Disciple-izing at FPC

By Jessica Tate

Each one of us is formed by something. We are molded by the gifts, talents and limitations with which we are born. We are shaped by the families that raise us. We are structured by the technology of our time and images we encounter in media. We are patterned after the positive and negative values lifted up by our culture. We are created by the stories by which we live. We begin being formed before we are born and continue right up until the day we die. Each one of us is formed by something.

As people of faith, we have a particular story that we believe forms us more than any other. This is the story of God, the story of God who created the world and everything in it, who made humankind in the divine image. The story of God who is faithful to us, who acts with justice and mercy to redeem us, even when we deserve condemnation. The story of God who sent a Son, Jesus Christ, that we would not perish but have eternal life. The story of God who calls us into the world and empowers us to love God and to love our neighbors. This is the Christian story that shapes our living.

Or is it?

How many of us, truly, live in such a way that God is at the center of our lives? How many of us can answer, with the first question of the catechism, that “our chief end in life is to glorify God and enjoy God forever” and mean it? How many of us spend most of our time and energy on the things God requires: “justice, kindness and walking with God?” How many of us respond to challenges posed by our workplace, our families, our children, our schools, with an eye toward God’s reconciling work rather than our own best interest? How many of us read the morning paper in the context of God’s concern for the least and the lost? How many of us seek to share the good news of God’s grace in all that we are and all that we do?  And how many of us are willing to name God’s grace in Jesus Christ as foundational for who we are outside of the church walls?

If you are like me, you answer most of these questions with, “I do that, well, sometimes!”

Christian discipleship is a radical and counter-cultural endeavor. Forming Christian disciples is an incredible challenge because allowing ourselves to be molded into the image of God’s grace and love requires humility in a culture that values power. Being formed in the image of God’s grace and love requires authentic community in an era of individualism. It requires diversity and inclusion in a time of isolation and retreat into like-minded groups. It requires hope in the face of fear and uncertainty. It requires generosity in a culture of scarcity. It requires trust in God’s faithfulness when our society teaches us to trust in ourselves. And yet, being formed in Christ’s image is exactly what we are called to be and do.

I have been called to ministry in your midst to help form disciples, to “disciple-ize,” as Frances Taylor Gench put it in the service for my installation. She reminded us that Christian formation is “the long, slow and never-ending process of formation, of education, of learning the way of the kingdom at each stage of life and through all human experiences. For you see disciples are made, not born - which means that the church engages in the task of discipleship formation through the whole of life, with no graduation day in sight!”

In the month of January, I will be leading a four-part workshop on Christian Formation during the 10 o’clock hour on Sunday mornings. In it we will explore together more about what it is to be “discple-ized” and how that might take shape at Fairfax Presbyterian Church.

I invite you to join me in the long, slow process of Christian formation. But, I invite you in a spirit of excitement because Christian formation is life-giving work. It enriches and nourishes our lives. It forms us and transforms us in exciting new ways. It holds us together in the bonds of genuine friendship and love. And it helps us to live into the good news that in God’s grace we have been redeemed and in God’s love we may have life.

Thanks be to God!