BECOMING A CHRIST-FOLLOWER

Excerpt from The Way of Transforming Discipleship
By Trevor Hudson and Stephen D. Bryant

I became a Christ-follower at the age of seventeen. The gracious invitation to "follow me" that was rooted in a great love that had sought me from my very beginnings burned its way into my heart and evoked both desire and response. Ever since that moment of new beginning I have been learning from Jesus how to live the one life that I have been given. This search has connected me with the lives of many other seeking pilgrims along the Way. In recent years I have come to recognize this common seeking as a widespread yearning in the hearts of men and women for an authentic spirituality.

Spirituality is a slippery word. Some are suspicious in its presence. For those whose daily lives revolve around frantic timetables of preparing breakfast, getting children to school on time, holding down a stressful eight-to-five job, paying monthly bills, and cleaning the house, spirituality sounds strange and impractical. It suggests another world of inactivity, passivity, and uninterrupted silences. For those whose life experiences have been scarred by suffering and oppression, the term often suggests escapism, indifference, and uninvolvement. Indeed, spirituality needs definition. Spirituality is being intentional about the development of those convictions, attitudes, and actions through which the Christ-following life is shaped and given personal expression within our everyday lives. In a nutshell, it is the way of transforming discipleship.

Amidst this widespread yearning for a vital and real spirituality we need to be discerning. Within contemporary Christian congregations some expressions of spirituality are foreign to the biblical tradition and unrelated to the spirit of the crucified and risen Lord. Some congregations are obsessively concerned with personal needs and have minimal concern for those who suffer. Alternatively, others frequently endorse a spirituality of social struggle and involvement that avoids the biblical imperative for personal conversion and transformation. Such endorsement falls victim to the dangerous illusion, alive and well in our midst, that we can build a more equitable, compassionate and just society while we remain the same and continue life as usual.

In The Way of Transforming Discipleship I offer a number of signposts that lead us to the development of a renewed spirituality centered in the life of Jesus, our ever-present Savior and Lord. I am neither an academic theologian nor an expert in the area of spirituality. The words that I share were birthed amidst the daily tasks of washing dishes and being a parent, the vocational commitments of breaking bread, supporting and encouraging people in their discipleship, and the continual challenges of a turbulent nation struggling to reconstruct itself along more democratic lines. Within these tasks, commitments, and crises, I have struggled, often unsuccessfully, to live an authentic Christ-following life. My words were shaped by these struggles.

Wherever you may find yourself along the Way, may you discover in these reflections some nourishing food for the journey. It is my hope that in offering these few signposts, all of us may become more radically open to the transformation that God is able to bring about in our personal and social lives. An authentic Christian spirituality always stretches towards the transforming of our personal lives and of the societies in which we live, work, and play. I will be immeasurably grateful if, in the lives of some fellow pilgrims and seekers, these signposts contribute to this transformation.