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My goal is to share some of the best thoughts and writings on “following Jesus” from various sources. I will make every effort to credit original authors and/or their blog sites. I will remove all material should we discover it has not been properly credited. Our goal is to promote Jesus. We do not wish to offend any authors. Please email quesitons or concerns.
Enjoy our Guests!
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Jesus Manifesto
How central is Jesus Christ to your Christianity?
Here for your consideration is the Jesus Manifesto published by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola in 2009. Is this what you believe about Jesus Christ? If so, what are the implications?
A Magna Carta
for Restoring the Supremacy of
Jesus Christ
a.k.a.
A Jesus Manifesto
for the 21st Century Church
by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola
Christians have made the gospel about so many things … things other than Christ.
Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives them significance, reality, and meaning. Without him, all things lose their value. Without him, all things are but detached pieces floating around in space.
It is possible to emphasize a spiritual truth, value, virtue, or gift, yet miss Christ . . . who is the embodiment and incarnation of all spiritual truth, values, virtues, and gifts.
Seek a truth, a value, a virtue, or a spiritual gift, and you have obtained something dead.
Seek Christ, embrace Christ, know Christ, and you have touched him who is Life. And in him resides all Truth, Values, Virtues and Gifts in living color. Beauty has its meaning in the beauty of Christ, in whom is found all that makes us lovely and loveable.
What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. Christianity is not an ideology. Christianity is not a philosophy. Christianity is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in a person. Biblical community is founded and found on the connection to that person. Conversion is more than a change in direction; it’s a change in connection. Jesus’ use of the ancient Hebrew word shubh, or its Aramaic equivalent, to call for “repentance” implies not viewing God from a distance, but entering into a relationship where God is command central of the human connection.
In that regard, we feel a massive disconnection in the church today. Thus this manifesto.
We believe that the major disease of the church today is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus is increasingly politically incorrect, and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “the kingdom of God,” “values,” and “leadership principles.”
In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear centers on the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically . . .
1. The center and circumference of the Christian life is none other than the person of Christ. All other things, including things related to him and about him, are eclipsed by the sight of his peerless worth. Knowing Christ is Eternal Life. And knowing him profoundly, deeply, and in reality, as well as experiencing his unsearchable riches, is the chief pursuit of our lives, as it was for the first Christians. God is not so much about fixing things that have gone wrong in our lives as finding us in our brokenness and giving us Christ.
2. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings. Aristotle says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Socrates says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Buddha says to his disciples, “Follow my meditations.” Confucius says to his disciples, “Follow my sayings.” Muhammad says to his disciples, “Follow my noble pillars.” Jesus says to his disciples, “Follow me.” In all other religions, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. Not so with Jesus Christ. The teachings of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is still alive and he embodies his teachings. It is a profound mistake, therefore, to treat Christ as simply the founder of a set of moral, ethical, or social teaching. The Lord Jesus and his teaching are one. The Medium and the Message are One. Christ is the incarnation of the Kingdom of God and the Sermon on the Mount.
3. God’s grand mission and eternal purpose in the earth and in heaven centers in Christ . . . both the individual Christ (the Head) and the corporate Christ (the Body). This universe is moving towards one final goal – the fullness of Christ where He shall fill all things with himself. To be truly missional, then, means constructing one’s life and ministry on Christ. He is both the heart and bloodstream of God’s plan. To miss this is to miss the plot; indeed, it is to miss everything.
4. Being a follower of Jesus does not involve imitation so much as it does implantation and impartation. Incarnation–the notion that God connects to us in baby form and human touch—is the most shocking doctrine of the Christian religion. The incarnation is both once-and-for-all and ongoing, as the One “who was and is to come” now is and lives his resurrection life in and through us. Incarnation doesn’t just apply to Jesus; it applies to every one of us. Of course, not in the same sacramental way. But close. We have been given God’s “Spirit” which makes Christ “real” in our lives. We have been made, as Peter puts it, “partakers of the divine nature.” How, then, in the face of so great a truth can we ask for toys and trinkets? How can we lust after lesser gifts and itch for religious and spiritual thingys? We’ve been touched from on high by the fires of the Almighty and given divine life. A life that has passed through death – the very resurrection life of the Son of God himself. How can we not be fired up?
To put it in a question: What was the engine, or the accelerator, of the Lord’s amazing life? What was the taproot or the headwaters of his outward behavior? It was this: Jesus lived by an indwelling Father. After his resurrection, the passage has now moved. What God the Father was to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is to you and to me. He’s our indwelling Presence, and we share in the life of Jesus’ own relationship with the Father. There is a vast ocean of difference between trying to compel Christians to imitate Jesus and learning how to impart an implanted Christ. The former only ends up in failure and frustration. The latter is the gateway to life and joy in our daying and our dying. We stand with Paul: “Christ lives in me.” Our life is Christ. In him do we live, breathe, and have our being. “What would Jesus do?” is not Christianity. Christianity asks: “What is Christ doing through me … through us? And how is Jesus doing it?” Following Jesus means “trust and obey” (respond), and living by his indwelling life through the power of the Spirit.
5. The “Jesus of history” cannot be disconnected from the “Christ of faith.” The Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee is the same person who indwells the church today. There is no disconnect between the Jesus of Mark’s Gospel and the incredible, all-inclusive, cosmic Christ of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The Christ who lived in the first century has a pre-existence before time. He also has a post-existence after time. He is Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, A and Z, all at the same time. He stands in the future and at the end of time at the same moment that He indwells every child of God. Failure to embrace these paradoxical truths has created monumental problems and has diminished the greatness of Christ in the eyes of God’s people.
6. It’s possible to confuse “the cause” of Christ with the person of Christ. When the early church said “Jesus is Lord,” they did not mean “Jesus is my core value.” Jesus isn’t a cause; he is a real and living person who can be known, loved, experienced, enthroned and embodied. Focusing on his cause or mission doesn’t equate focusing on or following him. It’s all too possible to serve “the god” of serving Jesus as opposed to serving him out of an enraptured heart that’s been captivated by his irresistible beauty and unfathomable love. Jesus led us to think of God differently, as relationship, as the God of all relationship.
7. Jesus Christ was not a social activist nor a moral philosopher. To pitch him that way is to drain his glory and dilute his excellence. Justice apart from Christ is a dead thing. The only battering ram that can storm the gates of hell is not the cry of Justice, but the name of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Justice, Peace, Holiness, Righteousness. He is the sum of all spiritual things, the “strange attractor” of the cosmos. When Jesus becomes an abstraction, faith loses its reproductive power. Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live.
8. It is possible to confuse an academic knowledge or theology about Jesus with a personal knowledge of the living Christ himself. These two stand as far apart as do the hundred thousand million galaxies. The fullness of Christ can never be accessed through the frontal lobe alone. Christian faith claims to be rational, but also to reach out to touch ultimate mysteries. The cure for a big head is a big heart.
Jesus does not leave his disciples with CliffsNotes for a systematic theology. He leaves his disciples with breath and body.
Jesus does not leave his disciples with a coherent and clear belief system by which to love God and others. Jesus gives his disciples wounds to touch and hands to heal.
Jesus does not leave his disciples with intellectual belief or a “Christian worldview.” He leaves his disciples with a relational faith.
Christians don’t follow a book. Christians follow a person, and this library of divinely inspired books we call “The Holy Bible” best help us follow that person. The Written Word is a map that leads us to The Living Word. Or as Jesus himself put it, “All Scripture testifies of me.” The Bible is not the destination; it’s a compass that points to Christ, heaven’s North Star.
The Bible does not offer a plan or a blueprint for living. The “good news” was not a new set of laws, or a new set of ethical injunctions, or a new and better PLAN. The “good news” was the story of a person’s life, as reflected in The Apostle’s Creed. The Mystery of Faith proclaims this narrative: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” The meaning of Christianity does not come from allegiance to complex theological doctrines, but a passionate love for a way of living in the world that revolves around following Jesus, who taught that love is what makes life a success . . . not wealth or health or anything else: but love. And God is love.
9. Only Jesus can transfix and then transfigure the void at the heart of the church. Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his church. While Jesus is distinct from his Bride, he is not separate from her. She is in fact his very own Body in the earth. God has chosen to vest all of power, authority, and life in the living Christ. And God in Christ is only known fully in and through his church. (As Paul said, “The manifold wisdom of God – which is Christ – is known through the ekklesia.”)
The Christian life, therefore, is not an individual pursuit. It’s a corporate journey. Knowing Christ and making him known is not an individual prospect. Those who insist on flying life solo will be brought to earth, with a crash. Thus Christ and his church are intimately joined and connected. What God has joined together, let no person put asunder. We were made for life with God; our only happiness is found in life with God. And God’s own pleasure and delight is found therein as well.
10. In a world which sings, “Oh, who is this Jesus?” and a church which sings, “Oh, let’s all be like Jesus,” who will sing with lungs of leather, “Oh, how we love Jesus!”
If Jesus could rise from the dead, we can at least rise from our bed, get off our couches and pews, and respond to the Lord’s resurrection life within us, joining Jesus in what he’s up to in the world. We call on others to join us—not in removing ourselves from planet Earth, but to plant our feet more firmly on the Earth while our spirits soar in the heavens of God’s pleasure and purpose. We are not of this world, but we live in this world for the Lord’s rights and interests. We, collectively, as the ekklesia of God, are Christ in and to this world.
May God have a people on this earth who are a people of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. A people of the cross. A people who are consumed with God’s eternal passion, which is to make his Son preeminent, supreme, and the head over all things visible and invisible. A people who have discovered the touch of the Almighty in the face of his glorious Son. A people who wish to know only Christ and him crucified, and to let everything else fall by the wayside. A people who are laying hold of his depths, discovering his riches, touching his life, and receiving his love, and making HIM in all of his unfathomable glory known to others.
The two of us may disagree about many things—be they ecclesiology, eschatology, soteriology, not to mention economics, globalism and politics.
The vision that has captured our hearts and that we wish to impart to the Body of Christ— “This ONE THING I know” (Jn.9:25) that is the ONE THING that unites us all:
Jesus the Christ.
Christians don’t follow Christianity; Christians follow Christ.
Christians don’t preach themselves; Christians proclaim Christ.
Christians don’t point people to core values; Christians point people to the cross.
Christians don’t preach about Christ: Christians preach Christ.
Over 300 years ago a German pastor wrote a hymn that built around the Name above all names:
Ask ye what great thing I know,
that delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win?
Whose the name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the crucified.
This is that great thing I know;
this delights and stirs me so:
faith in him who died to save,
His who triumphed o’er the grave:
Jesus Christ, the crucified.
—
Jesus Christ – the crucified, resurrected, enthroned, triumphant, living Lord.
He is our Pursuit, our Passion, and our Life.
Amen
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Heather Lynn Hopson Graff
(January 19, 1984 – April 5, 2010)
Saturday, March 27, 2010 rain
In two weeks it will be the two year anniversary of camdyns birth. wow, i cant believe how quickly time goes by. I truly did not think I could survive that much pain and here I am two years later. My wonderful mother in law sent me a link to the youtube video about a baby girl named audrey caroline smith. Her parents found out that she had abnormalities that were “incompatible with life” when she was 20 weeks pregnant. They decided to hold out hope that God would heal her, and not terminate the pregnancy. The video is a tribute to audrey and the mom singing a song called “I will carry you” It is so so beautiful. I watched it tonight and was reminded of the walk jacob and I were forced to take almost two years ago. Audrey was born and passed away two days before camdyn was born and passed away. Im reminded of the pain and the anger, and the questions that Jacob and I were left with after that life changing day. As I watched the video I held ava, rocking her to sleep. My oh my how Gods grace is so evident in my life today. I wouldnt trade any of the experiences that we have had since camdyns birth. God truly truly answered our prayers. Its so refreshing to be reminded how much He loves us and how He DOES know the desires of our hearts. I still feel pain, and my heart still hurts that I dont have camdyn to hold, but what a joy to know that my sweet baby girl and ava’s big sister is in the arms of Jesus.
happy almost – two – year birthday with Jesus
camdyn reese graff 4.9.08
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
the calling
I recently stumbled upon a blog that realllllly got my attention.
I havent even gotten to read more than five or six of her posts, but its about a girl that moved away from home for what she thought was going to be a year. well, its much more than that. She moved to uganda. Apparently she has adopted a lot of children and has had to sacrifice a “normal” life in order to pursue God’s will. I love her words, she said in a round about way, forgive me if I misquote, but “there is no sacrifice in Christ but instead there is eternal gain” woa.
How quickly life can “happen” and I find myself trying to live a “normal” life. Wanting a big house, a nice car, lots of money, some kind of status in society. Her blog caused me to ask myself, where did THAT Heather go? The Heather that wanted nothing more than to be set-apart, sold out, if you will for Christ. How could I so easily forget the power of Christ. The calling.
I went to china once. As I sat there and read this amazing woman’s blog, I felt an inner pull so strong that it literally brought tears to my eyes. A pull, a magnet as I described it to jacob, pulling me towards missions. Towards leaving this “normal” life behind and serving God in China. The reality of God’s will is that comfort is not a priority. Of course, God loves us and rejoices when we are happy, but our purpose is NOT to be happy. I believe that our purpose is to glorify God.
I am so moved by this woman, sooo inspired. I long to have that devotion. My oh my, so much work to be done on myself.
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A New Interpretation of John 3:16
Written by AJ Sherrill | 02 February 2010
It’s the verse that shows up in the oddest of places. But does it produce even an ounce of conviction when displayed in the West today? When this passage appears, it’s likened to someone pulling the trigger on a colt revolver loaded with blanks. From billboards to greetings cards; T-shirts to football games, John 3:16 is, without question, among the most overused and undervalued passages in the entire New Testament.
I am not suggesting that John 3:16 is cliché in and of itself. Rather, that the original force behind the text has been lost in a sea of familiarity. Although it may be overused to the point of inoculation, there is another aspect longing to be revealed, which is the subject matter of this conversation. But before revealing a radical re-translation, let’s look at the traditional reading of this passage:
For God so loved that world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Gr. ζωή αἰώνιον) [1].
There is nothing false in this rendering of the text. So, I have no argument there as far as translation goes. However, our understanding of this word usage lacks luster given the evolution of language. It seems emerging generations are increasingly less and less captivated by life after death. That is not to say that they are disinterested all together, but that God is redeeming creation now, and is inviting His church into the story of recreation. This is the heartbeat of God’s stirring among emerging generations. It is this worldview that is unleashing the church to a greater imagination of what could be rather than waiting for Jesus to descend on a cloud, validating one’s pre-tribulation eschatology.
One of the greatest tragedies in Western Christianity has been her obsession of the afterlife to the exclusion of this one. Even the language “afterlife” can be confusing as it naturally renders this one to “beforelife” and that cannot possibly more false. I’ve come across more book titles and Sunday morning topics this year devoted to Heaven than I can remember in the last decade combined.
With this in mind, permit me to offer a new way of reading the John 3:16 text—a way, I trust, that will help us re-imagine the full thrust of the text and redeem it from the shackles of cliché. The following articulation of the text I believe is not only within the bounds of proper exegesis, but also awakens the senses to view this passage as imminent rather than distant, here now rather than there then, active rather than passive.
For God so loved that world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have the life of the age to come (Gr. ζωή αἰώνιον). [2]
I offer this alternative not as nuance, but as an utter shift in current thinking. The first translation (everlasting life) leads the reader to believe in God’s proactive love for the purpose of one cashing in on another life at the conclusion of the one at hand. It is an alternative landscape suggesting that Jesus came not only for humanity’s future but also for humanity’s present. This previous way is entirely transactional and promotes this life as a kind of waiting room. Further, that brand of atrophic thinking spawns passivity, consumerism and Gnostic values. [3]
However, what I am suggesting is that God’s love, received in a believer, is a reality that not only promises life, life and more life for the age to come, but is about pulling the gravity of the future eschaton into reality today. God’s love, through the Son, is literally the agent that empowers a believer to live supernaturally in the life at hand.
Further, I would go so far to suggest that this is what sanctification entirely consists of—pulling the future eschaton into today more and more each day. John states in his Gospel that the life eternal is not about what happens to you upon death (although life upon death is certainly part of the package), but is knowing God and embracing Jesus4. Eternal life has begun. Act like it. Be transformed.
So, next time you see a ridiculous fan waiving “John 3:16” while watching the Detroit Lions lose to ____________ (fill in the blank, any opponent will do), be reminded that life eternal is a present, ongoing reality that has begun in this life and will guide us safely into the next.
[1] ESV
[2] See Borg’s, Heart of Christianity
[3] See 2 Thessalonians 3 for Paul’s perspective on the issue at hand
[5] John 17:3
Discipling Followers of Jesus
From a blog by Roger Thoman at Simple Church Journal.
Continuing on the discussion of discipleship, I want to talk about what I call the “Jesus and dot dot dot” syndrome. This means that we have often been discipled (and are thus discipling others) by learning to follow Jesus… and… something in addition. We follow Jesus… and… the set of doctrines that our church teaches in order to “protect” the Gospel. We follow Jesus… and… the rules (mostly unspoken) that we must follow to fully belong to the Christian culture we are a part of. We follow Jesus… and… the teachings of our pastor who works hard to make Jesus relevant and understandable. We follow Jesus… and… the latest pop-teacher that we are listening to. We follow Jesus… and… the core teachings of our denomination. We follow Jesus… and… the instructions of our latest church-leadership guru (even house-church-leadership guru).
The problem is not that we are listening to good teachers, or learning from others. The problem is that, in our own insecurity or anxiety around being a pure follower of just-Jesus, we take comfort in following others who interpret what it means to be a follower. This provides us with an easier path and gives us a sense of security in the journey. The result is that we end up putting this alternative body of information/teaching right up there alongside of Jesus. We look to Him, yes, but then we look to others to make sure that we are interpreting Him correctly. We end up seeing Him through the lenses of others. We end up with human mediators between us and Jesus. We end up with a watered-down experience of daily following just-Jesus.
The “Jesus and dot dot dot” syndrome leads to two significant (as in huge) problems:
- We, ourselves, lose sight of what it means to radically follow the untamed Jesus.
- We make the issue of discipling others far too complicated, difficult, and inaccessible.
Let’s briefly look at each of these.
When Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone (which meets our daily physical needs) but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, he was pointing to a daily followership. We digest, grasp, listen to, and walk out what God is speaking to us each and every day. Yesterday’s digested word will not provide direction for our lives today. That he meant to lead us in such a consistent, radical way is further seen by his challenges to wannabe-disciples who first want to bury a father or say good-bye to their family before following Jesus in-the-now (Luke 9).
The prospect of actually facing Jesus head-on, in daily followership, leads to a radical, obedience-oriented, undomesticated lifestyle. If this prospect does not make us tremble somewhat (both fear and excitement), then we may have lost our taste for it. Instead, we prefer to look at the lifestyles of those who have interpreted Jesus to us and do our best to emulate them or implement their understanding of the Jesus-lifestyle. This is so much safer (seemingly) though the consequences may leave us far from the mark of a true disciple.
Terry Eagleton says:
“[Jesus] is presented [in the Gospels] as homeless, propertyless, peripatetic, socially marginal, disdainful of kinfolk, without a trade or occupation, a friend of outcasts and pariahs, averse to material possessions, without fear for his own safety, a thorn in the side of the Establishment and a scourge of the rich and powerful.” (Quote taken from Frost & Hirsch, ReJesus, p. 20)
My own life-as-a-disciple hinges on this question: Do I really want to listen to, today, and wrestle with, today, that Jesus (as he reveals himself in his own word) and make the decision, today, to fully be his follower.
This issue takes on even greater significance as we turn our attention to discipling others. Why? Because it takes a great deal of human effort and energy to “properly” disciple someone to follow Jesus and to understand all that needs to be explained and interpreted so that the new disciple can follow Jesus “properly” (according to whatever comes after the dot dot dot). We commit ourselves (remarkably) to gargantuan efforts to make sure that new disciples are properly taught a Christian worldview (how to think), a Christian theology (what to believe), and a Christian culture (how to behave). Yet in this massive knowledge-focused download, we often sidestep the central issue of discipleship: what is Jesus showing you (speaking to you, revealing to you by his word) today and how are you going to walk that out?
When discipleship becomes truly focused on following Jesus today, the new disciple can pick this up almost instantaneously when it is modeled by a practitioner (discipler who is also following daily).
This does not mean that there is no purpose in walking alongside of new disciples. But it does mean that we shift the heavy lifting from the shoulders of the discipler (imparting all of the necessary knowledge and information about thoughts, beliefs, and behavior) to the shoulders of the Holy Spirit who actually is big enough to transform those who are choosing to listen and follow daily. Furthermore, the activity of the Holy Spirit in this process is not primarily facilitated by the “gifted” efforts of the discipler, rather the Holy Spirit is engaged as the new disciple picks up the task of discovering God’s communication to her daily and then wrestling with how to apply it in her life.
We have made discipleship far too complicated (the need to impart massive amounts of information in transformative ways—as if we can do that) yet also too comfortable (not requiring the discipler and disciple to follow Jesus radically. By turning this around, discipleship does become far more challenging in terms of our own followership, yet also far easier, simpler, more transferable and accessible as we simply invite others to learn how to do the same.
We could wrap up by looking at some tools for this, but sometimes we take tools and use them as shortcuts. Perhaps we just need to focus, for now, on the basic issue of being a follower today.
