Dangerous Prayer, "Authentic Discipleship"

Each Monday, the people of SVC are joining in a prayer for authentic discipleship.

A few years ago, Jerry Cook wrote a book entitled "The Monday Morning Church." He made the bold statement that for his church, Monday is the most important day of the week...not Sunday. Their conviction is that if the church can take seriously life with Jesus on Monday, then true disciples are being formed.

Dallas Willard coined the phrase "vampire Christians." He indicts Christians today by stating that many people just want Jesus for his blood. Willard is right on!

Jesus is not in the business of molding people into better men/women or even into better citizens.
Jesus has always been in the business of forming people into faithful, authentic disciples.

A commitment to follow Jesus is more than a prayer one prays or a one-time-decision to enter into the waters of baptism. To become a Christ-follow means that we are enrolling ourselves as daily students in the school of Jesus.

The danger of praying for authentic discipleship is that the path of discipleship is a path that leads downward. We are continually called to give up things, surrender, love strangers, forgive enemies, and follow in the ways of Jesus. A prayer for authentic discipleship gets us involved in risky business. This makes it dangerous!