Discipleship and Basketball

No matter how much one dribbles and passes, no matter how many fancy cross-overs or flailing shots one might take, if the ball doesn’t go in the basket then the game of basketball is hard to win.  Drawing on this analogy, we might say the same thing about Christianity.  Surely, Christian faith is not a game, but bear with me.

Jesus taught that the whole idea of Christianity is to make disciples.[1]  This, of course, means a lot of things – the Great Commission alone explicitly lists baptizing, teaching, and obeying the commandments of Jesus – yet sometimes I get the funny feeling that we, like those in the cartoon, are missing the point.  Worse yet, it seems that our Christian traditions haven’t even made it clear to us what that point really is.

Catholics have a very strong tradition of catechesis, that is, teaching the faith.  The average Catholic, by the time they are confirmed, have endured a virtual fire-hose treatment of Catholic doctrine, history, morality, etc. (now let it be understood that I’m writing as one who loves this stuff).  Yet our Mass attendance alone (hovering around 23%) suggests that our strategy has not produced vibrant, life-long disciples.  We might say that many Catholics have been “catechized but not evangelized.”

Eastern Orthodox have a strong liturgical and sacramental tradition (the same could be said for Catholics).  Yet the Eastern Orthodox Church also faces widespread nominalism and a similar limp in church attendance.  Eastern Orthodox theologian, Brad Nassif, has noted that many Orthodox Christians have been “sacramentalized but not evangelized.”

Evangelicals might look at this and say, “Well of course, you’ve missed the whole point!  It is about making a personal decision to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.”  And in one sense they are right.  Personal faith, for all Christians, is both essential and indispensible.   Christianity, one might say, is not a spectator sport.  Rather, faith is personal and revolutionary.  It changes one’s life in real and tangible ways.  Pope Francis recently exhorted an audience at the Vatican, “A Christian who is not a revolutionary today isn’t a Christian.”[2]  Christian faith gives people “a heart that loves, a heart that suffers, a heart that rejoices with others, a heart full of tenderness for those who bear the wounds of life and feel like they are on the periphery of society.”  We share this passion with our Evangelical brothers and sisters!

Yet many are surprised to hear that the Evangelical emphasis on getting people to “make decisions” may also be falling short of the gospel’s call of discipleship.  While close to 90% of Evangelical Christians have made personal commitments to Christ, only 20% continue to live a “revolutionary faith.”[3]  Evangelical theologian, Scot McKnight, makes this startling contention:

There is a minimal difference in correlation between evangelical children and teenagers who make a decision for Christ and who later become genuine disciples, and Roman Catholics who are baptized as infants and who as adults become faithful and devout Catholic disciples.[4]

What?!  Really?!

The emerging problem with the Evangelical tradition is not so much that it makes faith personal.  This is something that we all need to do.  Rather, the problem that is surfacing is that many Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to “a statement about Jesus’ death and its meaning, and a prayer with which people accept it.”[5]  Evangelical theologian, Dallas Willard, has called it “the gospel of sin management,” a view of salvation that takes away your sin and destines you for heaven but has no connection to discipleship and spiritual transformation.  The data suggests that this personal plan of salvation - when severed from revolutionary story of Jesus Christ, the announcement of his kingdom, and a life-long commitment to ongoing discipleship - is no more effective than the Catholic or Orthodox practices of merely sacramentalizing and catechizing.

So who exactly is the kid in the cartoon who is saying, “Why has this been kept from us?”  Looks like the answer is . . .  all of us.  When it comes to Christian discipleship, we all have a lot to learn about “getting the ball in the basket.”

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            [1]  Mt 28:19.

            [2]  Cindy Wooden, “Pope calls for ‘revolutionaries’ to change hearts, share God’s love,” The Catholic Messenger, Vol. 131, No. 24 (June 20, 2013), 1.

            [3]  Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011, 20.

            [4]  Ibid.

            [5]  N. T. Wright, in the foreward to Scot McKnight’s King Jesus Gospel, 13.