Reflection by Rev. Dr. Bret Widman, leader of the NPU CRUX Program
When I was contacted to write about Discipleship over Distance. How to Keep doing Discipleship Ministry during the Coronavirus, I was immediately struck by the title… “Discipleship over Distance.” This title struck a deep and hopeful chord in me as the CRUX staff and I have been attempting to continue to disciple our CRUX cohort over a distance.
The apostle Paul wrote many of his epistles as a result of social distancing and without Zoom to boot! Imagine…being quarantined in a jail cell, writing on parchments discipling words for a dispersed church, and then handing off these words hoping and praying they land to the disciples gathered in small groups scattered throughout the region. To think our holy Scriptures were written in a time such as distance, diaspora, fear, and social isolation provides me great hope for our current and present realities. Some core and foundational discipleship values may rise to the surface during this time that may have been forgotten or overlooked because the proximity of relationship and community in the past. With the apostle Paul on my mind, here are some things that have been helpful to consider in discipleship ministry through distance…
1. Remind
To the Corinthian Church that Paul was distant from, he writes, “I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. (1 Ce of having eyes to see and ears to hear this Jesus that knocked him off his horse and changed the course of his life. How are you experiencing the Risen Jesus in this pandemic? What is he doing around you? What is he saying to you? Others are looking to you to imitate you and your way of life during this time.
2. Relationship
To the Philippian Church, Paul starts his epistle with what will frame his entire letter…relationships. He writes, “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Phil. 1:3-11). Paul tells his disciples he literally feels the same way about them as Jesus feels about him…ὑμᾶς ἐν σπλάγχνοις Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ in the middle of his isolation. His joy is held within his love for his disciples and he knew that’s exactly what they needed to hear from him. To effectively disciple people through distance, we need to regularly remind them of the relationship and community you have developed with them. Paul missed his community and tells them. Love, compassion, and joy in intentional discipleship through distance is crucial. Are you telling people you are distant from how much they mean to you and how you feel about them at this time?
3. Reach
Because we believe scripture is authoritative, it is the right impulse to reach for our Bibles during this pandemic to continue to disciple people. However, where do we reach to frame and name what God might be doing? We can reach for passages that incite fear (as some pastors/national leaders are doing). Or we can reach for passages that frame God’s sovereignty and presence. Paul, as one of the MAIN theologians of Israel (as his resume states), reached back into his scripture to understand the crucifixion of Jesus that he did not understand until after he encountered him. Prior his encounter, he used those same scriptures to persecute Jesus and the Jesus movement. We need to have a redemptive theology that we reach for in the scriptures to continue to help people follow Jesus as we are dispersed. What passages are you reaching for that helps people to continue to trust and follow a crucified, in the tomb, and resurrected Jesus?