David Watson’s “block-busting” book urges moving beyond conditional allegiance and forming an alternative society.
From the time of Jesus’ struggles with his recalcitrant disciples to today, Christians have struggled with the full meaning of the concept of discipleship. Within American Christianity, thanks to the research of such scholars as Timothy Smith, we now know that a sharp disjunction between the personal and social aspects of the gospel was not part of the original vision of such evangelical leaders as Charles Finney, Orange Scott, and others. Further, the great voluntary movements of the last century were efforts by believers to give redemptive social expression to their faith. To the extent that others were brought into genuine Christian commitment, these movements were programs in discipleship.
Unfortunately, people now seem to be more interested in procuring the temporal rather than the spiritual benefits of Christian social service. To the extent that this is tolerated, the mandate to discipleship can be confused with philanthropy. There is a wide gulf between these two objectives. Although philanthropy has often been implemented with apparently benevolent, selfless motivation, it possesses no inherent safeguard to prevent it from becoming self-justifying and moralistic. True disciple making is enabling God’s kingdom to be made manifest upon earth as it is in heaven.
It is heartening to see that the vital importance of disciple making is being acknowledged once again. Christian publishing in the 1980s might well be designated as the decade of discipleship. Not only has the classical literature in this field—like Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship—continued to prosper, there is also emerging a new group of author-lecturers who are recalling the church to the Great Commission. These include United Methodist George Hunter, head of his denomination’s Division of Evangelism, and Quaker Richard Foster, who has given new focus to the disciplines of the spiritual life.
Other writers in this field have developed theologies of discipleship rooted in the historical traditions of Christianity. These include the studies of Richard Lovelace (Reformed), Robert Tuttle (Wesleyan), Peter Williams and the Ann Arbor community (Roman Catholic), and Peter Gillquist (Evangelical Orthodox Church), to name a few.
The most recent entry is David Watson’s Called and Committed: World-Changing Discipleship (Harold Shaw, 1982). This work by an innovative British pastor has been acclaimed as “blockbusting” by J. I. Packer. It is built upon his experience as pastor of a small Anglican parish that he transformed into a thriving community of believers, as well as his subsequent work as a global spokesman for discipleship that includes a mission among British political leaders in Parliament. He is currently a visiting professor at Fuller Theological Seminary.
In a series of tersely written, straightforward chapters, marked by Bible-based clarity, Watson draws a clear distinction between conditional and unconditional discipleship. He offers his readers a sharp challenge to opt for the latter. Devoting little space to an analysis of the disarray in present-day Christianity, he instead explores several dimensions of Jesus’ call to discipleship that are also to be normative for believers today. In addition to obedience and service, these dimensions include the call to live simply and to suffer.
After examining the call to discipleship, Watson analyzes several dimensions of Christian community as the goal of discipleship, and the context in which it can be nurtured. He also considers the relation between discipleship and the means of grace, spiritual warfare, and evangelism. As a Briton, he gives American Christians a disarming perspective upon their church life: despite impressive facilities that feature “quality performance” and “obvious business efficiency,” he writes with sadness that “in such lavish environments I had to struggle to sense God’s presence and hear his voice” (p. 170).
By contrast, he insists that the community into which God calls us is to be an “alternate society” where fellowship means more than casual acquaintance and whose existence represents a life of “loving defiance” that challenges the status quo concerning covetousness, oppression, or self-centeredness. He warns that Christians must deepen their commitment to one another in community to prepare for the persecution to which believers are being increasingly exposed, especially in places where totalitarianism prevails.
Among the most timely features of Called and Committed is the author’s admonition concerning some of the more controversial features of the charismatic movement that impinge upon discipleship. First, he critiques the Fort Lauderdale “Shepherding Movement.” By nurturing dependence upon a shepherd-discipler, he notes a tendency toward legalism, authoritarianism, and divisiveness that can lead to an unhealthy dependence upon a “new priesthood.” He also observes that its leaders have become sensitive to such criticisms and have manifested a desire to correct these aberrations. Second, he affirms the validity of praying in tongues, contending that it is “not so much irrational as suprarational.” When properly understood, it is a way of opening the natural self to the presence of God. However, he does not consider the need to interpret tongues for understanding (as in 1 Cor. 14:13–15).
Third, he discusses the distinction between two New Testament terms for word, logos and rhema. Scripture, he contends, cannot support the view that the former refers to the total objective word of God and the latter the particular personal word that God may address to a person or group. However, even though this distinction cannot be defended on clear exegetical grounds throughout Scripture, it may still have validity as a theological construct, and not without some biblical support, as Charles Farah has maintained in From the Pinnacle of the Temple.
Watson is to be commended for not skirting controversial issues in his quest for the meaning of “unconditional discipleship.” He has written with compassion and urgency, so that our awareness of the discipleship needed for the 1980s has been enhanced.
Reviewed by J. Steven O’Malley, member of the faculty in the School of Theology, Oral Roberts University.
Christianity’S Solid Foundation
The Case for Christianity, by Colin Chapman (Eerdmans, 1981, 313 pp., $19.95), is reviewed by Mark M. Hanna, associate professor of philosophy of religion, Talbot Theological Seminary, La Mirada, California.
The need for diverse and fresh presentations of the Christian faith in an apologetic mode is unending. The ever-changing cultural and intellectual climate requires the kind of relevant and cogent material assembled in this beautifully crafted “Eerdmans Handbook.” The publisher and the author (who was ordained in the Church of England and is now regional secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Lebanon) have put together a volume that is probably the most attractive book of apologetics available today, from the arrangement of the text to the scores of color and black-and-white photographs that are found throughout the book. It includes an index, and more than 1,000 documented quotations from many books of the Bible and a wide variety of thinkers.
Much of the content of this volume first appeared in Chapman’s book, Christianity on Trial. Here it is completely recast to give it a greater personal appeal by starting with not abstract, but human, questions. These include “Who or what am I?” “What is the meaning of my existence?” “How are we to make moral choices?” “Why is there suffering, and how can we live with it?” “How am I to face death?” “Is there life after death?” “What hope is there for the human race?” I find this approach especially effective with the non-Christian, and it enhances the value of this book as an evangelistic tool.
Chapman next provides an exposition of Christian answers and the major reasons for maintaining that the Christian world view is true. After an examination of competing philosophical and religious claims, he focuses on the person and work of Christ as the crucial touchstone for deciding among them. A brief, concluding chapter invites the reader to test world views and make sure he understands what it means to become a believer by repenting and believing in Christ.
Chapman rightly makes the question of truth the ultimate issue. Although he finds theistic arguments to be of virtually no value, he contends that the divine revelation that Christianity claims is adequately supported as true by an appeal to logic, history, observation, and experience. What verification means in history, philosophy, and science is essentially applicable to Christian beliefs.
An occasional statement (e.g., the first paragraph on p. 182) may be misleading, undoubtedly due to brevity of treatment and inadequate cohesiveness in relating material in one section to another. That is a minor flaw, however. Overall, this is a very useful volume. It provides wide-ranging material on numerous philosophies, ideologies, and religions in a crisp, readable, and handy form. One should not expect, however, to find a high level of philosophical sophistication here. Nevertheless, it ought to be in the library of every church and school, and it deserves wide employment by Christians for strengthening their own faith and aiding them in persuading others of its truthfulness.
The Struggle To Change
My Weakness—His Strength: The Personal Face of Renewal, by Robert G. Girard (Zondervan, 1981, 199 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Leonard George Goss, managing editor, Evangelical Book Club, Milford, Michigan.
A church, we are told, does not encounter change in struggle with new ideas without change occuring in its leaders. This book is about the change in one church leader, Robert Girard. Pastors and lay leaders alike will be interested in Girard’s latest book. The former pastor of Our Heritage Wesleyan Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, Girard wrote the very popular Brethren, Hang Loose (1973) and Brethren, Hang Together (1979), both of which described the struggles of renewal at the Scottsdale church. In this book, the author offers a new perspective not on congregational renewal, but on personal renewal. He writes, “The pursuit of renaissance in our church has resulted in an intensive struggle to experience my own personal renewal.”
This book was written in the after-math of a long personal inventory during which the author discovered who he was and how he came to a fuller, more perceptive surrender to God. This “personality inventory” allowed Girard to be freed inwardly from destructive emotional habits that disrupt life and, having been inwardly freed, he was enabled really to obey Christ.
In offering the reader his “broad-daylight style,” Girard reveals that leaders, too, have problems similar to our own. Many Christians still refuse to regard Christian leaders as real people who have trouble loving their enemies, or with materialism, legalism, or lust. Girard himself is an early leader in the church renewal movement. After more than a decade he is still in the forefront of that movement, and admits to having gone through deep waters. He learned, sometimes painfully, how to respond to God’s own example of reaching out to build intimacy.
The theme of the book is that even for thoroughly orthodox Christians, committed to the renaissance of the church, it is one’s “emotional philosophy of life” that really counts. Is our personal religion one of doubt, fear, negativism, and materialism? For Girard, “Faith must be activated on the level of the emotions and affections that move my life and control my behavior.” (He does not say that the faith that saves is a mere emotional assent to Jesus; he says that we must live our way into the body of Christ, to respond to Christ’s words.)
The author has kept something of a “hit-or-miss” journal through the years, which reflects on his personal spiritual journey and his meditations in times of crisis. Some journal excerpts are included throughout the book. However, the publisher’s decision to combine these past thoughts (set in a different type face) with his current reflections is unfortunate, as the book often becomes confusing and unwieldy, even for one reading carefully.
My Weakness—His Strength is about discerning the gifts of ministry and spiritual leadership that are essential to assist growing Christians. The book is one pastor’s highly successful attempt to expound on Paul’s dictum, “Gods strength is made perfect in weakness.”
