The world is a messy place, both good and bad are evident in and around us. There’s a reason for this which isn’t always readily apparent. There’s a supernatural world not seen with the human eyes (that link takes you to a youth version of a programme of study with a presentation that’s helpful in understanding what’s happening). This world puts pressure on us. This pressure can come covertly by rejection of what we believe or overtly by persecution. The Bible has a long running narrative of chaos which if you dig deeper into it has a lot of threads reaching out from it into the world. That aside leads into what I am writing about here.
In my listening to podcasts about things I’m interested in I have come across various people who become friends in one sense as they have my ear in an intimate way. The only thing about that is it’s very one sided and the friendship isn’t reciprocated. This begs the question is it really friendship? Probably not. One of these friends has been a long standing friend now for over a couple of years now. He has on one of his shows an anthropologist who is very interesting to listen to. I punched his name into a search on a podcast provider and saw he was being interviewed. As I glanced down the list of episodes something piqued my interest which has led me to yet another podcast.
The show in question was highlighting the situation in Iran regarding the church. I’ve heard elsewhere that the church in Iran is the fastest growing church in the world probably along with Afghanistan, due to the similarity in the Farsi language to Dari which is spoken there. It looks like they are the same language apart from accent.
On this podcast Reclaiming the Faith Episode 105 (which incidentally I didn’t listen to – it was enough to just see the podcast synopsis. I might listen to it at some point) Phil S Baker is speaking to one of the producers of the film Sheep Among Wolves ii. This is a challenging film. Thankfully it’s divided up into chapters. I watched it in three or four sessions as it got to me.
The film is documentary style with music, interviews, landscape scenes and commentary. Some Iranian believers are interviewed but they are strongly blurred and their voices are distorted to not identify who they are. These believers share their stories.
One of the issues that really struck me from the film is the process of discipleship which they refer to as Disciple Making Ministry (DMM). This model could be transposed into our culture. The film challenges us in the West with the freedom that we have to wake up from sleepiness. An Iranian Christian who was in America and had the opportunity to stay there didn’t want to and said that the church there is under the influence of a Satanic lullaby. Her reasons for saying that are explained in the film.
On a similar note I have been made aware of a similar DMM model which has been taken up by a local British church. This has been espoused by Elam Ministries who work to encourage the church in Persia and the Middle East. This other model which I refer to is known as co-journeying in English which I think is a great word and concept. We are all on a journey, hopefully that journey is in the right direction one of following Christ. Wouldn’t it be good that we’re sharing that journey with at least one other? Isn’t that one of the main things Christ asks of us?
These folk in Iran that are in the film are ordinary people who sense the call of Jesus to step out of their comfort zones and share his good news by making disciples from the get go. They use this DMM method with great success even through trouble and pressure. They emphasise that it does need to be done in partnership with the Holy Spirit. They look for a person of peace asking the Holy Spirit to guide them to such a person and when they find that person praying that the Holy Spirit would show them what part of their story to share.
I’m challenged by the film, about my part in the great commission specifically how I disciple. I think I have like many of us in the West, relied on the church I attend to do the discipling.
To disciple using the DMM approach seems to be a friendly way of sharing our faith. Yet its more than just sharing our faith as it gets straight to the point of Jesus’ mission. Isn’t the point of the word commission to be partnering? The ‘co‘ in commission means to do it in partnership. It’s a one-on-one approach which I think Jesus knew we could achieve. To actually see our conversations that we have with others as discipleship certainly hones our attitudes to be more alert to the opportunities in front of us.
I need to ask more frequently, every moment – what is it you want me to say here Holy Spirit to this person in front of me? What is friendship if it’s not that which the Father longs to have with all of us and that challenges me. I think there maybe a strong connection between discipleship, friendship and family in the kingdom of God. I want to dig deeper into that. How about you? I think we need to relearn or just learn how to make disciples.
The Christian novelist Madeleine L’Engle once said,
“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”