Next Generation Ministry Blog

As of late, I've been stuck on a particular piece of scripture from 1 Corinthians. For whatever reason, I keep coming back to it, keep turning it over in my brain, keep wondering if it's that simple...and if it is, what does it mean for forming disciple makers.  Here's the text that's been like a bad case of the hiccups:

"For though you have had countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.  For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.  I urge you, then, be imitators of me.  that is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord..."

Now, when you first read it - it seems simple plain enough.  But is it? It seems Paul is highlighting a problem; if not a problem, then certainly a deficiency.  As Paul writes to those Christians in Corinth, he recognizes the lack of "fathers" in the faith.  There are plenty of guides, plenty of people who have information, plenty of people who could tell you things, but not a lot of fathers.  In other words, the deficiency which Paul recognizes is a lack of people who can SHOW you what the Christian life looks like...not just tell you.

Paul isn't stepping out of place here - in fact, he's in step with Jesus.  As Jesus wraps up the sermon on the mount he says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock....but everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man...(emphasis mine)."  

The wise man is one who has right thinking AND right doing.  The foolish man is the one who has right thinking and NO right doing.

It begs the question: how do we learn right doing? By having "fathers" in the faith, upon whose shoulder we can learn the trade of following Jesus. This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 4.  And, in my opinion, understanding this is critical.

Ask the question: from whom am I learning to live the faith?

In Part 2 of this blog - we see how this applies to faith formation here at Trinity.