God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ.
That’s the beginning of our church’s vision statement. It’s also a
reflection of our core Anabaptist theology, a conviction that the very
heart of being a Christian is to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ.
An early Anabaptist was once asked, “What is your vocation?” He replied, “My vocation is to be a Christian. To make a living, I am a tailor.” Since a “vocation” is “a call to a certain work,” our first and most important vocation or calling is to follow Jesus.
When Jesus began his ministry, he announced: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Then he called people to follow him as disciples. He began by calling the brothers Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. He kept calling others and eventually named the group we know as the “Twelve Disciples.” Jesus didn’t stop there. If you trace the word “disciple” through the Gospel of Luke, you will find several concentric circles of disciples, beginning with the Twelve. For example, Luke 10:1-23 tells about the commissioning of a group of 72 disciples. Might he have asked each of the Twelve to find six additional people?
Jesus’ call to discipleship did not change when Jesus died and rose again. After his resurrection, he told the Twelve to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20). In the book of Acts, after the resurrection of Christ, “Christian” appears only twice as a designation for Christ-followers, while disciples appears 30 times. The point is that even if we call ourselves Christians, in reality, we are Christians-in-the-making; we are still learning, still following. In the book of Acts,
“followers of the way” is another name for Christians.
Jesus’ invitation to discipleship was for life. Jesus leads the way, showing what it means to live under the reign of God. We are called to be learners, imitating the ways of Jesus, to discover what it means to live under God’s authority and power. Consequently, none of us can claim to have “graduated.”
A very important part of a disciple’s ministry is to call others to be disciples of Jesus. The good news that we have in Jesus Christ is not just for us. We are called to look beyond to the places to which Jesus calls and sends us to serve in his name—as disciples.
