfully, and comprehensively follow Jesus with their hearts?
I think Greg Koukl sums this up rather well. He says, โDonโt press someone to pray a prayer. Instead, encourage them to follow Jesus. When we emphasize deciding for Christ instead of living for Him, we often get spiritual miscarriages instead of spiritual births.โ[8]
As we continue our journey into deep discipleship, mining our hearts to uncover the hidden ideas that form there, itโs important we even consider what it means to be human. We are, in fact, on a critical journey, one that involves us challenging our own assumptions and conclusions to determine if they align with those of our King.
Thanks for listening!ย If youโd like more information on Soil and Roots, check out the website at www.soilandroots.org. You can sign up for our emails there and, if you feel led, donate to Soil and Roots’ work.ย Feel free to email us at fish@soilandroots.org. Weโll see you next time.
[1]Hagberg, J. & Guelich, R. (2005). The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith (p. 93). Sheffield Publishing Company.
[2] Hagberg, J. & Guelich, R. (2005). The Critical Journey (pp. 114-115). Sheffield Publishing Company.
[3] Hagberg, J. & Guelich, R. (2005). The Critical Journey (pp. 152-153). Sheffield Publishing Company.
[4] Pearcy, N. (2018). Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (p. 21). Baker Books.
[5] Pearcy. Love They Body (p. 50). Baker Books.
[6] https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/fact-sheets/std/STI-Incidence-Prevalence-Cost-Factsheet.html#:~:text=CDC’s%20latest%20estimates%20indicate%20that,in%20direct%20medical%20costs%20alone.
[7] Comfort, R. (2010). God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message (p. 18). Ray Comfort.
[8] https://www.str.org/w/why-the-sinner-s-prayer-has-me-concerned-and-a-biblical-alternative
