 MAKING DISCIPLES: what's it gonna take?
by Charlie Davis
Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in November, 2004, shortly after delivering the manuscripts for three books which have become international block busters, beginning with the book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Larsson, in addition to writing in a thriller style, had an agenda: he wanted to expose the corruption of power, most notably among the rich and in the government. This agenda included exposing the dark underside of a male-dominated power structure, including crimes of the sex industry, and more generally, crimes against women, particularly in Sweden. The books are dark and distressing. Having been the editor of a news journal himself, he was familiar with the difference between the world the way it appears and the way it really is.
Lisbeth Salander, one of the books’ two main protagonists, is a young woman with prodigious computer skills, tattoos, piercings, a tragic family history, and an attitude. Lisbeth has a deep distrust of all institutional authority, having been let down over and over again by those who had more power than she had, including her parents, her teachers, the police, and the government institutions that tried to intervene in her upbringing. She has decided that the only person she can hope to rely on is one per- son, and one person alone, herself. If harassed or attacked, she learns to react and fight with lightning speed even though she only weighs 90 lbs., earning her the nickname of Wasp.
Lisbeth is living in one of the most modern, progressive, wealthy, urban societies on the face of the earth, but it appears to be rotting at the core. Can Lisbeth trust anyone at all? Will she let her guard down for anyone? If she does, will she be hurt again? Can anyone get through to Lisbeth to really help her?
And here is the question for any serious reader of TEAM Horizons: What would it take for Lisbeth Sa- lander to want to become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Lisbeth will never, never, never, darken the door of a church building, she will never go to a church program, she will never get close to a male-dominated power structure. In Lisbeth’s world of post-modern Europe, Christianity is an institution and no institutions can be trusted, particularly the institutional church which has been riven with scandals through- out Europe, Latin America, and the United States.
The only two people who get at all close to Lisbeth in the first two books do so because they work beside her for months without judging her, accepting her for who she is, and demonstrating disinterested concern for her as a person. Everyone else has an agenda, and she is the object.
Which brings me to at least two growing convictions.
First, if we ever expect to see young people like Lisbeth want to become disciples of Jesus, we must not fall into the trap of seeing them as objects for our agenda. Each person out there, whether young or old, anorexic or obese, short or tall, beautiful or ugly, black or white, straight or gay, tattooed or not, is a person created by God, whom God loves with abandon, and for whom God died. Our job is to ex- tend that kind of love to them. We must never allow ourselves to think that they are an object for our success. The measurements that we in the evangelical community often use, “souls saved, church members, youth group attendees” are poison to someone like Lisbeth, and they are demeaning to anyone else. Jesus looked at the rich young ruler and “loved him.” He didn’t see him as an object or number; he saw him as a complete person. And he knew what step the young man needed to take next.
I am appalled at how easily I can think of other people as objects. Having lived in Caracas, a dense urban environment, I often saw people as unwanted obstacles, too many in line in front of me to pay my light bill, too many in their cars causing traffic jams. Or in a sex-soaked environment it was easy to see the women as objects for one’s pleasure. Whenever judgmental thoughts start coming my way I have begun repeating to myself, “That person was made by God. God loves that person, he died for that person. That person is responsible before God for his or her choices. My job is to love that person in the Name of Jesus.”
Second, if we are going to encourage young people like Lisbeth to become disciples of Jesus, the Body of Christ has to get out of the institution. Institutions almost always include property, programs, and power structures. But do these institutions launch the people of God, the Bride of Christ, into society, or do they trap and smother the people who venture into them?
The pastor of our church used an illustration recently of a car track for matchbox cars. Every time the car whizzes around the track it slows down until it reaches a house where it is launched forward again around the track. When the people of God gather as the Body of Christ, they should function like that “track house,” “encouraging one another to love and good deeds.”
May all of the churches in which we are involved launch us and others out into society where we can walk alongside people like Lisbeth long enough that she would begin to wonder why someone cares that deeply about her. Someone who loves her with- out judging her, without turning her into an object, without trying to suck her in to an institution which might betray her. Just like Jesus.
(The reference to Stieg Larsson’s books in this article is in no way to be construed as a recommendation for the books by the author of this article or the editors of TEAMHorizons.) |
So, what exactly does it mean to be a disciple? Seemed important to Jesus, but I’m not sure I know what he means anymore. And, for that matter, what does it mean to make disciples? And why in the world would we want to sacrifice our time, energy and money to send someone somewhere else in the world to make disciples? And what does the church have to do with any of it? 
Several images continue to inspire churches, new recruits, and giving to global mission. Many of these images are aligned with poverty or primitive cultures: a tribal person with a bone in his nose; a little yellow airplane dropping gifts in a basket to Indians who have never seen a white man; pleading eyes of an orphan with a distended stomach; people living in ragged tents whose homes have been destroyed by war or natural disasters. All of these images are true, but they are only half the truth. 
