{"id":36997,"date":"2024-03-22T12:14:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T19:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36997"},"modified":"2024-03-22T12:14:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T19:14:15","slug":"back-to-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/back-to-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I think about following Jesus, the word that encompasses my pursuit of Him as an apprenticeship<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/b>Apprenticeship is a method of training and on-the-job experience, developing a new generation of practitioners, often accompanied by some study and\/or shared learning. Much of the training is done while working alongside an employer or instructor, who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession.\u00a0 While apprenticeships often result in career and vocation training, with elements of transaction and transformation, my apprenticeship with Jesus has been and will be so transformational.\u00a0 The transaction part of our journey together may look like the daily battle of surrendering myself more fully to His plans and purposes for me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clinical Psychologist and Professor Jordan Peterson emphasizes the importance of individual responsibility, discipline, and learning from experience in his writings, discussions, and lectures. [1] As I read the book<\/span> Maps of Meaning<\/span><\/i>, there was so much to consider and think about, however, what I was particularly interested in was chapter three:\u00a0 Apprenticeship and Enculturation.\u00a0 In the chapter, Rousseau and Nietzsche were mentioned as influencers of thought and practice. [2]\u00a0 Mentioned is Nietzsche\u2019s placement of his own children in foundling asylums because their existence was inconvenient to him. [3]\u00a0 While my heart sank when reading that, the author points out that \u201cthe fervent hope of every undisciplined person (even an undisciplined genius) is that his current worthlessness and stupidity is someone else\u2019s fault.\u201d [4]\u00a0 Peterson seems to value the process of personal growth and development through active engagement with one’s chosen field or discipline, however he highlights several dynamics related to the embodiment of group values that often take place. [5]\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He states, \u201capprenticeship is a precursor to freedom, and nothing necessary and worthwhile is without danger.\u201d [6]. <\/span>In reading and thinking about apprenticeship, particularly how the author highlights the social constructs developing the morality of an individual, my mind detoured to the process of discipleship.\u00a0 In conversations, I encounter many individuals who share never being \u201cdiscipled\u201d in the Way, noting that they long for life-on-life discipleship with one who is \u201colder\u201d in the faith, similar to the Abbas and Ammas that the Desert Fathers and Mothers experienced.\u00a0 Jesus was a model of this multiplication.\u00a0 The twelve apprenticed alongside Jesus, noting his fishing strategies (as I imagine), as well as how he walked, talked, healed, knew the scriptures, prayed, and enjoyed Sabbath rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

From <\/span>discipleship.org<\/span><\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s imperative to question whether our religious engagements deepen our discipleship or serve merely as entertainment. The true crisis lies in what the church produces, urging a reflection that moves from outward critique to inward inspection. Jesus\u2019 disciples were equipped with specific skills; likewise, we must ensure our discipleship efforts focus on skill development that enables others to propagate these teachings.\u201d [7]\u00a0 In a recent survey of young adults, between the ages 19-25, that was conducted in collaboration with my research, 50% of the young adults surveyed answered \u201cYes, I would be interested in having a spiritual mentor or coach\u201d, while 33.3% answ<\/span>ered \u201cmaybe\u201d. (Figure 1)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While interest doesn\u2019t necessarily indicate commitment, and FOMO and FOBO is real, this indicates an open door to developing intentional, life-with-life, intergenerational, discipleship relationships.\u00a0 As I continued to read the chapter, my mind drew connections to Peterson\u2019s writing, when he stated, \u201cHuman morality is exploratory activity (and allowance for such), undertaken in a sufficiently stable\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ocial context, operating within stringent limitations, embodied in action, secondarily represented, communicated and abstractly elaborated in episodic and semantic memory. Such morality, act and thought, is nonarbitrary in structure and specifically goal-directed. It is predicated upon conceptualization of the highest good (which, in its highest form, is stable social organization allowing for manifestation of the process of creative adaptation), imagined in comparison to the represented present. Such conceptual activity allows for determination of acceptable behavior, and for constraint placed upon the meaning of objects.\u201d [8] As I coach and disciple young leaders, both inside and outside of the church, the goal is to offer a stable social context, with communicated limitations, embodied in action, and specifically orientated toward the goal of apprenticing under Jesus in community, as the Spirit constructs a narrative or story of redemption in the life of another individual and mine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many facets of one\u2019s discipleship journey to consider, however I wonder if in these days of declining church attendance, specifically within the age category of 18-30, if the Spirit is wooing leaders back to basics, to consider an organic, intentional, life-with-life form of discipleship.\u00a0 In the book, <\/span>Evangelization and Ideology:\u00a0 How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>\u00a0author Matthew Petrusek proposes a \u201cback to basic approach to catechesis in an effort to recover an orthodox, pastorally-nimble yet intellectually-robust approach to faith formation and evangelization, using Scripture, the Catechism, and the great minds of the Church\u2019s tradition as a foundation.\u201d [9]\u00a0 Life-with-life discipleship relationships, with an individual younger than myself and older than myself, has been transformational in my own spiritual formation.\u00a0 Not technical or trendy, but transformational and long-lasting.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Jordan Peterson, <\/span>Maps of Meaning:\u00a0 The Architecture of Belief.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid, 218.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Ibid, 218.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Ibid, 218.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid, 223.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Ibid, 216.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7] Craig Etheridge, <\/span>Discipleship Unpacked: The True Meaning and Its Impact on Church Leadership, <\/span><\/i>Disipleship.org, accessed March 20, 2024, <\/span>https:\/\/discipleship.org\/blog\/discipleship-unpacked-the-true-meaning-and-its-impact-on-church-leadership\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8] Jordan Peterson, <\/span>Maps of Meaning:\u00a0 The Architecture of Belief, <\/span><\/i>232.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]\u00a0 <\/span>Matthew R. Petrusek, <\/span>Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture<\/span><\/i> (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire Institute, 2023).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I think about following Jesus, the word that encompasses my pursuit of Him as an apprenticeship.\u00a0 Apprenticeship is a method of training and on-the-job experience, developing a new generation of practitioners, often accompanied by some study and\/or shared learning. Much of the training is done while working alongside an employer or instructor, who helps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2489,1778],"class_list":["post-36997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-peterson","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36999,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36997\/revisions\/36999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}