From part 1 of Relevant’s interview with Dallas Willard:
[RM]: “So, are you saying we have a crisis of follower-ship rather than a crisis of leadership??[DW]: “Now you’re going to get me in trouble. (Laughs) The fact of the matter is this leadership thing has just gone crazy. It is actually not from the Church, it’s a carry-over from the Culture and it’s one of the many ways that the modern church has bit and swallowed the contemporary culture whole. It is just shameless the way we go on about leaders and various kinds of figures. You’re absolutely right, it’s a crisis of ?follower-ship’ and of leaders themselves living as disciples and inducting others into discipleship, not to them, but to Christ. It’s just heartbreaking to see this thing on leadership and how this has progressed.
Words to take to heart. Leadership matters, but being a leader in the church is (or needs to be, if it isn’t) primarily a matter of being a follower of Christ.
Willard then proceeds to get oldschool on evangelical atonement theology:
[RM]: “Have we misunderstood what it means to follow Christ?”[DW]: “Well, I don’t think we’ve misunderstood Him. The real problem is not misunderstanding Him, but it’s setting it [discipleship] aside as a requirement for salvation. Now, a few decades ago you had leading speakers for Christianity across the nation who would say things like, ?We’re not supposed to follow Christ, we’re supposed to trust Him’, and that meant not to trust His leadership and teaching, but to trust His death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
“What has basically happened is that the meaning of ?Trust Christ’ has changed. It has come to no longer mean trusting Him; it meant trust something He did. In that way, one theory of the atonement was substituted for the Christian Gospel. The results of this are that (now) discipleship is not essential, and people are not invited to become disciples.”
Indicting but true. I cannot think of any churches (other than the kooky-fundamentalist type) that are realling calling people to this.
At first blush, it sounds like a bad idea to challenge people up front with too much. Follow Jesus, pick up a cross, die to yourself, lose your life to find it - not exactly fun stuff to put on a “come to our church” postcard.
This is really what it’s about, though, and to whatever extent we continue to collectively and individually forget it, we’re missing out on what God intends, and we’re selling a product instead of offering a new way of life.
The interview is in three parts: part 1, part 2, part 3. Link via Ted’s comment here.
