Fraín E. Llanco Zavaleta and Johnny Llerena participated in a student exchange program between The Divinity School of Duke University, Durham, NC, and the Comunidad Bíblica Teológica, Lima, Peru, during the spring semester 1996. As part of the program, they participated in a covenant discipleship group at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church. The student exchange was co-sponsored by the Office of Covenant Discipleship, Discipleship Ministries Unit, General Board of Discipleship. In the following article, Efraín raises some profound questions about the ways we practice and express our faith.

Adventures in Faith

Before my experience in a student exchange program, I had not had the opportunity to participate in a covenant discipleship group, but I knew in theory the purposes of the group. In other words, I had not experienced the model in my country (Peru) because it is not widely known there. So, being part of a covenant discipleship group at Duke resulted in a rich experience.

Every Wednesday at 6:30 in the evening, seven of us met to report how we had worked out our faith and how things had gone during the week. As each one reported, he/she received the needed support. It was good to see all the faces as members of the group shared their adventures in faith each session. This sharing, in turn, challenged my way of perceiving faith.

As I slowly became integrated into the group, the emphasis became clear to me. Their desire was to make their faith an active one by means of concrete actions. This emphasis also echoed responsibility, obedience, and rules. They tried to develop their faith in an orderly fashion and methodically reach for sanctification.

Puzzles

The covenant document itself, rewritten and containing the concrete acts to which we were called to respond, made me think in the beginning of how limited a view of faith it showed since we could not risk creativity. The document seemed rigid but was well-ordered.

If I wished to have results with a project, I would have to have rules and norms. In this case, the project was my faith. Would I be able to measure it and then exclaim some day, "My faith is in shape"?

Thinking of my own experiences, perhaps in my country the survival context impels faith to be more spontaneous and practical, making the spirit of community grow, constantly remembering the holistic message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I say "perhaps," because the context of the Durham group and the context of my country are radically different. Obviously, faith would respond in different ways in and to different contexts.

Nevertheless, this faith ought not to forget the background of the message, love! And love looks for the restoration of the human person.

Therefore, at the moment of obedience to the demands of that message, our contexts and environment will fashion the rules. That is to say, the rules will tell us what we should do in the light of the gospel because we are Christians. Does it work this way?

Sometimes rules become routine and meaningless. For many people, life is like a game, a boring game-work during certain hours, study in others, and in between fulfill the demands of our religious life (in this case, the covenant). If I wanted to be on good terms with God and with others, would I only have to keep the rules? Can love be reduced to rule-keeping? Would it be easier to be responsible with faith in a context which demands little sacrifice or where the rules are easy, as opposed to a context of constant struggle, especially the struggle for survival?

Impressions and Conclusions

In my first impression, I concluded that what we were looking for as a group was to place faith and love around some twenty rules. It seemed, in the beginning, that this would take the spontaneity and creativity away from faith and love.

However, I tried to understand this new form of practicing the faith, searching always to assimilate each experience.

Finally, toward the end of my exchange and in my group, I began to understand that my culture, habits, and way of responding to various stimuli had also influenced the expression of my faith. Faith, acting in synchronized fashion with love, was the same in the covenant discipleship group and in me, but expressed in different ways.

Perhaps it is not so important to know if the circumstances compel me to act in a determined manner or if I, myself, create such circumstances in an orderly fashion. What seems more important, after all, is the sense of responsibility to and for the commitment of faithfulness to God.

Love, Above All Else

Over all is the love that motivates me to see myself compelled to act or to seek how to act. If I am a follower of Christ, I must understand his Good News and grow in the understanding that love does not mechanize my actions, much less box me into certain rules. Love empowers my actions. This love not only makes me committed to fulfill certain statutes, but it goes beyond the statutes, sensitizing me to the needs of others. It is the driver in each situation. So the 5-20 rules are only a small part of that great rule of love which is over every other rule.

Efraín E. Llanco Zavaleta is a student at the Comunidad Bíblica Teológica in Lima, Peru. During this year his field internship includes starting and maintaining covenant discipleship groups Peruvian style in the local church he serves.

This article is from the Spring 1997 issue of Covenant Discipleship Quarterly.

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