Here is the Method Schwarzenegger & Willard Would Use For Discipleship

Chris —  August 7, 2014

We know that Jesus called us to be disciples.

But what does that mean, and how can churches get better at it?

The key is found in the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

How to become Hercules

In a recent interview with the Nerdist podcast, Arnold described the process by which he became the strongest man in the world, an internationally recognized movie star and governor of California.

Hercules-in-New-York-Arnold-Schwarzenegger

The govenator grew up in Austria in the years after the second world war. Austria, like many places in Europe as the time, was devastated. He looked his father and others who struggled with depression, PTSD and unemployment, and decided that he needed a way out of Austria.

He found his inspiration in Steve Reeves. Parks was one of the pioneers of modern body building. In post-WWII Austria, he won the Mr. Universe competition three times. He became a sensation, and starred in five movies playing, of course, Hercules.

Arnold realized that Parks life provided a clear path for his own. At age 15, he began to take body building seriously. He went on to win the amateur Mr. Universe once, professional Mr. Universe three times and Mr. Olympia seven times.

Then, in 1970, he was offered the starring role in Hercules in New York. This allowed him to move to the United States, where he has gone on to play iconic roles, serve as the governor of California and continues today, as an actor, writer and philanthropist.

It’s all thanks to Steve Parks.

According to Dallas Willard, all accomplishments in life, whether they be body building like Arnold, financial growth or personal growth follow the same general pattern that Arnold took.

The General Pattern of Personal Growth

According to Dallas Willard’s classic Renovation of the Heart all personal growth takes the same path: A clear vision, the intention to be changed and the means to accomplish it.

Willard decries the lack of such change is many Christians saying:

“If we are to be spiritually formed in Christ, we must have and must implement the appropriate vision, intention, and means…and here, in a nutshell, is the explanation of the widespread failure to attain Christian maturity among both leaders and followers, referred to earlier. Those who are Christians by profession— and seriously so, we must add—today do not usually have, are not led into, the VIM that would enable them to routinely progress to the point where what Jesus himself did and taught would be the natural outflow of who they really are “on the inside.” Rather, what they are inwardly is left substantially as it was, as it is in nonChristians, and they are left constantly to battle with it. That is why today you find many professing Christians circling back to nonChristian sources to resolve the problems of their inner life.”

Arnold’s “VIM”

Change begins with Vision. You have a clear picture of what it is that you want to become. Then you need intention, to make a conscious decision to make the specific changes necessary to grow. Finally, you need the means. The means are the tools that you will need to accomplish the job.

Arnold’s vision was Reg Parks, a man who built his body, won Mr Universe, and was able to play Hercules in the movies. Notice how specific this is. By looking at Reg Park’s life, not only does Arnold know what he wants to be, but he even knows some specific tasks he’ll have to do along the way.

Arnold also had the intention to do it. He wasn’t sitting around saying “someday I’d like to leave Austria.” He was saying “I will become a body builder like Reg Parks so that I can leave Austria.”

Were there other people in Austria that had the capacity to be great body builders? Maybe. But Arnold was the one who made the decision to do it.

If becoming the kind of man that gets offered roles like Hercules is Arnold’s vision, what are the means. Well, he needs the capacity to play the role. He literally needs the muscles. He also needs to have the muscles before he is offered the role. He needs to already look like Hercules.

As a teenager, Arnold started waking up in the wee hours of the morning just to do pushups and squats. He won Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia. So by the time Hercules in New York rolled around, he already had the means to play the role. He’d been doing it for a long time.

Arnold had a Vision of becoming like Reg Parks so he could get out of Austria. The path was to build his body, win Mr Universe and star in movies. These specific elements made up his vision of the life he wanted. He had intention. He decided that he would do the work it would take to become like Reg Parks. Finally, he had the means. For Arnold, the means were literally the muscles. He had done the work to become a body builder.

When the opportunity to play Hercules came, he already had the means to play it.

VIM and the Ephesian Wardrobe

In Ephesians 4 Paul is tells the church in Ephesus that their vision should be to “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This isn’t just some vague notion of “be a good person” or “acting like Jesus.” Paul describes a very specific vision of what it is that this person would be like in everyday life.

They don’t lie, they speak truthfully. They don’t steal, they work hard enough to have something to share. They don’t say mean and nasty things, they encourage others. They do what God says. They have no bitterness, rage or malice. This is our vision of what our lives could become.

The question today for some of us, do we really have the intention to become a more Jesus-like? Have we decided to do the actual day in and day out work of allowing God to renew us. Do we want to be like Jesus so much that we are decide to let God change who we are?

Remember Baptism?

Intention is, by the way, why Christians practice baptism.

It’s possible to go to church your whole life and never make the decision to dedicate your life to being like Jesus. It’s even possible to want to be changed without actually ever deciding to change.

Before there were churches, non-Jews who wanted to join the Jewish religion would get baptized. It was their sign of leaving their old “clothes” behind and putting on Jewish clothes.

Churches immediately adopted as a sign of the intention to follow Jesus. When we are baptized, we are saying to the world that we are done with our natural lives, and we have decided to put on new clothes and become like Jesus.

The biggest opportunity for today’s church

What’s the difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and many Christians: Schwarzenegger went to the gym everyday.

Or, to use Paul’s language: the biggest opportunity for today’s church is to develop the means for everyday Christians to put off their old clothes and put on new clothes like Paul describes.

It’s not everyday that we are tempted to steal or to hold anger against our friends or family. But the day will come. Our actual job is to practice so that when that moment comes, we have the means to handle it.

What if, as a church, you picked one thing?

Choose one feature of the teachings of Jesus.

Then you develop the means of becoming people who do that.

Again, in Ephesians 4, Paul says, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” We’ve all seen what happens when we don’t do what Paul says here. We’ve known people who stay angry for days or even years. We’ve seen how anger can descend into hate or depression.  This is solid advice that no one will argue with.

We also know that at some point, someone is going to make us angry. Maybe it will happen with our spouse in the car. Maybe it will happen tomorrow at work.

What can we do now, today, to prepare ourselves for this eventuality. This is the process by which we put off the old self and put on the new self.

Or in other words:

Want a church full of Schwarzeneggers?

Build a gym.

Related posts: