Disciple Making - Chris Tibbetts
It was national signing day for college football recruits. Finally Jimbo Fisher could talk about all the blue-chip talent he had just brought in. Talent like Florida State hadn’t seen since the twilight of Bowden’s heyday. You could finally feel it again. It felt like this group of players would bring another championship to Tallahassee.
But on that day, speaking as he did annually on the evening of national signing day at the antique car museum in Florida’s capital city, a platitude that Jimbo said stuck with me more than his praise of the 5-star quarterback he’d just signed. A quarterback who would lead this group to a national championship. In describing a linebacker, who most recruiting analysts said was waffling in his college decision, Jimbo said he knew the player would sign with Florida State because sometimes, “your actions are speaking so loud, I can’t even hear what you’re saying.” The player had said he was open to other schools, his actions had clearly indicated to Jimbo that he was not. The coaching staff pieced together their class accordingly. Jimbo — and his platitude — were right.
What do our actions say about us? And do they overshadow or even contradict what comes from our mouths? It’s natural to read that as seasoned adult Christians and think back to our childhood Sunday School classes where we inevitably learned that lesson. The temptation, though, is to dismiss it as a childhood lesson learned. The temptation is to think of the myriad instances where we’ve seen others explicitly betray their speech with deplorable behavior. The temptation is to presume that we don’t do this — or if we do, it’s minimal, it’s excusable, it’s justified.
In a world, though, in which we’ve displaced in person interaction, or even telephone interaction, with increasingly reduced text exchange. In a world where we prefer our outward appearance to be filtered on an app. In a world where we have become increasingly disconnected from one another via the myriad tools we’ve been told would increase our connection to others. In that world — the world we’re in — the opportunities for our actions to drown out our words are numerous. In that world, a world that has been marching for some time — cognizant or not — in descent towards “meta,” it is frequently our words that are our primary actions. Sharply worded witticisms presenting and cataloguing who we are to the world, to our friends, to our church communities. Unfortunately, in that world — the world we’re in — there is very little room for nuance. Very little room for further explanation. Very little interest from anyone to even grant a gracious reading to your thoughts. Unfortunately, in that world — the world we’re in — our actions are amplified.
I titled this blog, “Disciple Making”, because that’s what we’re doing. Always. Whether to Christ or to the world, we’re discipling. There is no safe harbor of a neutral position. Indeed, it would be no safe harbor if there was. Our call is to make disciples of all nations. And rarely in the course of church history has a generation had the accessibility and the visibility to the nations that everyone with a smartphone and a social media app now has. Continuously. Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. He ends it with the forward- looking genealogy of the disciples of all nations who would bear the name of the triune God. Making disciples is the imperative of the commission in Matthew. Our actions are amplified.
What do those actions say about us? What does our virtual phenotype communicate? Does it overshadow or impede the ministry to which we’ve been called? Is the lobbing of truth bombs at other Christians in 140 characters or less a best practice for ministry? I’m sure they may have a role at times. I’m also sure that role is not quite as ubiquitous as it seems. Much the same as it would likely not be good for the world to hear my immediate response to the driver who cuts me off in my car, it is likely not necessary or beneficial to hear the immediate annotation of every thought we have in response to someone who is wrong on the internet.
What do our actions say about us? What do our actions say about Christ? The Christ we are to proclaim to the nations. Make disciples. The nations are waiting.