A Dancing Heart
Late one night just after I slipped into bed and reached to turn off the light before heading to sleep, my wife asked me a piercing question. For months she had noticed I was wrestling with a holy discontent in my role as a lead pastor. Her question shed a spotlight on a nagging reality in my pastoral career and as a 35-year follower of Jesus: “Does anything bring you joy anymore?”
Her question would mark the beginning of discovering the joy of A Dancing Heart.
For the past 15 years I had been the lead pastor of a growing congregation that had all the outward appearances of being a successful church according to the measurements of our denominational tribe. Our congregation experienced steady numerical growth. We had added a spacious and attractive new worship center. Our operating budget kept pace with our increasing staff and ministry programs, and, by God’s grace, and the sacrifice of hundreds of people, we were debt-free.
However, my wife knew all too well what very few people saw. I was unsettled in my role as a pastor, and I was ready to resign. Truth be told, I realized that I had become a CEO of a religious institution; I was running a church instead of developing and making disciples of those whom God brought under our influence.
I remembered that my original desire for responding to God’s call into the ordained ministry was to help people to become maturing followers of Jesus. However, somewhere through the years I had drifted off course. I was spending each week responding to the demands of what others thought my priorities should entail, instead of me being proactive and focusing on making Jesus’ last words my first priority!
Through a series of God-ordained circumstances, I began to pour my life of faith into the lives of men who had committed to a discipling relationship. Within days, genuine joy began to flood into my emotional reservoir. Over these last twelve years of intentionally focusing upon the mandate of Jesus to make disciples, I have experienced a joy that is hard to match. I shouldn’t be surprised.
As Jesus was leaving the upper room with His eleven disciples on the way to the Mount of Olives, He gave them a vivid analogy of how they were to continue His mission of disciple making. Their responsibility was to abide in Him as a branch abides in a vine. As they did, they would bear much fruit and the Father would be glorified. In addition, each of them would be filled with His joy and, as a result, their joy would be full and complete. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11)
Communicable joy
If anyone in the world should be filled with joy, it is the disciple who follows the life and teachings of Jesus to become more like Him. One of my greatest joys in experiencing a discipling relationship with other men is when they begin to pass along to others what we have experienced together. This is what Paul is referring to when he challenged Timothy to entrust what he had been taught by Paul into the lives of faithful men who would teach others also (2 Tim. 2:1-2).
In the section below you will hear a firsthand account of a missionary who is replicating what he has experienced with me into the lives of those in his field of ministry in Western Europe.
The Joy of Passing it On
I grew up in church but was never formally discipled. It is a wonder that I ever came to know Christ. My understanding of Him was through Sunday school or sermons, and that was not very deep. It was not until later in life that I had the opportunity to get to know Him on a deeper level, but still through informal methods. Even then it was not stressed that I should share what I learned.
The intentionality of discipleship had been lost on me. Over the past several years, though, the idea of discipleship being an essential practice for believers has become very important to me. Recently I sought to engage in a discipling relationship with one of my mission colleagues, who is also a leader in The Bonhoeffer Project. Subsequently, I began passing on to others the biblical insights I learned from him.Initially I was sharing these concepts with the Sunday school class that we teach in our country of service in Western Europe. They are youth, 13-18 years of age, and great kids. We have a blast. I had them read the passages, and we discussed them one at a time. They were so engaged that we had to stop before we were finished because we ran out of class time. One boy who is usually only marginally engaged was so excited that he now wants to share what he is learning with his high school friends during their religion class. He says most don’t accept the existence of God, and he never knows what to say. “Finally! Now I have information!” he said. “Now I know what to say!”
Another youth at one point shouted out, "Wait, wait! This is making my head explode!" He was getting so much out of our discussion, and Christ was being revealed before his eyes. The girl who helps us with the class is a 20-year- old youth helper. She asked if my wife and I could start meeting with her individually to walk through this and teach her how to study the Bible!
I am also sharing this with two men I meet with every other week. Before, we would read a text. Then, the leader of the group would give his thoughts and comments, and that would be that. Now we all dig into scripture together and with great depth. One of the men in the group (a new believer) immediately began sharing what he was learning with other non-believers in his workplace. Without asking, he took the Bible verses and read them with another man at his work.
This inspires me to continue working with these handfuls of people, helping to equip them to spread the knowledge of Jesus Christ to others. I have always been grateful to those who shared with me, but I have never received so much joy as I have from being able to give. It seems that giving is much more rewarding to me than receiving. To see the lights come on in people is pure joy. To see them start to know and understand Christ in a different way has led me to want to dig in more myself and continue to share more with them. And they are not the only ones to benefit. My understanding of Christ, who He is, and what He is doing in the world has expanded as I am being discipled and am discipling others.
Divine purpose
The word used for joy in the Greek New Testament is chara. It is a state of gladness and delight. It is the word Matthew used to describe the feeling of the two Marys who arrived at the empty tomb and received the world-shattering news from the angel that Jesus had risen from the dead. According to Greek linguist experts, Louw and Nida, chara is expressed in a number of languages as “my heart is dancing” or “my heart shouts because I am happy.”
When was the last time your heart danced or shouted because your joy was so full? I encourage you to engage in a disciple-making relationship with another person. Not only will you experience the joy of bearing fruit as his or her life begins to be transformed, but you will also watch your friend’s heart dance as God pours into others through their investment in others. Now, of course, there will be times also of struggle, pain, and discouragement. However, even in those times, we can experience the deep joy that only Jesus can offer us as we slowly see the lives of others becoming more like Jesus.
When we answer the call to intentionally make disciples who make other disciples, there is the joy of experiencing a divine purpose in this life. And there is also the assurance that one day we will hear what every servant longs to receive: “Well done, good and faithful servant! ...Enter into the joy of your master.”
So, sisters and brothers, it is my privilege to invite you to join the dance - the joyful experience of a dancing heart!
*originally published in TMS Global’s magazine, “Unfinished.”
