Nation Transformation and Discipleship

by Tan Sin Guan

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak recently launched a series of policies with the purpose of transforming the nation into a developed country by the year 2020. A key focus of the policies is improving government efficiency via the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) which include among others crime prevention, reducing government corruption and increased access to quality education. The government has also taken steps to ensure economic transformation with the launch of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) which is anchored on transforming 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs), such as the oil, gas and energy, tourism, and palm oil industries. The goal is to ensure these NKEAs would be the drivers of economic activities that would materially contribute to the growth of Malaysia.

The urgent need for a transformed Malaysia has long been recognized and pursued. Most recently, the President of Transparency International Datuk Paul Low made a passionate plea through an open letter to the citizens of Malaysia to combat corruption that is destroying the country. Others saw the need, and have started initiatives, to free the national educational system from the religious, racial and political propagandas of politicians. Many too are pushing for judiciary independency, free press and economic liberalization. While some of these initiatives might in themselves be politically motivated, the issues are nevertheless real and ought to be urgently addressed. Hence, it is a clear signal to the Body of Christ to move out from her four walls and engage in nation building, driven not by the KPIs but by the passion to bless the nation for the glory of Jesus Christ. It is a golden opportunity for the Church to venture (be it on a small or the larger national scale) into initiatives such as combating corruption, care for the poor, and pushing for righteousness and justice in the government since these efforts are both in line with biblical demands and make the most of the window of opportunity given by God to the Church to be the "light of the world and salt of the earth."

In addition to nation building, however, churches and Christian organizations have also recognized the need to transform the nation for Jesus Christ with the gospel. God desires nothing less than to see the lost found and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (Col 1:12-13; Acts 16:18) and be rebirthed by the power of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, movements such as Reclaiming the Seven Mountains is one approach worthy of consideration as it can meet the need for nation building and spiritual transformation. We caught the vision to build a movement, beginning from churches and Christian organizations, to affect the seven spheres of influence (also known as mountains) in Malaysia. These spheres of influences or mountains are business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family and religion. The goal is that through teaching, networking and connecting, followers of Christ who are already planted in these mountains would rise up to be agents of change for Jesus Christ. And in turn, these agents of change would raise more agents of change for the same purpose. Reclaiming these mountains means that these mountains could once again serve as channels for the interest and advancement of God's righteousness.

The Scriptures have shown that large scale transformation is possible whenever an individual, community or a nation comes to obey God. In fact, it is interesting to note that transformation is already assumed to be the outcome whenever a believer and the community have understood and obeyed the Word of God. For instance, the discovery of the lost Book of the Law during the reign of King Josiah led to a massive national reform, leading to transformation in the kingdom of Judah (2 King 22 -23). Such a transformation affected every sector of the kingdom. This was also the case in the New Testament where as a result of believers devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles, transformation took place in personal and communal lives (Acts 2:43-37; 4:32). The transformation was so obvious that it was affecting the "mountains" of that time.

A closer look at the text in light of the context shows that such a large scale transformation was possible due to three levels of observable simultaneous transformation (Acts 2:43-47; 4:32-37). The first was the transformation of the life of every believer. The believer's new relationship with Jesus Christ not only resulted in the transformation of his identity from an enemy to a child of God (John 1:12-13); the Word of God subsequently led to the transformation of the mind (Romans 12:1-2). There were clearly observable transformation in the quality of the believer's life, his perception of human relationships and material ownership. The believer was willing to be one in heart with the rest, shared his possessions and as he did that, gladness filled his life.

The second transformation was the transformation of community life. A collective transformation in the life of believers led to a powerful loving fellowship. The Scriptures recorded that the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They were one in heart and mind, had everything in common where no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. Their transformed communal life was also seen at the home where they "broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all people." Such a powerful transformation not only confirmed the powerful testimony of the life-changing power of the gospel and the living presence of Jesus Christ, but it also sustained the life of the individual himself.

Finally, there was the transformation of what was really important to them, which is best summarized as that of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and loving their neighbours as themselves. The individual and communal lives were so attractive that it attracted other people into the community of Christ, just as the text put it: "the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved."

God's idea of transformation requires that it should begin with believers coming into obedience and then engaging their world with the Word of God. Hence, while it is certainly a necessity to connect, network, teach and mobilize those who are already stationed in the mountains to be the change agent in their workplace, it must be sustained and supported by the laborious work of raising more change agents, better known as disciples of Jesus Christ, who would "obey everything He has commanded."

Hence, the transformation of Malaysia for Jesus Christ has to begin from the transformation of every believer and the Body of Christ. And there is no other sustainable approach than to roll up our sleeves and be engaged in discipleship-raising change agents who understand and obey the word of God. Indeed, the mandate to make disciples of all nations is a mandate to teach every believer to obey everything Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). This means that the discipleship that Jesus demanded is more than just "bringing in" another believer for the purpose of perpetuating "church activities" confined within the four walls but raising one who will walk intimately with God and engage the world with His Word. A properly taught disciple and community of Christ would wisely and wilfully obey the Word of God. And when this happens the disciple and community of Christ would be formidable change agents for Christ. Dr. Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM and also a key initiator of the "Reclaiming the Seven Mountains Movement" aptly said, "When the life of every follower of Christ is transformed, every sphere of influence of the nations would be transformed." Let us be the change agent who would also raise more change agents for His Kingdom, and engage our workplace for Jesus Christ.

Tan Sin Guan serves with MCCC's Leaders Impact Ministries. He is also an associate pastor of Klang Chinese Methodist Church.