In Dallas Willard’s book The Divine Conspiracy the point of the Sermon on the Mount, the point of Jesus’ life, is to call us to apprenticeship. The call is to intentional discipleship. It needs to be a high priority in the life of the Church.
You lead people to become disciples of Jesus by ravishing them with a vision of life in the kingdom of the heavens in the fellowship of Jesus. And you do this by proclaiming, manifesting, and teaching the kingdom to them in the manner learned from Jesus himself. You thereby change the belief system that governs their lives.
It isn’t about more information. It’s about a new belief system. In our over-saturated age of information and social networking, we’ve created Christ in our own image. We need a new vision. We need our belief systems overhauled. We spend too much time in the Church trying to get people to do good things. If we would work in belief systems, what is the deepest matter of the heart, good things would flow out naturally.
It’s like we’re trying to tape oranges onto apple trees. “Look! An orange tree!” But the DNA is still apple.
We need to get to the core. We inquire, we teach, lead by example, pray, and rely on the Spirit. We work to change the beliefs that are contrary to the ways of Jesus. Then, we will have an orange tree producing oranges!
Willard speaks of making disciples first. Let conversion be a by-product. Just love Jesus. Let OUR belief system by truly the DNA of the Kingdom. Then, we disciple people all around whether or not they are Christians. When we are living out the ravishing beauty of Jesus, others can be drawn to readily consider being apprenticed to Jesus.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 