Discipleship and Christian Higher Education
A message from Dr. Jim Holm, President
We cannot read the words of Jesus without asking the question, “Did he really mean that?” We ask that question because Jesus said some amazing things. For example, Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Did he mean to say that? Or consider this statement, “Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Did he intend to be taken seriously? Or this declaration, “If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell.” Again, I submit to you, we must ask the question, “is that what he really meant to say and did he mean to be taken seriously when he said it?”
Despite the interpretative difficulties of those statements I have just quoted, I assume that we all agree that Jesus meant to be taken seriously, that he meant what he said, that he didn’t just string together words in order to shock people. I assume that when Jesus spoke he meant to be understood and, beyond that, he meant to be obeyed.
That understanding of Jesus' intentions is especially important when we come to the subject of Christian Education, because we have to ask again, “Did Jesus mean that? Did he mean to say that? Did he mean to be taken seriously?” The mission of all Christian Education is summarized by Jesus in one verse, Matthew 28:20. That verse is part of the Great Commission, which announces Jesus' mandate for the church. You are all familiar with this text. As he meets his eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee, after the resurrection, Jesus reminds them that he has all the authority of the heavenly Father granted to him. He then gives his disciples a two-fold assignment. The first is the assignment of evangelism: “As you go and make disciples of all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The second is the assignment of Christian Education. This is what Jesus says, “Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” That, my sisters and brothers, is our assignment—to teach people to obey everything that Jesus commanded. That is the task of Christian Education. And Jesus meant it. He meant that it is possible for every person, for every church, for every follower of Christ to learn to obey everything which he had commanded, and to mature to the point where obedience to Jesus flowed naturally from us as obedience to the Father did from Christ himself.
“Our mission is to teach those whom God brings across our path to obey everything which Jesus commanded.” That is our mandate.
And how will it be done? How will we teach people to do everything that Jesus commanded? What does this mean? First, we need to understand that there are several things that this commandment of Jesus does not mean. First, it does not mean conformity to a certain way of living, or a certain standard of behavior. Legalism would do just fine for that. Second, it is not the ability to express doctrine correctly, to exegete a passage, to rightly divide the word of truth. Third, it does not mean that we are encouraging church attendance or faithful stewardship. Finally, it does not mean that we are asking people to seek for special experiences of the Holy Spirit. Any or all of these things may happen, but none of them are the primary focus of Christian Education.
Our objective is nothing less than that people become like Jesus, transformed into his image, as 2 Corinthians points out. Our objective is that people become so like Christ that they live their lives the way Christ would live them if he were they. When that happens, the second part of the Great Commission will be literally fulfilled, as Jesus intended.
If the mandate of Christian Education can be reduced to one sentence, Matthew 28:20, then the method to carry out that mandate can be reduced, in its simplest terms, to two objectives. When you cut right to the heart of it, these two things are what we are attempting to do.
First, we must bring our students, every student, to the place where they love God and constantly delight in him, where they understand that God is made real in Jesus and that they are absolutely certain that there is no limit to God’s good intentions for us or to his power to carry them out. That is our first objective.
The second objective is to help our students break those habits that automatically lead them to disobey the commandments of Jesus and to help them form habits that will enable them to live naturally as Jesus would live if he were they.
Let me summarize these two objectives for you, for when we have them, we have the ministry of Christian Higher Education in hand. Our first objective is to bring people to the point where they see our heavenly Father as infinitely good and understand that he sees them as infinitely precious. In short, they must learn to focus their minds on God. This is what Paul meant when he referred to the renewing of your mind as essential for understanding the will of God. In order to help them focus their minds on God, we must bring God before their minds in every possible way. That is why our students must learn to exegete the scriptures, to read meditatively and reflectively, to see the beauty and the majesty of God as revealed in his written word. It is why our students must learn to worship, to see God in creation, in music, in art, in other people, even in the circumstances of life. It is why we must recite the acts of God in our own lives, telling our students again and again that he is faithful, that he does what he said he would do. Again and again, and yet again our students must see a picture of God. The Apostle Paul told us as much when he wrote, “How are they to believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” Our first objective in Christian education is to bring our students to the place where they love God and constantly delight in him.
Our second objective with our students is to break those habits which naturally lead to disobedience and to train them in habits which naturally lead to obedience to Jesus. Every person has habits which naturally lead one into wrongdoing and evil. Our inclination to disobey God is because we have learned to be disobedient. Our desire to dominate others, or to lie, or to be sexually abusive, or to be lazy, are the result of habits we have allowed ourselves to learn. The task of Christian education is to break these sinful habits and to replace them with habits that enable us to obey Jesus naturally.
This work of changing habits is bodily work, which must be done in our bodies. God will help us to change these habits, but he will not do it for us. We are required to work out our own salvation, as Philippians says. All of our attempts at Christian Education will be futile, and indeed the present condition of the church in North America reveals this, unless we change the habits of disobedience which people who desire to follow Jesus customarily have.
There are three things necessary for sinful habits to be changed into those habits that reflect the character of Jesus. First, and this must be first, we must recognize that this will take the work of the Holy Spirit. When Paul writes, in Romans 8:13, “…if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,” he is telling us that the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming our bodily habits is absolutely essential. Unless the Holy Spirit is at work, there will be no transformation into the character of Jesus.
Second, our students must come to understand that the experiences of daily life are the laboratory God uses to develop the likeness of Jesus in us. In Romans 5, and again in James 1, our Lord tells us that we need to boast in our sufferings, because suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character hope. Furthermore, we can know that whatever comes to us is a sign of God’s goodness to us. Our students need to learn that it is in these daily experiences of life that we actually live out the kingdom of God.
Third, and finally, we all participate in our own spiritual growth. This is the clear message of the second half of Ephesians, of large passages in Colossians, and the last third of the book of Romans. We participate in our own growth by the spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices in which we engage. These practices train us to do things Jesus did until we develop the habits Jesus had which, along with the work of the Holy Spirit, and the circumstances of life, lead to the formation of the character of Christ in us.
What will our students look like if we have been successful in Christian education? The outcome of Christian Education is that each person will be formed into the likeness of Jesus Christ, manifesting the character and conduct of Christ, speaking, thinking and acting the way Jesus would if he were that person. When Christ has been formed in us, and in our students, our task of Christian Education will be complete.
(An extended version of this message was first given to a group of Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren educators from around the globe during a consultation on higher education during June 2007.)