Lee C. Camp - Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World

I started reading Mere Discipleship as a minister and a professor, hoping to find a resource to help others. But I found that very quickly I was caught up into reading as a disciple, called again through Lee Camps engaging writing to the way of Christthe radical way of suffering servanthood. I highly recommend this to all who are weary of all the reductionistic approaches to Christianity and who are ready to explore what absolute allegiance to Gods kingdom entails.

Mike Cope, author of One Holy Hunger

Prayer as laughter? Surely not, but yes. Lee Camp, in this entertaining and serious book, helps us see how and why prayer sometimes can and should be a form of laughter. We can laugh because Camp helps us see that the gospel, the good news, gives us good work that is a check against the danger of taking ourselves too seriously. Drawing on the work of John Howard Yoder, Camp provides an account of discipleship that counters the widespread assumption that what it means to be a Christian is believing twenty absurd propositions before breakfast. This book will not only be a helpful introduction for those unacquainted with Yoders work, but also for those who count themselves theologians.

Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

You will find here nothing of Americas pop religion. Nothing of what some are calling electronic soul molesters, hurling to hearth and household a gospel to take up your cross and relax, or take up your cross and get rich. I found myself frightened at times, yet exulting in the knowledge that I was exposing myself to tough truth about the faith I claim. An uncommon experience not to be rushed.

Will D. Campbell, author of Brother to a Dragonfly

In this accessible yet challenging book, Lee Camp seeks nothing less than to recover for the church the language and practice of discipleship. He insists that we wrestle with uncomfortable and impolite questions, daring to ask what everyday life might look like if Christians pledged ultimate allegiance to Gods inbreaking kingdom rather than to the kingdoms of this world. A must-read for anyone who desires to follow the way of Jesus more faithfully.

Philip D. Kenneson, author of Life on the Vine

At last, a solid book on discipleship that presents the humble, sacrificial ways of Jesus as the model for all who follow Him. Grounding his ideas in biblical study, Camp amplifies a vision of authentic discipleship.... Camp admirably meets the challenge of writing a book that could live up to its title, Mere Discipleship. The book merits a broad spectrum of readers willing to take the imitation of Jesus seriously.

Ted Lewis, CBA Retailers + Resources

What a book! Profoundly biblical and revolutionary in its implications, this is surely the finest statement on the meaning of Christian discipleship that I have ever read. If you are not prepared to have your assumptions challenged and your life turned upside down, then by all means, dont read this book.

Richard T. Hughes, author of Myths America Lives By

Challenges ChristiansAmerican Christiansto rediscover the soul of discipleship.... As Camp cautions his audience, We are not called to be the Messiah, but to follow the Messiah. Camps got it right: Lets follow his advice and follow Christ.

Erika Bai Siebels, Prism

Mere
Discipleship

Mere
Discipleship

R ADICAL C HRISTIANITY
IN A R EBELLIOUS W ORLD

S ECOND E DITION

Lee C. Camp

2003, 2008 by Lee C. Camp

Published by Brazos Press
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.brazospress.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Camp, Lee C.
Mere discipleship : radical Christianity in a rebellious world / Lee C. Camp.2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-58743-230-9 (pbk.)
1. Free churches. 2. Dissenters, Religious. I. Title
BX4817.C36 2008
230'.97dc22

2008019305

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States ofAmerica. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL READERS VERSION. Copyright 1995, 1996, 1998 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

To L aura

Jesus was not just a moralist whose teachings had some political implications; he was not primarily a teacher of spirituality whose public ministry unfortunately was seen in a political light; he was not just a sacrificial lamb preparing for his immolation, or a God-Man whose divine status calls us to disregard his humanity. Jesus was, in his divinely mandated prophethood, priesthood, and kingship, the bearer of a new possibility of human, social, and therefore political relationships. His baptism is the inauguration and his cross is the culmination of that new regime in which his disciples are called to share. Hearers or readers may choose to consider that kingdom as not real, or not relevant, or not possible, or not inviting; but... no such slicing can avoid his call to an ethic marked by the cross, a cross identified as the punishment of a man who threatens society by creating a new kind of community leading a radically new kind of life.

John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus

Contents

by Joshua J. Graves

I am grateful for the opportunity to publish a second edition of Mere Discipleship. The primary addition to this second edition is the study guide prepared by Joshua Graves. I thank Josh for his hard and conscientious work in making the study guide available. I hope it will make the book more useful for group study and discernment.

Though I have clarified some points, I have not tried to answer all of the many excellent questions that have been raised by articulate readers who have written to me in response to the first edition. A number of reviewers have suggested that the final chapter says too little, that more should be offered as to what such an ecclesiology practically entails. They are, of course, correct. But I still leave this rightful critique unsatisfied, except for suggesting that first, if we rightfully attend to such practices as worship, baptism, prayer, and communion, as I have tried to describe herein, it will give us plenty of constructive work to do. Second, the paltriness of the final chapter might perhaps be paralleled to the short ending of the Gospel of Mark that implicitly leaves open to the reader the invitation to live out the story themselves. Indeed, I find that I am still sorting out myself what it means to live out the Gospel, and suspect that this is no ill thing. Third, one might consult the further reading lists provided by Josh Graves. Finally, for those looking for further resources of study, I do on occasion post some resources at www.LeeCCamp.com.