by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Oct 28, 2019
Discipleship pathway systems are all the rage in the United Methodist Church these days. And with good reason. These systems are supposed to produce disciples, i.e. growth, and thus enable churches to fulfill the Great Commission, as well as the mission of the denomination.
But what about when discipleship isn’t enough? I can’t help but wonder if this approach to discipleship is short-sighted. Perhaps even problematic. The first problem I see is that discipleship as an end game can create passive followers who don’t own their God-given agency. The second problem is that discipleship without apostleship subverts the Gospels’ meta message.
Let’s start with the first problem. Jesus didn’t call The Twelve or The Seventy-Two or any of the others for them to be mere followers. Followership was simply the first stage in their spiritual development. Apostleship was the ultimate goal of their training.
During the three years The Twelve spent with Jesus, they observed how he thought and how he prayed. They watched how he taught and soaked up what he believed. They watched him engage paralyzed, hurting, desperate people and they noted the way he interacted with others. They listened to the way he phrased things. They were privy to his miracles and glimpsed his inner relationship with God.
But they didn’t stop there. Jesus transferred his spiritual authority, agency, and accountability to them. They were to speak, act, and heal on behalf of him, and of the Kingdom. Each of these men and women were to be active agents, stewards, of the Kingdom dream.
What’s striking to me is that Jesus never hoarded his power. He freely taught others how to exercise it. After they mastered the kinds of things Jesus had done, The Twelve, The Seventy-Two and likely countless others, surpassed what Jesus had done. Not only did they heal, preach, and proclaim the Kingdom, they gathered thousands of followers, set up communities in far-flung places, and oversaw the development of structures that allowed the church to grow and expand throughout the known world.
That’s where we get to the second problem with discipleship pathway systems. We’re not going to be any good at making the sort of disciples Jesus made until we are decidedly better at making the kind of apostles Jesus made. After all, it is apostles who make disciples, not other disciples. You can see this shift in the Great Commission. When Jesus commanded the disciples to “Go therefore into all the world,” signaled the ontological change in their status. From this moment on, they were no longer followers. Their sending signaled they now functioned as apostles.
Yet in the church, we do not teach people, even our leaders, how to be apostolic: stewards of the dream, agents of change. We do not teach people that they are co-creators with God. That their words have creative, divine power. That they are more Christ-like than they know. Instead we teach people to give God all the glory. I’m not sure if God wants all the glory. Nor does Jesus. The way I read the New Testament, Jesus expects us to surpass him, to do even greater things than he did. The only way to do that is to own our God-given agency and our authority. Settling for discipleship without apostleship undercuts the ultimate meta message of the Gospels.
So before we get too invested in discipleship pathways, we would do well to build apostleship pathways, too. Interested in knowing more about how to do that?
In my work with Creating a Culture of Renewal, I’ve discovered that apostleship starts with Kingdom-oriented dreams. When church leaders know how to dream like Jesus, align others to the dream, and realize the dream, then the dream can expand and draw others to it. Now there’s a discipleship pathway system.
Adapted from Dream Like Jesus: Deepen Your Faith and Bring the Impossible to Life © 2019 Rebekah Simon-Peter, now available everywhere online.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Sep 28, 2019
When a male leader is direct, confident, or decisive, he’s often known by a C-word: Confident. Competent. Charismatic. He’s prized as a strong leader, a natural leader. A woman who shares the same characteristics in a leadership position, however, is often stuck with a less desirable word. With less desirable connotations.
I told my husband about the title of this blog and asked him what he thought the B-word was. He answered tongue in cheek. “Bright? Balanced? Bold?” I laughed. The truth is, we both know she’s more likely to be known as bossy. Or worse, a b#tch.
Strangely enough, it’s not just men that make these pronouncements. Other women do too.
Why would women resist strong female leadership? Is it because women are afraid of their own power? Is it because women fear the backlash that comes when another woman displays such qualities? Or maybe traditional female gender socialization is so ingrained that it’s simply hard to accept this sort of female leadership.
I’m not sure. But I do know this. Women, as well as men, are naturally shaped to be direct, confident, and decisive. As well as tender, compassionate and collaborative. Traditional gender norms tend to skew socially acceptable behaviors, but in studies about personality type, all of the above qualities occur almost equally in both men and women. Moreover, since each one of us—male and female—is made in the image and likeness of God, there are no mistakes about how we turn out.
The church needs strong, decisive leaders who are confident, competent and charismatic. As well as compassionate and collaborative. And the church needs them in both the female and male versions.
So how do we move beyond the negative monikers of bossy and b#itch? I have three suggestions for the women in the pews and pulpits:
-
Remember the power women from your past.
Identify women from your past that shaped their families and communities with their insight, intuition, and ability to get things done. You are part of that history. Women have always been leaders, even if not in the public square.
-
Mentor the next generation of women.
Elizabeth supported Mary when they both carried miracle babies who would change the arc of history. In the same way, mentor younger and older women in developing their own confidence and skill.
-
Own your inner boss.
Get comfortable with your own power. The power to move a conversation forward, to motivate a congregation, to envision new possibilities. A female colleague gave me a prized mug that says: “I’m not bossy. I am the boss.”
There is one more B-word that is under-used when it comes to women. One we should wholeheartedly embrace: Bishop.
In 2006, I attended an international United Methodist celebration of the 50th anniversary of full clergy rights for women. All of the female United Methodist bishops in the church were in attendance. They told their stories, spoke on panels, and cheered each other on. I was amazed not only at their leadership, but at their everydayness. As I navigated airports on the way back home, I thought to myself that if I had seen any of these women without their episcopal robes or name tags, I wouldn’t have known they were bishops. They looked like other women I knew: grandmothers, mothers, sisters and friends.
In the same way, women leaders are all around us. Women who accomplish amazing things in their communities, families, and in the Kin(g)dom of God. We need you. Yes, in some settings, you may be thought of as bossy, or even bitchy. But let’s not forget, you may also be thought of as bishop-material.
Learn more about our work at www.rebekahsimonpeter.com.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Apr 19, 2017
I attended two Passover Seders last week. One I led for a large group of New Mexican church-going Christians. The other was in the home of my Jewish kid brother and our religiously, ethnically diverse gathering of family and friends. The first one was designed to highlight the Jewishness of Jesus. The second one was designed to raise issues of societal injustice. Both relevant emphases for a Seder.
Even with their different focus and attendees, I was reminded of the meta message of a Seder. Any religion worth its salt must re-invent itself from time to time.
The Passover Seder as we know it now didn’t exist in Jesus’ day. Jewish as he was, he wouldn’t have eaten charoses mixed with horseradish sandwiched between 2 pieces of matzah. He wouldn’t have invited the youngest disciple to chant 4 questions. He definitely wouldn’t have hidden an afikomen.
Here’s what he would have done: recited blessings over a paschal lamb. Blessed matzah and wine. Sung hymns. Most of which is noted in the various accounts of the Last Supper or Seder.
Why the difference? When Jesus was alive, the Temple still stood. That meant that the Jewish form of worship was sacrifice-centric. Leviticus 23 gives ancient instructions on how to observe these holy days.
Less than 40 years later after Jesus died and was resurrected, that whole system of sacrifices was gone, destroyed along with the Temple. Judaism had to reinvent itself—in a hurry. And it was the Pharisees to whom that task fell.
Of the 4 parties that existed at Jesus’ time—Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes—only the Pharisees survived much beyond the fall of Jerusalem. Sadducees, whose members were tasked with Temple duties, disappeared—their services no longer needed. Zealots, with their penchant for stirring up trouble, are credited by historians for hastening the destruction of the holy city. Their remains were scattered among the charred rubble of Jerusalem. Essenes, who didn’t believe much in reproduction, simply died out. That left the Pharisees. It was their creative intellectual, theological and ethical genius from which Rabbinic Judaism sprang. Rabbinic Judaism provided the template from which today’s many Judaisms have flowered.
The Pharisaical emphasis on right action rather than right belief, and their ability to thrive under oppressive circumstances served them well on many accounts. Especially when it came to their biggest project yet–reinventing Judaism in the face of a world that no longer existed, and a religious system that could no longer function. Once the sacrificial system was gone, they figured out how Judaism might live on. They reinvented religion—while holding the core of it in place—one God, and a people dedicated to the service of that God.
Judaism is famous for reinventing itself over the millennia. But they are not the only ones.
At many critical junctures, Christianity has had to do the same. When Jesus didn’t return right away—Christianity had to take a new path without a living leader. When Constantine converted to Christianity and it became the dominant religion of the Empire–it again reinvented itself. And once again at the behest of Martin Luther’s demand for transparency and accountability. Each church split has signaled a kind of reinvention.
We’re not done reinventing ourselves, either. Twisted experiences from the Crusades and frontier America have caused most churches to drop coercive evangelism. We have re-invented the way we read scripture. Most Protestant denominations now welcome divorced people, female leadership and women clergy. We haven’t worried about wearing mixed fibers for a long time.
Even as our structures and hermeneutics have changed, so have our ecclesiologies. We have already begun moving away from a clergy- and cathedral-centric expression of faith. Trained laity, house churches, experimental missional and other “weird” faith communities are taking root.
While our central tenets remain the same—and people of good faith will disagree about which tenets belong in this list, but here’s mine—God is love; Jesus Christ is God incarnate; The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; We are Kingdom people—the way we live those out has changed radically. Rather than see these changes as a weakening of the faith or unholy compromises with culture, perhaps its time to see them as part of the natural evolution of a religion that has staying power.
After all, reinventing religion is the very process by which Christianity arose. As I demonstrate in The Jew Named Jesus, Jesus was a Jew through and through. That means the religion of Jesus was Judaism. The religion about Jesus, however, is Christianity. It will be interesting to see how this process of reinvention continues to evolve as we meet the realities of a changing world, expanded knowledge, and unfolding opportunities.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jan 18, 2016
The world wants more of churches: more spirituality, more community, more engagement, more love, more miracles, more demonstration of the kingdom. Not less. Yet, most of us are serving shrinking, declining, even dying churches. If our leadership is to be effective, if we are about manifesting the kingdom here on earth, if we are to make a true difference in the lives of those we lead, and the communities we serve, we need to think big. Then, even bigger.
Of course, thinking big isn’t enough. We have to know what to do with the ideas. Jesus mastered 3 hidden leadership skills that we would do well to learn.
To begin with, Jesus boldly crafted and expressed his vision. Even under the most difficult of circumstances.
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles–
the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
In the shadow of John’s death, Jesus got to work. He went about the countryside proclaiming a message welcomed by some leaders of the time, and dangerous to other leaders. He didn’t let death or threats of death stop him. In fact, he was intent on being light in that particular time of darkness.
But he didn’t stop there. Or try to do it all himself. He found people who were aligned with his message.
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets and he called them. Immediately, they left the boat and their father and followed him.
And that’s not all.
Jesus went throughout the Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
Other Jewish teachers, rabbis and miracle workers traveled the land during Jesus’ day. What set him apart was that he was doing it as a sign of the inbreaking of the kingdom. In the process, he was building alignment for his vision. Crowds of people, great crowds, began to follow him. That’s when he taught them more about his vision.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs it he Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Unlike some spiritual leaders today, Jesus wasn’t trying to do all the work himself. In fact, he knew that if the message ended with him, it would die when he did. He used the buy in of the people to execute his vision of the Kingdom.
Watch what he does with his disciples.
Then Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
These 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The Kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
Jesus doesn’t stop with this charge. He goes on to give them very specific instructions about how to execute the vision.
You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.
As specific as he is, he does not fall into micro-managing. He demonstrates trust in their ability to discern the nature of the people they will encounter.
Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
Vision. Alignment. Execution. These are the three hidden leadership skills Jesus practiced.
But leadership is not a linear process. It’s a spiral that redoubles and comes around again. Watch how Jesus demonstrates that.
Now when Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.
He’s just sent off his 12 closest followers, and now he’s off to cast his vision, build alignment and empower execution among brand new people! Powerful visions are like that. They compel you, energize you, and pull you forward. This was not drudgery for Jesus. It was his passion and purpose in life. (Luke 4:43). It was the reason he got out of bed in the morning. He was unstoppable!
If leadership requires vision, alignment and execution, it seems to me that there is one criterion that precedes these three tasks.
The vision has to be worth it. It has to be big enough, bold enough, and compelling enough to promise a new state of affairs. Otherwise, you’ll lose interest. And so will everyone else.
Are you leading with a bold vision? That’s where it all starts.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Aug 3, 2015
The vacation is one of the finest tools for spiritual leadership development. It allows you to practice being instead of doing—a must for spiritual leaders. The word dates back to the late 14th century, from the French, and means freedom from obligations, leisure, release. But the idea itself goes back to the ancient world: Egyptians, Greeks and Romans traveled for education, entertainment and culture.
Did Jesus vacation? Hard to say for sure, but we know he and his family traveled. Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth for an extended stay while they were both pregnant. Joseph and Mary traveled for the census-taking. After Jesus was born, Joseph shepherded his young family to Egypt for safety. Later, they regularly went up to Jerusalem for the week of Passover—perhaps the closest thing to vacation we can imagine. They probably traveled for the other two pilgrimage-related holidays as well. No doubt these were fun times of family, feasting, and celebration; long-standing ties would have been strengthened and new friendships made. Visiting the Temple itself would have been a religious and cultural highlight.
But whether or not Jesus took an actual vacation as we know it, here are the top 9 reasons you should.
-
- Vacations give you perspective. Nothing like getting away to help you reflect on where you’ve been. Jesus himself took regular time away from the pressures of leadership. His alone time with God allowed him to get back it with vigor.
- The demands of church life are such that you can stay busy 24/7 and still never get it all done. If you’re one of those who thinks, “As soon as I get it all done, then I’ll take a break,” check out Workaholics Anonymous Book of Recovery for a new perspective. There is no such thing as “done.”
- Vacations allow much needed time with family, friends. Or perhaps, in some cases, away from family and friends! As much as I cherish my family and friends, a few solo trips I have taken stand out as times I grew the most.
- The Sabbath and holidays are not automatic days off for you. In fact, you’re working the hardest on the days others are resting and relaxing. God refrained from what he was doing to rest on the 7th day. Jesus did too. But most of us don’t get to.
- Vacations help you remember you are a human being and not a human doing. Doing, doing, doing can bleed you dry. Simply being with God, yourself, and your loved ones, is soul-satisfying. It helps you remember who you are. And whose you are.
- American vacations in the 18th and 19th centuries often revolved around religious retreats and denominationally oriented “camp meetings.” Take heart in knowing your spiritual forebears took time off. You can too.
- Even if you opt for a “staycation,” a break from the regular routine can bring about new insights and allow you time to think new thoughts. Or perhaps not think at all!
- A vacation can help you cultivate new interests, see new places, and deepen your appreciation for the landscapes, creatures and curiosities of the vast world we live in. Last year, I camped and hiked in an International Dark Sky Park. It wasn’t terribly far from my home, but it was a world away. Reconnecting with the night sky was a gift.
- You may have paid time off coming. Use it or lose it! I know many clergy who have denominationally-mandated yearly continuing education time who don’t take it, access to funding for it who don’t use it, and sabbatical time off every 7 years who never take advantage of it. What a waste!
This summer, I put a vacation reply on my email, left my calendar at home, went to my husband’s family reunion, hiked, read some good books, napped in the sun, poked around in a few places I’ve never been before, and generally did a whole lot of nothing. What a pleasure! In fact, I’m not done vacationing yet. Yes, I’ll be looking forward to being back at it….refreshed and rejuvenated…when the time comes. In the meantime, there’s more nothing to be done.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jun 22, 2015
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the dreams of Jesus. Not his night time dreams. But the dream that drove him day by day. It was never far from his awareness. He talked about it, taught about it, and prayed about it. Both his healings and his post-resurrection interactions reflected it. As I write about in The Jew Named Jesus, it was his self-stated reason for coming.
Call me crazy, but I think if we were to recapture Jesus’ own dream, our lives as followers 
would be fuller and richer. Our discipleship would be truer. Our churches would be re-invigorated. The world would be transformed.
What was Jesus’ dream? In a nutshell: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We think of this line as part of the Lord’s Prayer. But I think of it as Jesus’ dream. His dream for us, for humanity, for all creation. The Kingdom figured in everything Jesus did. First he announced it, then he enacted it through miracles and healings, then God inaugurated it through his resurrection.
What is Jesus’ dream? That the beautiful, creative, abundant, gracious, life-giving, blessed intentions of God would be as fully realized on earth as they already are in heaven. That heaven would be reflected here on earth. That we would fully embody God’s will in all our dealings.
So that means a few things: first, the well-being of the earth is essential to Jesus’ own dream. This is where God’s salvation plays out, not in an afterlife. Second, it means we’re called to be active participants. Third, it means that we have to elevate our consciousness beyond the physical to sense the deep spiritual movement of the Divine will and consciousness within us. In other words, we have to let the dream move us to new actions, new conversations, and new ways of being.
Pope Francis has caught the dream. In his recent encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the Care of our Common Home, he articulates a new vision of the Kingdom of God here on earth. Where both the poor and the planet receive preferential treatment.
He also articulates what it takes to get there. “Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change. We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone. … A great cultural, spiritual, and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.” (paragraph 202)
United Methodist Bishops, too, have written about the need for renewal.
The necessity of human renewal, of re-imagining what it 
means to be human, was made devastatingly clear when an armed 21-year old man joined a prayer meeting and Bible Study at Emmanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston S.C. Less than an hour later, Dylann Roof, a white southerner with racist beliefs opened fire on this inclusive gathering. Nine black spiritual and civic leaders, including 3 pastors—one of whom-Rev. Clementa Pinckney—was a respected state senator, lay dead.
Followers of Jesus, this is a potent time to embrace Jesus’ dream and make it our own. Here are some insights about how to dream like Jesus from the week just past:
- Dream a bigger dream. This sweeps people up with you and creates a current that moves things forward. Family members of the slain forgave the killer. They urged him to repent. They did this not to let him off the hook. Or to whitewash racism. But to free themselves of hatred and revenge. And to be ready for a better future.
- Speak up even when powerful forces threaten you. Climate change “skeptics”, whose funding can be traced back to the fossil fuel industry, sought vigorously to dissuade Pope Francis from speaking out on climate change, or at least to include their perspective in his paper. Pope Francis, a chemist by training, and a life-long advocate of the poor, instead chose to call all humans to a vision where our common good outweighs the financial interests of some corporations.
- Love is the answer. In conversations with clergy from a variety of denominations, I have been struck by the cynicism and despair the church shooting has engendered. Love wins. Love always wins. Keep hope alive.
- Do justly. The search for justice is not easy. Biblical definitions of justice do not equal revenge, but of all creation living together in peace and harmony. What can you do in your corner of the world to create a world that works for all creatures and all people?
We can’t make Jesus’ dream come true. But we can align our dreams with his. Then ready ourselves for their manifestation. As I write in The Jew Named Jesus, Church historian Diana Butler Bass notes in her book [Christianity After Religion], the first Christians believed that Jesus would restore the kingdom; medieval Christians believed that the church was the kingdom; Reformed Christians believed that true Christians embodied the kingdom in word and sacrament; and modern Christians believed they could create the kingdom through their work. But there has also been another story about the reign of God—the notion that God’s people anticipate and participate in the kingdom through spiritual practices.” The spiritual practices she goes on to name include prayer, hospitality, forgiveness, charity, and stewardship. These are akin to Jewish spiritual practices of worship, service to God, study, charity, and acts of loving kindness that Judaism teaches will hasten the arrival of God’s reign on earth. None of us can make the kingdom of God come. But we can practice being ready for it.
The best way to dream like Jesus is to practice the Kingdom of God, here and now.
