From the First Day

I read this recently in Philippians:

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now (Phil. 1:3-5).

The book is a joyous book. Paul says over and over again "rejoice" and shares his joys, even the joys of being a prisoner in chains. He has learned, he says, to be content in every situation. So in the opening passage, Paul tells the beloved Philippian Christians how grateful to God he is for them.

There is an interesting phrase in the last verse there. One of the things for which Paul is grateful is "your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." Paul says that from the very first day that they came to Christ they began participating in the work he was doing. You don't see much of that these days.

Most people have bought into the idea that you need to be trained. One of my favorite musicians, Steve Taylor, once did a song called I Want to be a Clone. In it, a new convert says, "I kinda wanted to tell my friends and people about it, you know?" to which "they" reply, "What?! You're still a babe. You have to grow! Give it twenty years or so! If you want to be one of His you gotta act like one of us!"

You see, we don't want new converts mucking things up. They're enthusiastic, sure, but they're loose canons. (I didn't misspell "cannon".) They're going to say the wrong things. They haven't been taught how to lead people to Christ. I mean, would you allow a kid out of high school to perform an operation or an auto mechanic to lead a church? Of course not! "What?! You're still a babe. You have to grow! Give it twenty years or so!"

But ... what if things were different? What if, just theoretically, of course, instead of making converts we made disciples? What if, instead of simply dropping this babe in Christ off and letting him or her go, we walked along side? What if we swept them into our activities and ministries and lives and, oh, I don't know, taught them to observe all that Christ commanded? Just an idea here, but what if we invested our lives into the lives of others rather than spinning them off into insulated training sessions to teach them the right words and the right thoughts? What would that look like?

What kind of Christians would that make? They wouldn't be detached and on their own. They wouldn't be "church hopping" or stuck trying to figure out this whole Christian thing on their own. They would immediately involved in ministry ... you know, like Christ did with His disciples. Take them along. Have them participate. Walk along side. Sometimes send them out on their own. It would develop mature Christians rather than poorly fed believers not quite sure of what they believe or why. It would engage their talents and spiritual gifts rather than leave them to flop about and figure what to do ... maybe.

Well, of course, we're not doing this for the most part, so I guess it's just a loony, off-the-cuff, crazy, biblical idea I had ...