For many of us, this online space of politically minded Christians is just that: online. There are frequent discussions in our orbit regarding the whole process of instantiating the things we talk about into real lived spaces. Hoe do we make all of this real? The Christian tradition, going all the way back to Jesus himself, has engaged in this activity called “discipleship.” Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes better, sometimes poorer. Among Jesus’ final recorded words is the command known at “The Great Commission.”
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
We live in a time of social, political and even religious decay and decline. There are many problems in both the broader society as well as the Christian community. Men, Christian men, are struggling. How do we address this as Christians? The wonderful thing about these emergent spaces is that they have fertile places for fomenting new ideas and approaches. You bump into people who don’t accept your tired Christian clichés. They are not afraid to tell you to your face that churches are not friendly or welcoming places for men these days. So what to do about? I invited a few members of the Christian Ghetto group chat to join me to talk about it: The Black Horse, Dr. Ben Braddock, John Slaughter Esq., Athenian Stranger, Ron Dodson and Jon Harris (who joined as the discussion was already underway, and so was not introduced at the beginning).
Enjoy! And please, if you have questions or something to add around this topic of discipleship, especially the discipleship of men, leave a comment and they will get passed on and may become the seed for us to pick this important topic again.
10. The Christian Ghetto: Christian Discipleship in an Age of Social Decay