When we say the word discipleship it will conjure up all sorts of experiences and pictures that you attribute to that word. You may have certain passages of scripture come to mind or maybe even see discipleship as something young adults do as an adventurous gap year in the developing world. Historically, the church has limited discipleship to bible study; to a weekly meeting, sometimes in the home but (in the American church) usually in the church building. While there is nothing wrong with the study of the Word in groups, when we talk about discipleship, bible study is only a very small part. Not because the word isn’t key to the life of a disciple, but because Jesus lived a lifestyle that was about discipleship. He didn’t take one night a week to study the Torah with his disciples. He lived a life with them.
The church we experience now in the Western world is a million miles away from the church of the first century. The pandemic of 2020 has exposed the shallow roots of the American church and now up to 34% of practicing Christians have stopped attending their church and many others have changed churches. The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered churches that were built on Sunday gatherings and nothing else. It demonstrated that discipleship is never available through preaching or singing a few songs.
The Early Church, in the book of Acts, was a radical community of love and mission. In Acts, we see a church that while they still attended the temple, the majority of their worship was in homes. They broke bread and had fellowship, they took care of widows and orphans. People were being saved daily. The power of God was present to heal sickness, and cast out demons. Entire oikos (households of extended family and businesses) followed Jesus. The church was persecuted and that only made it grow more. Each member of the early church was a Jesus follower and there appears to have been no passive participants.
In 312 AD, Roman emperor Constantine attributed winning a battle to the Christian God. There are debates among scholars about whether his faith was a real conversion or an act of politics. Either way the effect that his rule had on the church was astounding. Prior to his reign Christians had endured some of the most brutal persecution in their history. In 313 the edict of Milan put an end to the persecution of Christians. To most this probably felt like an answer to prayer, a blessed relief, but as we reflect and look back, it was the beginning of the end for the powerful missional Early Church.
Writings of the time talk about Constantine giving large sums of money to build new churches, he paid for conversions of upper class converts and gave them honor. Churches were given land and became wealthy. However, the wealth and peace came at a cost. The Roman Emperor became the high priest of the church and gained control. In 325 the council of Nicea was held and changes were made to the church. The house church began to be demolished and large basilica buildings were built over the entire Roman empire. Heidler says ‘Constantine enacted a law that houses of prayer must be abolished and Christians were forbidden to hold church in private homes. This building shift had a huge impact on worship. It changed from an informal but ordered gathering led by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12-14) to a formal priest-led meeting. Christians became attenders and passive observers instead of radical Jesus followers. Discipleship was neutered at this point in history. The Western church we know now is the product of centuries of priest-led, building focused Christianity. This has produced nominal faith; we have church attendance but sick disciples. It has fueled the consumer driven mentality and the celebrity spirit. It is not the Christianity of the bible and it’s time to rediscover the true meaning of discipleship.
