"Whole life Discipleship" is the label I'm giving to a very challenging idea: the idea that we should live out our Christian faith in every part of our lives.

This is not a new or trendy idea: it's fundamental to our faith in Jesus. Why then do we find it so easy to slip into ways which suggest to us that our Christian faith is mainly for church things and is not meant to have an impact upon our work place or our home or our leisure time?

I believe that there are some unhelpful ways of thinking, some misconceptions which have hindered us. Here are three:

1. We have believed in a false split between spiritual things and material things. Some Christian groups in the early centuries began to believe that material things are evil in themselves, and as a result taught that Jesus must have only "appeared" to be human. This is not what the Bible teaches - read any of the gospels or John's first letter chapter 1 verses 1 to 4.

2. We have also believed in a false split between the "sacred" and the "secular". The people of Israel were given a temple as a sacred or holy place to meet with God - although they knew in reality God is everywhere. The New Testament church, however, has no church buildings or holy places. Or - to put it another way - there are no unholy places in the New Testament! Jesus' ministry took place almost entirely in the streets or in people's homes. Yet we often treat church buildings as if they are the holiest places on earth. They are not! We sometimes do the same with our church activities, falling into the trap of thinking that God is interested in those activities more than he is in the rest of our lives. As a Sunday School teacher once put it: "People pray for me in that role but never offer to pray for me in my role as a primary school teacher which takes up a far greater proportion of my life."

3. We have believed in a false split between clergy and lay people. Once again we notice a difference between the Old Testament system of priests to maintainthe worship and make the sacrifices. But the New Testament church has no priests, only apostles, deacons, elders, and bishops. Jesus is now our great high priest.

We have made far too much of thias distinction between clergy and lay people, setting the professional Christian on a holy pedestal. The way we sometimes speak, it's almost as though we think the Lord has a league table of professions - with vicars and missionaries at the top and bar maids and manual workers in the relegation zone at the bottom!

We often use the term "vocation" (a calling) to refer to those to be ordained or enter full time paid ministry. But don't we also believe God could call someone to be an architect, an engineer, a social worker, a banker, a teacher, or a secretary? The fact is that if we are in the place we believe God wants us to be, then we believe he has called us to be there - at least for now.

So what?

This means that if you are involved in voluntary work (such as a charity shop, Brownies, Live at Home); if you are in paid employment of any kind; if you have regular contact with your neighbours, either socially or through mutual concerns; if you belong to any type of club, group or association (like sports, WI, arts and crafts); if you spend time with your family - then God wants you to live as a Christian disciple in those places and with those people.

Part 2 >>