Fully Committed

Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal for recruits in these terms: "I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!" Jesus invites you to discipleship. But He lets you know up front that it is a commitment that will cost you something. It's not going to be easy. To paraphrase Garibaldi, "Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and not with his lips only, be Jesus' disciple!"

We Need More Church Fans
Source: National & International Religion Report, 5/2/94. "To Verify," Leadership.

The Bible tells us that where your treasure is, there your heart is also. That means we could accurately say that many folks are more committed to professional sports than they are to the church. In 1993 the total attendance at worship services in the U.S. was 5.6 billion, while the total attendance at U.S. professional baseball, football, and basketball games combined was only 103 million (less than two percent of the worship attendance, or for every 100 people who attended church less than two were at a sporting event.)

Now the rest of the story: Contributions to churches for the year totaled $56.7 billion (that's just over $10 per person), but the amount spent on professional baseball, football, and basketball totaled $4 billion (that's nearly $40 per person or almost four times what people gave to their local church per person). Is it any wonder that we look at some fans and say that they really are fanatics? They are more sold out for their team than many church attenders. How could we change the nation if the church quadrupled its commitment of resources, discipleship, and evangelism?

Accepting the Marginal
Source: Dallas Willard

The leading assumption in the American church today—and the Australian one I'll add—is that you can be a Christian but not a disciple. That has placed a tremendous burden on a mass of Christians who are not disciples. We tell them to come to church, participate in our programs and give money. But we see a church that knows nothing of commitment. We have settled for the marginal, and so we carry this awful burden of trying to motivate people to do what they don't want to do. We can't think about church the way we have been.

The True Nature of Spiritual Life
Source: James Emery White, You Can Experience the Spiritual Life (Nashville: Word Pub., 1999), 194.

Christian spirituality isn't about sitting at the feet of some guru for a seminar at a retreat. It isn't about having a nice comfortable, safe dose of spirituality in your life to make you feel good whenever your thoughts run deep about ultimate questions and eternal destinies. Jesus called people to follow Him—and there was only one place He was going: a cross. The true nature of spiritual living involves sacrifice, duty, and commitment.

Commitment Challenges

A common source of challenge in life is commitment as illustrated in the following story: The church choir director was frustrated with the sporadic attendance of all the choir members for rehearsals for the Christmas Choral Concert. At the final rehearsal he announced, "I want to personally thank the pianist for being the only person in this entire church choir to attend each and every rehearsal during the past two months." At this, the pianist rose, bowed, and said, "It was the least that I could do, considering I won't be able to be at the Christmas Choral Concert tonight!"