Becoming an Apprentice in the Jesus Way of Life

According to the Cambridge Dictionary an apprentice is “someone who has agreed to work for a skilled person for a particular period of time in order to learn that person’s skills”. Merriam Webster adds, that an apprenticeship is “an arrangement in which someone learns an art, trade, or job under another”.

Skilled trades often come to mind when I think about someone who is an apprentice or serving an apprenticeship – trades like carpenters, plumbers and electricians. But what if we were to think of our life in Christ, our life of discipleship in the terms of apprenticeship? Could such an understanding bring a freshness or new energy and eagerness to how one endeavors to follow Jesus?

I’m not sure that “disciple” or “discipleship” are completely overused or worn out terms, or that they carry the negative connotation for some Christ followers, and pre-Christians as say the word “evangelism”. But, both words are oft used in the church and Christ following circles. How many times in a sermon have you heard the word “disciple” used? Or, how many times is “discipleship” a topic of a prayer or a devotional writing you may participate in? (Maybe you should count?) Sometimes a new or different word causes us to pay attention in a new or fresh way. Thinking about being an apprentice of Jesus has done this for me.

What works in this understanding is that following Jesus has always been about a way of life. When Jesus was first approached by a couple of the disciples of John, curious about this one John had identified as the “Lamb of God”, Jesus invites them to “come and see” where he is staying? It’s a way of saying, come and try this out, follow me, learn from me. Certainly there must have been information and teaching shared, the didactic part of discipleship, but that’s not what is most obvious about their following Jesus. What’s most obvious is that they spent time with him, literally shared life with him, watched and learned from him, maybe even began to imitate the things he said and did. They became his apprentices.

Somewhere in its history the church turned discipleship away from this “way of life” approach toward more and more of a cognitive, what we believe, approach. Doctrine overtook praxis as the definitive marker of discipleship. We worried more about what we thought, than how we acted. We heard Jesus say, “love one another as I have loved you”, but turned that into a doctrine of loving your neighbor verses a way of life steeped in the practice of loving those who are our neighbor.

Could it be that in our divorcing the acts of discipleship from the thoughts of discipleship we also made it easier to become argumentative, even hostile to those who “thought” or “think” differently from us? In other words, has some of the divisiveness of today’s world, including – sadly – the church, been a direct product of a faith experience that has deemphasized the apprentice like “way of living” the faith in favor of the doctrinally dense “thinking” of faith and theology?

I don’t know for sure, but it’s worth contemplation – better yet, maybe its worth renewing an apprentice-like understanding of discipleship. One axiom I’ve at times espoused is that it’s easier to act your way into new ways of thinking and living, than is it to think your way into new ways of acting. Seems like approaching faith from an apprentice angle might prove this to be true?

It’s certainly harder to treat your neighbor badly when you are also acting like Jesus to meet that neighbor’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs – not just their cognitive theological needs. Feeding the poor, comforting the broken-hearted, providing shelter for the homeless in Jesus’ name are actions of faith. They call us to become embodied in our pursuit of a Jesus-like life.

They may also provide the occasional question, or opportunity for conversation, wherein we are asked, “Why are you doing this? What’s your motivation for serving in this way?” That’s a perfect invitation to sharing verbally about the very faith we’ve previously been demonstrating through actions. Witness and service need not be separate from each other.

What part of the life of Jesus might you feel led to watch and learn from and to practice as His apprentice? Is it Jesus the teacher that intrigues you? Is it Jesus the healer? The comforter? The intercessor?

Maybe a way of answering this question is to ask, “where am I most un-like Jesus?” What skills, characteristics, or attributes of Jesus are found lacking and wanting in my own life? Am I patient? Kind? Generous? If not, are these areas where I can apprentice myself afresh to Jesus to learn from him? Am I joyful? Content? Happy? Fulfilled? If not, what does a life yoked with Jesus have to teach me about these things?

In apprenticeship faith is caught as much or more than its taught. Faith is absorbed, soaked up in sponge-like fashion as the grace, love and mercy of the Savior spills over onto and into our lives.
These are among the things I’ve been thinking about, praying about and reflecting on in my own walk with Christ lately. The very clear invitation I so often hear from Jesus is, “slow down and come along with me. I’ll show you another way, another pace, a blessed life of service to others in my name.”