Foreword
by Alexander F Venter
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I’m honoured to be invited by Ron to write this foreword for Intentional Disciples of Jesus.
We are all undergoing formation into the person we are becoming, intentionally or simply ‘going with the flow’, for better or worse. Everyone in our postmodern, social media driven world, is following someone or something – seen on Facebook, Twitter-X, Instagram, Tik-Tok, etc. Who we follow, what they represent, influences us whether we’re aware of it or not. Who they are, what they believe, is imparted to us, progressively forming us into its image.
So, the essential life questions are: Who are you? Who are you following? In other words, who or what is forming you at the deepest level of consciousness? Therefore, who are you becoming? Think about it. More importantly, who would you like to become?
Why not follow the most admired person in human history? Jesus is simply the smartest, most ethical, compassionate, godly human being to have graced planet earth. He came to reveal who God is in human flesh. 2.6 billion people, who identify as Christian, believe this.
To be a Christian is to follow Jesus. Not at our convenience, fitting him into ‘what works for us’, domesticating and using him as our ticket to heaven. No, to be a Christian is to follow Jesus intentionally, committing full allegiance to him as our God and King. He’s the One in charge of our lives, our universe. In other words, we follow Jesus on purpose: to live with him, to learn from him, to become like him. It’s what the Bible calls being a ‘disciple’, meaning a ‘disciplined learner’, a student, pupil, apprentice.
Intentional Disciples of Jesus is a most helpful, practical, and reliable guide in this journey of apprenticeship to Jesus. The prophets called it the “way of the Lord”, the way of living God’s kind of life embodied in the ultimate human being, Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot go back 2000 years and live with Jesus as his historical disciples did. We can all, however, live interactively with him daily, learning from him moment by moment by his Word and Spirit, how to live our lives as he would if he were us. As Ron says, “In your relationship with Jesus, learn from Him what only He can teach you about who God is, who you are, and how to live your life as the sovereign creator intended”.
What does this entail? We become intentional disciples by seeing the Jesus we follow and by following the Jesus we see. We need to see Jesus for who he was – and is (he’s alive and with us). The more we see Jesus, as the gospel stories describe him, the more we admire and fall in love with him. Then we see who God is, and therefore, who we are as his image bearers – or who we are intended to be. And then we also see people through his eyes, the world which God so loved that he gave his one and only Son, to save it from self-destruction.
The more we see the Jesus we follow, the more intentionally and passionately we follow the Jesus we see. We wrestle down and arrange – and keep re-arranging – our entire life around the King and his Kingdom, to incrementally live the life God intended us to live. This means that, a) we decide on our life purpose under God; b) we clarify the role(s) God has for us in his Kingdom; c) we embrace the core guiding beliefs and values; and d) we commit to daily life practices and spiritual disciplines that make us fit for life with God, to do his will on earth as it is in heaven.
My strong encouragement is to take Jesus seriously. And take your discipleship to him seriously. How? By taking the content of this book/course seriously: work with the exercises at the end of each chapter, the daily scripture readings, the questions for meditation, and the space for journaling your answers, thoughts, and prayers with God. If you do this, you will notice things shifting and changing within you. Others will see the difference.
In Ron’s own words, this is how you will “learn to live and minister with Jesus today as his first disciples did”.
Alexander F Venter
There are two ways you can go deeper with this material, if you are finding this helpful.
First, read How to get the most from this book. I offer some suggestions about how to do more than skim the pages and move on with minimal impact.
Second, read How to use this book with a small group. This material was formed and proven in a small group setting that seems to be very effective at helping participants engage with Jesus at a much deeper and transformative level than is typical in our churches today.