In the midst of the confusing situation of being a minority church in a Catholic country and experiencing problems caused by administrative overload and internal tension, Christian discipleship has emerged in Chile as an alternative. The church has always been involved in evangelization and discipleship, but perhaps only now in the last three years have we been raising our consciousness of what discipleship means for our near future and for the church's plans and movement into the third millennium.
Accountable discipleship represents a good alternative because:
- It dynamically captures the attention of the conservative constituency of the church who long for a life of deeper piety and consecration. This life of piety and consecration can be manifested in greater responsibility to the church.
- On the other hand, it also captures well the more liberal elements of the church who are used to siding with the human aid institutions when they are in difficulty. New perspectives on a life of mercy and justice are opened. The doors are opened to spontaneous solidarity with the poor.
Accountable discipleship can facilitate greater development and growth opportunities for the church. We know, however, that we have to continue fighting as a religious minority with little economic and political power. The work is doubly difficult because the church's key focus is on maintaining pastors. The collection of funds primarily goes to this end. The resources generated by the church's charitable institutions are for their own maintenance. Add to this the huge infrastructures of these institutions which date back to the time when they could expect regular outside financial aid.
Life of Prayer and the Rain of Bundles
The existence of a discipleship program within our church has generated great interest and awakened a life of prayer. There are many testimonies to the power of Covenant Discipleship groups to motivate persons to write solid clauses related to the life of piety, in which prayer is the center. Morning is the preferred time for commuters, noon prayer time is preferred by young people, and afternoon prayer is preferred by housewives after they finish their chores. There are other examples of prayer being assumed with more interest: prayer chains, groups that meet to pray about specific issues, national prayer chains for specific issues, meetings for internal healing, all-night vigils, fasting with specific goals, and massive praise and celebration services.
On the other hand, a life of mercy is more difficult to maintain due to the social realities in which participants live. It is especially difficult to respond to needs such as poverty, illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction. We did manage to get our congregations to unite in a charitable campaign for the fourth region of the country (the principal cities are La Serena and Ovalle). This region is known as the "Little North" or the "Green North" because, in spite of being located in the north which is primarily desert, this area has a vast ranching and farming base. Our church has a local mission in El Maqui, a town which has endured severe drought for two years. The lack of water has made the situation terrible, and the animals are dying of thirst and hunger. The people are severely affected as they lose their means of livelihood. So the church promoted a collaborative campaign to gather a bundle of grass for each family. This campaign touched all the Methodists and, as a beautiful expression of mercy, in December 1996, a delegation traveled with a huge quantity of grass bundles to feed the animals of the El Maqui families. It was an expression of solidarity that did not, of course, resolve the main problem; but it did serve as a symbol of our discipleship, a discipleship manifested not only in prayer and vigils, but in institutional administration, resolution of financial problems, and practical action as we extended our hands to those who were suffering more than we.
We pray to the God of life to help us overcome the problems of being a small church in a Catholic country -- to overcome discrimination, to grow in number, and to advance into those places where we are not currently present, to advance in the life of piety and mercy.
-- The Rev. Luis Cortés Garcia was National Secretary of Life and Mission for the Methodist Church of Chile and coordinator of Covenant Discipleship at the time of writing this article. He recently received an appointment as district superintendent of the William Taylor District.
This
article is from the Summer 1998 issue of Covenant Discipleship
Quarterly.
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