Overcoming ‘Unease Isolation’ with Mere Discipleship

by Jarrod McKenna

In the contexts I find myself ministering, be it ministry training colleges, speaking in a diversity of church settings, conferences, or in high schools, it’s clear to me that ‘something is happening’. I was recently interviewed by a number of radio stations to do with some of the peace and environmental activism I’m involved with and one announcer asked about the details of one particular campaign. I found myself unable to answer without reference to this ‘something that is happening’. And not just here in Australia but many are discerning that this is, what author and leader of the alternative voice in American evangelicalism Jim Wallis has called a, “karios moment” in our history, that the Spirit is stirring something in God’s people.

There is a longing, a quiet yet desperate intuition that people can’t shake. It’s a deep, almost lamenting sense that there must be more to life in Christ than we have been finding in our conventional church settings. Many in house-church/alternative churches and communities are gathering together because of this unshakable sense.

Yet finding resources which draw from deep traditions that are not simply faddish reactions to the mainstream, [albeit “pomo” reactions], can be difficult.

The Christian book market is constantly flooded with material that leaves people neither shaken nor stirred; books that do little more than dress up our confined consumerist lifestyles of comfort and conformity in Christian clothing (even cool Christian clothing) in the interest of being “relevant”. I encounter countless people who share what I’ve come to diagnose as Unease Isolation. Unease Isolation symptoms (or Angst Isolation in its more severe cases) often include feeling like you are the only one in a sea of worshipping people who feels something isn’t right. They feel like the Christ they encountered in their initial conversion called and empowered them for something more than ‘doing church’ wether it is doing mega-church or doing alternative-café-church. They feel Christ called and empowered them to BE church.

In the flood of mass-marketed easy answers, there is a book that doesn’t talk about missions in terms of the church making Jesus “relevant”. It doesn’t suggest the church needs new slick marketing strategies or the problem lies solely in the need for the transition from modernity to postmodernity. Rather Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship” suggests the church needs not to be ‘relevant’ to the world but authentic to the message of Christ. What is needed is for the church to BE the church.

If I could contribute to the making of a cliché, Lee Camp’s new book, “Mere Discipleship” is a red pill on offer to us in this flood of blue pills which stock the shelves of so many Christian book stores. “Mere Discipleship” trusts God enough to ask hard questions. Lee Camp makes theologian John H. Yoder and the Anabaptist witness to the Christianity lived by the early Christians accessible to those whose theological reading never ventures passed Phillip Yancey and who think “Anna Baptist” is a woman’s name.

Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship” contents reads as follows:

Part 1 Reenvisioning Discipleship

1. “Radical” Discipleship
2. God’s Way of Working
3. Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God

Part 2 What Disciples Believe

4. The Gospel: Repent, for the Kingdom Is at Hand
5. The Savior: The Slaughtered Lamb
6. The Church: The Body of Christ

Part 3 What Disciples Do

7. Worship: Why Disciples Love Their Enemies
8. Baptism: Why Disciples Don’t make Good Americans (or Germans, or Frenchmen)
9. Prayer: Why Disciples Trust God rather than Their Own Calculations
10. Communion: Why Disciples Share Their Wealth
11. Evangelism: How Disciples make a difference

Part of the Unease Isolation that is felt by so many is that the communities we worship with often are not alternatives to the ways of the world but in fact share the same dynamics of rampant consumerism and a trust that lording power over others gets things done. Unease Isolation can intensify for those who have an awareness of history and know that for many Christian History is remembered for power games rather than the empowerment of the marginalised; remembered for genocide rather than lifestyles of generosity; remembered for the violence of the State rather than the nonviolence of the crucified Christ. Some say we might rightly feel embarrassed about our faith. Yet upon this ocean of despair floats this little faithful vessel, 'Mere Discipleship', that reminds us that, although we may be horrified by a history of Christianity that looks nothing like Christ, we need not be ashamed of the gospel. Amidst the waters of unthinking fundamentalism and unenthralling liberalism, 'Mere Discipleship' is a lucid, intelligent yet simple read which has shaken, inspired and moved me to embody the teachings and life of Christ in my ecclesia and in my community--and to do so in Resurrection power.

But be warned, it is not to be read unless you are ready to hear the call, "follow me".

Jarrod lives in an intentional community in Perth Australia, in a neighbourhood most would describe as ‘dodgy’ with a beautiful crew of people, chickens and ducks who daily remind him he’s a bastard in need of the transforming power of grace yet, he is deeply loved. For a crust Jarrod is the director of Epyc (Empowering Peacemakers in Your Community) which works at training the next generation of ecoprophets in the transformational nonviolence of Christ. Jarrod can be found, sometimes even singing in key, with the Perth Anabaptist Fellowship when he’s not speaking elsewhere.