Discipling Lifestyle – Up-In-Out

We believe that Jesus’ plan for changing the world was discipleship.  It can be argued that the way he trained his disciples had a greater impact than his preaching, teaching, or miracles, because he led them to impact the world in the same way he was impacting it.  He multiplied himself through discipleship.  One of the tools that helps us stay on track as disciples is the triangle.  Explanations found here are drawn largely from Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen available through 3DM.    We offer a short teaching on it on this short desktop video.

Key Scripture: I Corinthians 4:16-17 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

See also Luke 6:12-19.

Discipleship is a hot topic in many churches today. But it’s been a part of the language of the church from the very beginning. But like many common words, we forget what it means.

A disciple imitates the master. The pattern we observe for making disciples in the New Testament is rooted in imitation. Dallas Willard defined discipleship this way: “Discipleship is learning from Jesus how to live like Jesus.” This is exactly what we see the twelve disciples doing in the gospels. By being with Jesus, they learned from Jesus how to think, act, and live like he did.   The twelve disciples watched Jesus, imitated Jesus, and invited others to imitate Jesus by imitating them.  That started a movement that spread around the world.

The triangle is a tool that helps us imitate Jesus. It helps us recognize and remember three key dimensions of Jesus life-style.   We call these dimensions “Up-In-Out”. To help us remember, we use a triangle.  We can see each of these dimensions on display in Luke 6:12-19.  Jesus goes UP on the mountain to pray.  Scholars suggest that Jesus had somewhere between 100 and 150 people following with him at that time.  From them he chose 12 to invest IN more intentionally.  With them, he went OUT to where the crowds were to meet needs with grace, love, and power, and to proclaim the good news.

Looks unpack Up, In, and Out.

Dimension 1: Up – Jesus spent time with the Father. Many times, we read about Jesus praying. He spoke with the Father. He listened to the Father.   And Jesus engaged regularly in worship and praise on his own and in formal gatherings at the synagogue and temple. In Acts, we see the apostles and the early church doing the same things wherever they went.  “Up” is about doing our part to develop a deep and connected relationship with God.  It’s about being attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Obviously, we can’t force God’s hand, but we can  put ourselves in places where we hope and even expect to be with God, to meet with God, to hear from God, and to be in the presence of God.

Dimension 2: In— Jesus spent time very intentionally with a small group. He invested in a limited number of people in order that they would have a greater impact and at the same time, showed them a model for impacting others. He let them in and took them with him. They knew one another, served one another, and loved one another. They did life together like family. We see this implied in the life of the Jerusalem church and very clearly in the Apostle Paul’s journeys and letters.  A helpful word here is “investment”.  “In” is about choosing to invest in the people around us.  Friendship and love require time, choices, and intentionality.  It requires us to take initiative, to risk rejection, and all the potential pitfals of human relationships.

Dimension 3: Out- Jesus also met the needs he saw in the world around him with the God’s love, grace, and power, often taking his disciples with him as he did. He healed the sick, touched the lepers, fed the hungry, and opened blind eyes and deaf ears. And, he proclaimed the Kingdom of God, inviting people to turn from their old ways toward new life.  In the book of Acts, the followers of Jesus did the very same things Jesus had been doing.  They had learned from Jesus how to live, minister, and serve like Jesus.   And they passed it on.  Going “Out” is about entering the brokenness of the world, looking for a response in people and in institutions and systems.  Out can be about seeing someone trust Jesus AND it can be about seeing a institution, network or neighborhood change for the better.

Warning: UP, IN, and OUT require tough Choices: Jesus spent the night in prayer before he chose the twelve.  It’s important to recognize that his choice to give the twelve more time meant that others got less of his time.  It was a hard thing to do.  People’s feelings probably got hurt. But it was strategic.  His choice to invest in a few meant that his work would have a deeper and more lasting impact.  By investing a few and teaching them to do the same, he impacted the whole world.

Up-In-and-Out was the way Jesus lived with his disciples.  As followers of Jesus, we are called to have those same dimensions in our lives. This not just an individual discipline. While we are called to follow Jesus individually, we are also called to follow him in community. We are called to sustain an Up-In-Out lifestyle in fellowship with others. This requires some intentionality.   It is easy for a group to do one or two of the dimensions together and neglect the others. We need all three.

The Up-In-Out lifestyle helps us be intentional—as Jesus was—to live a full and balanced life.   We can use it to evaluate our own walks with Jesus. How is each dimension in your own life? Are all three dimensions evident?  How well are they balanced? What is going well? What needs attention? It is also a helpful tool for developing a rhythm for families, small groups, missional communities, and even churches.

It is also a helpful tool for evaluating groups, ministries, and even churches.   When it comes to finding a church in which to affiliate, people often use the standards that fall in line with cultural values: if a ministry has plenty of money and a lot of people are coming, we might think it’s the place to be.  But if we want to follow Jesus, we would be wiser to look for ministries and churches that help us,or challenge us, to live a balanced life in terms of Up, In, and Out. If we do this, we will live a little more like Jesus – living like Jesus would if he were in our shoes.

And this is a key point. When we embrace an up-in-out lifestyle for our churches, small groups, micro-churches, Bible studies, friend groups, and missional communities, we will naturally help one another follow Jesus. Thus, we have a bigger impact in the world.  And we will naturally begin to disciple those we bring into our communities as we do life together.

Questions for reflection:

1) Most people are better at one or two of the dimensions rather than at all three. What about you? Where are your strengths? What about weaknesses? Why do you think that is?

2) Ministries can become unbalanced. What about the churches or Christian groups with which you are familiar? What are their strengths and weaknesses in terms of Up, In, and Out?

3) What steps can you take to be more intentional about incorporating each dimension into your life? If you are in a micro-church, missional community, or small group, what are some steps you need to take in order to be better balanced in terms of Up, In, and Out?

4) Luke 6:12-19 shows us a day in the life of Jesus. The short passage contains all three dimensions.   Read through it for yourself and try to identify Up, In, and Out in Jesus’ day. What do you observe and what can you observe from the way Jesus does Up-In-Out?  Try explaining to a few other people until its clear in your mind and feels natural.

5) Is God saying anything to you in this teaching? What will you do about it?