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Disciple book report 

As soon as you open ``Disciple", you are hit with an exuberant endorsement of what you are about to read. "You may not want to sign your name to all of Juan Carlos' theology or to his various interpretations. But don't let that stop you. Keep reading, because whatever disagreement you may have will soon become unimportant as he shares freely and honestly what God is accomplishing through His people in Latin American today," writes Dr. Mooneyham in the foreword. 

How true this was! I didn't agree with everything that Ortiz wrote in his book. However, it was challenging and thought provoking. I could not deny that this was someone who was running headfirst towards Christ and inviting me to run towards him as well. Reading Disciple made me both realize how far I still was from the prize, and yet I became so excited over how much more God could do in my life and in the Bay Area. I began to ask myself once more - What is like when there is true revival? Might it not look like something like this?

I was apprehensive as I read through the first few chapters. Not for theology; I agreed that all things we do, including evangelism, worship, etc. needed to be focused on God and his glory. But Juan Carlos Ortiz pushed those ideas to a place where I was uncomfortable. For example, he writes "Even our motivation for evangelism is man centered […] We do not preach to lost souls because they are lost. We got to extend the Kingdom of God because God says so, and He is the Lord." Well, I thought, couldn't it be both? Doesn't a love and obedience for Christ compel you to go preach to lost souls…because they are lost? On further reflection, I could see why I was uncomfortable and why he was right. There has been much griping about man-centeredness in worship in recent years, to the point where people are nitpicking over lyrics, and that I don't think is correct. But I see what Ortiz is saying about evangelism, and about many other things. It's good that we are motivated by concern for the lost, by our joy over what God has done for us, and he welcomes us to go to him with our problems. But if that is the ONLY reason, or the MAIN reason, we will eventually burn out and give up. Because our hearts are weak and our concerns only go so far, and when God seemingly stops blessing us, we may give up. But when we are doing these things out of obedience, we never give up, because then we rely not on our strength, but on his, knowing that he will give us strength to do all that he commanded.

Another thing that made me uncomfortable was just how radical Ortiz was calling us to be with our resources and love for each other. He touches on this in the first chapter, “Jesus commanded us to sell our possessions and give to charity.” I didn’t like that! Not because the general thought of giving bothers me, but because 구지 do I have to sell my things when I can give money? But how that attitude contrasts with the members who are in Argentina, and how they freely gave everything they had to the church! I think the point here is this though, and exactly what Ortiz says to his church body. “He wants a house with you living in it [..] Just remember, though, that it all still belongs to him.” I need my clothes! And I need my car, etc, and God knows that. That’s why he is allowing me to have these things for a time. But if he ever asks it back, then I need to joyfully let it go. May my heart be like that! He further builds on these ideas as he starts to talk about Christian life needs to be centered on love. He goes from Neighborly love, to Brotherly love, to Mashed Potato Love, each becoming more sacrificial than before. And each time, he challenges to not just give what we would give to ourselves, not just more than ourselves, but EVERYTHING, just as Christ gave everything to us.

There are so many more things that landed on my heart, but I do not have the room to write about here! And honestly, I need to go back through it again for further reflection, and just digest and pray over how I can respond to the truths presented here by Ortiz. However, as much as the first part of the book challenged how I lived my life as a Christian, my favorite part of the book was the second half, where he wrote about how he raised up a church and disciples. As he wrote about the way that they lived, my eyes sparked and my heart was convicted. This was the stuff that I dreamed about! “We are concerned with information. But Jesus was concerned with formation. We need to learn from Him how to form disciples.”

I realized once more that I have a long way to go. As much as I had grown in Christ, it had just been stepping out of immaturity. Which is great! You need to learn deeply about the cross, about prayer and laying on of hands, baptism, what it means to really live for Christ. But I can’t stay there. But the next step, what makes a true disciple, is that having become a disciple they're making other disciples. And surely I had been a part of it! I had extolled brothers and sisters and supported them, and even served them, and even evangelized, but there was so much room to put time into making disciples. This is half of the Great Commission, equally as important as baptizing new believers! 

Reading about the “cells” that they created together, more than anything, it made me hopeful. As we build out our Christian Workplace Fellowship at Robinhood, we have a lot of decisions to make about what the organization does and what it looks like. How beautiful would it be if we lived like this in our company! Not only to break bread together, but richly share each other’s struggles and challenges. To be open and intimate with each other, not holding back any of our flaws but confessing our sins to each other. To be balanced between being taken care and taking care of others. And the important thing was that we were not just called to discuss and talk with each other, but to live out our faiths! To care for the poor, to heal the sick, to preach the gospel, to pray deeply together and then to move through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lord would you help our fellowship do this together! May we not be a group that just hangs out with each other and never changes, but may we build up disciples so we may go and do the same elsewhere. In the end, although we can read and try and plan as much as we want, if the Holy Spirit does not create a new heart, if he does not empower us, if he does that fill us with his fullness, we cannot do anything. But in faith I know and trust that he will do it for the sake of his great name.

Disciple is a hard book, and the picture it paints is so far from our current day reality. But not only is it somewhere we can go, it’s somewhere we must go. Jesus commands us to! And I love how he wrote how becoming a disciple and building up other disciples requires obedience and submission. We have so many ideas about how to do everything, and so much pride that we are right, but in order to move forward together we need to set those aside. Perhaps it won’t be exactly what Juan Carlos Ortiz built up, but the heart of glorifying Christ alone through our love must be there. May our church be as fiercely loving as Juan Carlos Ortiz extols us to be. May we be single mindedly focused on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and may our only goal be obedience to him. May we be holy as he is holy, loving as he is loving, and one as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. Thank you Lord for allowing your servant to pen together all the things you had taught him in his life.