Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

Discipleship and Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria

What does nitrogen fixing bacteria have to do with discipleship, or Christianity for that matter?

A lot.

You see, in leguminous plants like soybeans and mongo, there is a kind of symbiotic bacteria that lives in their roots. They are the ones responsible for converting atmospheric nitrogen into nutrient form that would help plants grow. Without these bacteria, nitrogen would just float in the air and is pretty much useless to plants and the soil.

In Ephesians 1.3, Paul said that God the Father blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing IN CHRIST. See the connection? Blessings are sort of floating in the air. God put them there before the foundations of the world, they are for the people of God, and they are just waiting to be appropriated to their lives anytime. The only condition is that these people have to be IN CHRIST.

Every spiritual blessing is there, floating, hovering over us. Like nitrogen, they are available in the air. Like nitrogen, we don’t see them with our naked eye. Like nitrogen, they are waiting for the right conversion agent.

In Christ. That’s the operative word there. All these are for you IN CHRIST.

Preaching versus Brainwashing

The preaching of the gospel is not brainwashing. It is building the case for Christ over a period of time. Paul did it to the Ephesian Jews (Acts 19). He reasoned with them until it was clear to him that they were not going to believe the gospel he was preaching. Paul gave them the freedom to accept or reject his message.

Brainwashing, on the other hand, attempts to weaken the critical facilities of the audience, wearing them down, physically and mentally, until they just don’t care to think critically any more. Religious cults do this.

Sophisticated Pulpit Theatrics

No amount of sophisticated pulpit theatrics can come close to the simple power of a Christ-centered sermon. You can do a perfect talk show in the pulpit, show visually compelling presentations and have a catchy script for the whole act. But when Christ is absent from your sermon, when the gospel is diluted in the name of sophistication and relevance and when the blood of Jesus is omitted from your talk, you are just wasting everyone else’s time. For if it’s not Chirst that you are proclaiming, what in the world are you doing in God’s pulpit?

Jojo Agot

Discipleship Versus Multi-Level Marketing

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Gen. 2.2-3

Even if you’re new to the Bible, you’ll definitely notice the redundancy of the word “rest” in those two consecutive verses in Genesis. God rested on the seventh day… God blessed the seventh day because that’s the day He rested. Why such strong emphasis on rest? With the magnitude of the work He did, don’t you think God should be a little more busy by that time?

Pastor Joey Bonifacio once mentioned that part of the reason why God created man on the sixth day and rested on the next is that He wanted Adam to see Him relaxed and approachable right after he opened his eyes. He didn’t want Adam to see Him buried with a thousand inter-galactic chores the first day humanity was awakened to consciousness.

He wanted to sit back, enjoy His creation and make Himself available to man, to walk with him in the garden and enjoy an unhurried friendship with him. Not that He is not available on some other days but to show humanity that He is available for casual conversations and coffee breaks. To set an example to us that resting is actually part of the pattern of life; that amidst the busy lives of endless work to do, there is supposed to be a time to sit down and enjoy the company of the people you love.

When we do discipleship, let us not forget that a greater part of it is on building godly, unhurried friendships, not to form groups that look more like multi-level marketing schemes or ad hoc committees. We’ve seen this in church many times before. People meet in small groups, discuss the word and run out of the door as fast as they can. Their goal is for each member to form his own group and to repeat the process for rapid multiplication. It is only out of godly politeness that we don’t call these disciples our “spiritual downlines.”

Slow down. As Joey Bonifacio often say, “slow is fast.” This is not church marketing, this is not a signature campaign for Jesus, this is life and we are meant to enjoy this.