It's that time of year in the Midwest when the avalanche of zucchini is in full force. This moss-green squash finds its way into everything: zucchini lasagna, zucchini bread, zucchini spears, casseroles, and frittatas. There's even a recipe for zucchini punch. The reason is, when zucchini starts producing, it comes on strong. On a Monday, you may spot one on the vine that is four inches long. Two days later, it's the size of a baby hippo.
If they could figure out how to grow it everywhere and in all seasons, world hunger would disappear. Especially if they could genetically engineer it to taste like beef or mac cheese.
But growing zucchini, like anything, takes patience and diligence. You plant the seed in the soil, water it, and with the right amount of heat, it will sprout. But getting it to live through to harvest is another thing altogether. There are squash bugs, squash borers, blossom end rot, deficiencies in soil composition, deer, groundhogs, and of course drought. Any one of those can prevent harvest. (Maybe that's a good thing if it's zucchini?)
Growing fully-devoted followers of Jesus is like that. There is no guarantee that all your efforts will result in:
- your daughter never walking away from the faith
- your friend staying in their marriage and working through difficulties
- your husband becoming a more gentle, responsive human being
- or you being an emotionally-healthy Jesus-follower.
Sorry. Some things can't be found in a bottle.
I've been helped by many studies and programs. I was deeply impacted by the ministry of Promisekeepers. I know guys that experienced a real turning point through PK events and training. I have been greatly helped by The Navigators and their discipleship series. The study, Experiencing God (Henry Blackaby), is etched in my memory as the moment I changed my ideas about God's will for my life. I devoured the leadership books of John Maxwell when they were hot off the press and every church leadership team was reading them. I witnessed the renewal of many men through the network of the Christian Businessmen's associations.
Each time these movements began there was a groundswell of support and followers that would tell me, "This is the key to discipleship. God is working through this like nothing I've ever seen." In other words, the secret sauce is in this study, this conference, this retreat.
But not everyone who experienced or studied those books and attended those events is a strong Jesus-follower today. Truth: there is no secret sauce for making disciples. Through the decades, God has used various methods like the holy clubs of John Wesley or the steps of Celebrate Recovery. But there is no formula to the harvest of a godly life. It takes patience and diligence. More than that: it takes the work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, these tools, these studies, and parachurch movements can be super helpful. But there are no fail-proof methods for discipleship. It has always been and always will be about men and women in genuine community, submitting daily, then moment by moment to the Lordship of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So if you've been helped by a retreat, a conference, a series--talk about it. But realize it's only a tool. There's no secret sauce to growing up into the kind of man or woman that God created you to be. It's still all about Jesus changing lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there's a quantum leap forward. But spiritual growth will always require a steady commitment to daily, pick up the cross and follow Jesus. As it's often said, "The secret is there is no secret."
