Making Disciples in the Christian School
By Ken Smitherman, President ACSI (retired 2009)
The Great Commission, “Go and make disciples,” is clearly one of the great declarations of our Savior. It may be, however, that we have over time constricted His words recorded in Matthew 28:19 (NIV). This powerful directive by Jesus serves most often as the driving statement for motivating and energizing missions—evangelizing the world—and the term world often seems to refer only to places on some distant shores across some ocean.
Now I readily admit that in heavier discussions about this command from our Savior, people acknowledge that it does mean here at home too. Yet it still seems that Christians generally expend far less time and energy on the depth of this directive, particularly regarding what it takes to make disciples. And disciples are the ones who most effectively engage in this aspect of the directive—disciples making disciples.
In the book The Great Omission, Dallas Willard challenges us deeply and thoughtfully about the foremost importance of developing disciples. He calls attention to the matter of spiritual formation—that is, spiritual formation as a process (the use of this term is in no way related to practices that are alleged inappropriate for true followers of Christ). To make the point, Willard regards Christian spiritual formation as “the redemptive process of forming the inner human world so that it takes on the character of the inner being of Christ himself.” In essence, then, Willard is referring to becoming Christlike. He goes to great ends to emphasize that regarding the matter of becoming a disciple, “the outer life of the individual becomes a natural expression or outflow of the character and teachings of Jesus. But the external manifestation of Christlikeness is not the focus of the process, and when it is made the main emphasis the process will be defeated, falling into crushing legalisms and parochialisms” (2006, 105).
It would seem that sometimes our emphasis comes off more like “act like Jesus” than “be like Jesus.” If we as Christian school educators are really going to be disciples—and further to make disciples—then this level of spiritual formation will require something significantly more.
Willard writes, “Well-informed human effort is necessary, for spiritual formation is not a passive process. But Christ-likeness of the inner being is not a merely human attainment. It is, finally, a gift of grace. The resources for it are not human, but come from the interactive presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who place their confidence in Christ, as well as from the spiritual treasures stored in the body of Christ’s people upon the earth. Therefore it is not only formation of the spirit or inner being of the individual that we have in mind, but also formation by the Spirit of God and by the spiritual riches of Christ’s continuing incarnation in his people, past and present—including, most prominently, the treasures of his written and spoken word” (2006, 105–6; italics in original).
We who will make disciples in the Christian school must be true disciples—not only having begun engaging in the transforming work of the Holy Spirit but continuing in it as well. It is a pursuit of seeking the face of the Savior. Willard offers that “this seeking is implemented through the discovery of the state of our own heart and inner world by study, reflection, prayer, and counsel, and then through the taking of appropriate measures to change what is not right within, as well as in the visible, social world of which we are a part. We find what God is doing in us and in the visible world and merge our actions into His. This is what Jesus described as constantly seeking ‘first for the kingdom of God and his kind of righteousness’ (Matthew 6:33)” (2006, 106–7).
The distinctive of Christian school education is not excellence in academics alone. Instead, it is that excellence coupled with the highest commitment to carry out the spiritual formation of our students—helping them take on that inner being of Christ Himself. You are playing a significant role in that distinctive work. Made possible through the amazing work of the Holy Spirit, discipleship becomes a reality when the role model—the teacher who is a disciple—makes an impact on students. And then we can declare, “We are making disciples in the Christian school.”
Reference
Willard, Dallas. 2006. The great omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s essential teachings on discipleship. New York: HarperCollins.
President's Desk 12.3