Dojo Discipleship

My good friend Brittany Cline and her husband Carl manage San Antonio Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Occasionally Brittany will post on social media the workouts, training sessions, and competitions. It’s always fun to watch, especially seeing the kids grapple with one another.

I imagine before you sign up to become a Jui-Jitsu disciple, you would count the cost. You would talk with Brittany and Carl and discuss the training, workouts, ability to enter competitions, and what the rules are. Lots of rules, especially for the kids, click here. After you commit, your training begins. It certainly would be odd if you showed up in your gi and just sat on the mat the whole time watching. At some point you are expected to participate.

When I compare the early church to the Western model of Christianity, I see a big difference. There seem to be a lot of people sitting around in their gis not really participating. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe the institutional church leaders prefer to teach and preach rather than get involved in the grappling. Maybe it’s something else?

I think the church may have gotten things backwards. Acts 14 says,

They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

When people in the first-century church became disciples, they knew the cost. Proclaiming Jesus as their King and Messiah meant they became treasonous to the state. The Roman emperors were no longer their king. They gave up, or were disowned, by friends and family. They knew they would go through many “hardships” even to the point of death.

I see so much discussion about disciple making. Yes, it’s important to share our faith, but are we really making disciples when we don’t explain to people the cost involved when a decision is made to follow Christ? Is there even a cost? Do we get them saved and then abandon them? It seems to be a priority to get people to make a confession and then after, try to motivate them to be good disciples.

Western society is filled with people who claim to be Christ followers, many walking up to the front of the church and saying a prayer and then told to sign up for Church Membership 101. Most come because they are convicted of sin and want to avoid eternal punishment. We then hear church leaders complain when only a small percent of their flock participate in church matters or even worse, just leave through the back door. Somehow we get upset when people only have a casual relationship with Christ, even less with their brothers and sisters, and have no understanding of what true discipleship is. Who is to blame? And let’s not talk about any “hardships.”

Maybe we should tell people about the cost of following Christ before they want to join our club.