FRIENDS! Happy New Year to you!
I saw this post on Mike Breens blog today, and just had to repost it here because it’s just rad to see other worship leader writing about discipleship and the Kingdom story. This is a great post from a worship leader named David Walker. You can learn more about David here.
Blessings to you all. Enjoy!
WHAT YOU KNOW OR WHO YOU ARE.
Posted on: December 29th, 2011 by David Walker (http://davidwalkeronline.com)
I’m a worship pastor.
It’s what I do,
what I know,
who I’ve been created to be.
But as of late, some things have been stirring inside of me that leave me unsettled.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you are. “
Over the last 4 months this has been the phrase resonating in my life. What does it mean to invite and then give someone access to your life? I was raised to think in order to have someone enter your life you had to be this engineered version of yourself.
This concept transfers even to dating relationships. Being on your “best” behavior was something you’d do to potentially win over the one. If they were impressed enough with this well-mannered perfect version of yourself you would begin the dating process. Once you got engaged then married, slowly but surely you discover who the person really is. You discover the routines or the lack of routines in his or her life. You begin to discover where this person’s time and energy goes outside of living from event to event. You’re enlightened to the small states of being that actually define who the person is.
I’m beginning to let people see who I really am. It’s not that I’ve yet to do this, but it has now become me making the decision to do it intentionally. It’s easier to simply pass on information and never let people see behind the curtain of where the information is coming from.
The true calling of discipleship leads to someone actually wanting to imitate the patterns of Jesus in your life. Paul puts it this way: “Imitate me as I imitate Jesus.” Some of the big questions I’ve been asking myself are the following:
-Is my life worth imitating?
-Would it benefit the world to have people imitating my life?
-Would the Kingdom of God advance (people saved, healed, delivered, loved?)
-And in the same vein…”Who do I have in my life that I’m imitating?”
The goal of discipleship isn’t to have an army of robots like me walking to and fro on the earth. The goal is for people to begin to do what Jesus did through their own unique personalities. He did the works of His Father.
My good friend Elizabeth Paul put it like this: “I want to invite you into my life. Follow the patterns in my life that look like Jesus and the ones that don’t look like Him, don’t follow those. I may not be a perfect example of Jesus but I am a living example of Jesus.”
I’ve been leading worship for almost ten years. It is a gifting that I have. I have developed this over the years because it’s something that I place immense value in. I want to continue to lead and write incredible songs in and for the Church. I want to see people saved and made new through God using what I do. These are all incredible things to desire and I believe it’s the heart of God.
But it can’t just be about leading worship on a stage a couple of times a week.
When I read the scriptures, I believe at the end of this life when I’m old and grey, I want to look back most of all and identify the small amount of people that had intimate access to my life and because they did, they did the same, and disciples were made and the Kingdom of God advanced. And then those people made disciples…and the Kingdom of God advanced. And then those people…well…you get the picture…
If I’m honest, really honest, I’d have to say if I stay on the current trajectory I’m on, I’m not sure I’ll be able to say that with the assurance I’d like to.
But I want to.
And I’m cashing in all my chips to make it happen…to ensure that discipleship is the primary thing my life revolves around. That I’m making sure someone who is further along in this journey is investing into me, but, likewise, that I am doing the same thing in discipling others.
Over the next year, I will be chronicling this journey here on my blog.
I’d love if you joined me.
Many Blessings,
David Walker
