Beloved Discipleship

By Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok

The following reflection is a selected portion of a 1999 Doctor of Ministry dissertation; "Unleashing God's Mighty Power through Internet Evangelism." Readers are requested to email the author for permission to reprint or distribute these thoughts. Email requests may be sent to the Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok at revsandyb@aol.com.

It is an unfortunate reality of the larger Christian church that many well intentioned Christians impose personal bias, discrimination and prejudice in their evangelism and discipleship. This is dramatically evident with their interactions, judgment and condemnation to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) seekers. Many impose well-intentioned and unrealistic conditions with their gospel understanding of Jesus Christ. They insist these seekers must change their sexual orientation to be "compatible with Christianity." Others will aggressively use their Christian faith to deny these often marginalized and misunderstood seekers their basic human rights in the name of God. Many GLBT seekers have not experienced loving welcome in these Christian churches. Many are using the Internet as a safe way to find pro-gay, pro-Christian, "Gay by God" web sites for spiritually empowering resources and affirming community. This creates unique challenges for evangelism and discipleship among these seekers. It is my understanding that Christ never called anyone to change a sexual orientation. Christ invites all into a life of beloved discipleship without prejudice or discrimination.

The gospel of John has deeply influenced my understanding of evangelism for this specific GLBT community of seekers. I believe John has an especially tender and powerful witness. There is great need for them to reclaim their belovedness and blessedness in God. What makes John's evangel so powerful is the deep, tender, intimate love from the beloved disciple. Love is the primary motivation in evangelism and disciple making. All seekers need this rich spiritual heritage of belovedness.

The beloved disciple deeply loved Jesus. He loved more than the other male disciples. John was not afraid, nor ashamed to touch Jesus in public same-sex friendship. Friendship with Jesus Christ is a powerful spiritual heritage. Friendship is about love even in persecution, danger and oppression. Only John stood with the women at the cross of Christ. Love was his only motivation. Jesus is non-homophobic in all the gospels and all sexual minorities can be enormously empowered with this insight. Homophobic people can learn tolerance through Jesus' example of tender same-sex touch and overt affection for John.

John writes as the beloved disciple about his Beloved. Through his heartbeat of love, John presents a gracious Jesus modeling the arts of spiritual conversations while wholly listening to those who sought him. Jesus models the arts of spiritual generosity and hospitality for each of us. He teaches us how to linger with others without pre-memorized formulas and meet people as unique individuals. He teaches us that "respect is a holy word."

A close reading of John's gospel quickly reveals that Jesus evangelized through discipleship. Evangelism through discipleship can be summed up in his two radical words, "Follow me" (Jn 1:40, 43; 10:4, 27; 12:26; 13:37; 18: 15; 21:19). The gospel of John opens and closes with those two imperatives from Christ to his disciples. The first documented word for Christian actually seems to be "disciple." This intentional discipleship formation can be seen with Jesus and his first disciple, Philip (Jn 1:43-44; 6:5; 12:22; 14:8-10, Acts 8). We are given a Christ model as master discipler through Philip's spiritual formation.

Jesus went out of his way to search for Philip and invested three intense years in his spiritual formation and discipleship. Philip became a great evangelist and missionary. Through Christ's patient and thorough pastoral care and mentoring, Philip learned to be in tune with the Holy Spirit's leading. Philip realized it is God who brings people into encounters for spiritual conversations. Acts 8 can relieve us of the pressure of "hunting souls." It is the gracious leading of the Holy Spirit who brings people together in divine encounters for evangelism. Philip models spiritual sensitivity in hearing the Spirit's still small voice. As a result, Philip could leave the large numbers in a successful ministry to seek the one spiritual searcher. He had well learned the value of one. The Ethiopian eunuch was transformed and eager to share his spiritual biography with others. The eunuch went back home to his people. The gospel was spread throughout North Africa through his joyful witness. The power of one witness in God's timing has unlimited potential in spreading the gospel where it has not yet been heard.

God's love message is incarnational in John's gospel (Jn 17:18; 20:21). There is a clearly defined sent identity. God sent Christ to the Church (Jn 4:38; 17:3; 20:21). We are sent to be incarnational (Jn 1:14) in our families, neighborhoods and in the secular marketplace. Christ clearly has a mission to the world (Jn 3:16, 17; 16:33; 17:3, 4, 8, 9, 21, 23, 25) "that the world might believe" (Jn 17:21, 23, 25). The Holy Spirit is a missionary and brings people in divine appointments and conversations with Christ who invited people to "come and see" (Jn 1:39). Evangelism is God's gracious, tender invitation into personal and intimate relationship. We begin to say "yes" to Jesus Christ. We are invited to linger in the presence of God as spiritual children. This is our spiritual birthright as beloved disciples.

In evangelism, Christ provided sites of spiritual hospitality and generosity. He would go out of his way to search for individuals and sit with them in prolonged, leisured conversations. Their lives were transformed. He did not use guilt or fear techniques. He never forced himself on anyone, nor was he coercive or manipulative. He met each person with respect. He treated each as a valued and unique human being. Christ models evangelism for us through spiritual hospitality, generosity and active listening conversations. Some wonderful spiritual conversations and encounters with Christ are found with the nobleman, paralytic, the blind man, Mary and Martha (Jn 3: 1-15; 4: 1-26, 43-53; 5: 1-15; 9: 1-13; 11: 17-40). Through these examples and others, we see evangelism goes beyond John 3:16. Christ's method of spreading the liberating and inclusive reign of God is often seen through the power of witness among what society views as the lowest forms of human life (Jn 1:34; 4:42; 6:69; 8:31-32; 10:38). We are to witness and confess our experiences, interacting with people who may be quite different from us. Jesus modeled evangelism in many ways. He came preaching and teaching to the crowds while taking time for the one. Christ knew how to linger with people. He never manipulated emotions or used "spiritual laws." Christ used the most unlikely missionary candidates. John's gospel abounds with their spiritual formation and training in the examples of Andrew (Jn 1:40; 6:8), Peter (Jn 1:42; 6:68; 13: 6-9; 18:11; 21:15-22), Nathaniel (Jn 1:47-51; 21:2) "doubting" Thomas (Jn 11:16; 14:5; 20: 26-29), Judas Iscarate, the betrayer (12:4-8; 13:26-30), the other Judas (14:22-24) and Mary Magdal (Jn 20:10-18).

In summary, I believe beloved discipleship is the calling of every Christian from every imaginable sexual orientation to be a witness of their truth in Jesus Christ. Beloved discipleship is people reaching people with their experiences through Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord, Master and Friend. We are witnesses of God's great love in our lives. All Christians have the potential to be good news messengers in a world full of bad news. I am suggesting a beloved discipleship-evangelism paradigm based on the Christ stories in the gospels. This is especially helpful for the seeking GLBT communities who are often ridiculed, rejected and refused the unconditional gospel.¹ Jesus invited "anyone," "all" and "whosoever."² Christ is never recorded as requiring changes in sexual orientation that many conservative and homophobic evangelists demand.³ Spiritual justice⁴ demands all, anyone and whosoever be offered God's gracious and loving invitation "just as you are."

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