Dallas Willard’s comprehensive book, “The Great Omission,” deals with discipleship, which results in spiritual formation, character building, and personal soul care. Each chapter is taken from various lectures he presented to live audiences in church and academic settings. Some are disappointed with the present results of the Gospel because of a lack of transformation. This book identifies several areas to strengthen disciples. Willard says, “A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice—a practitioner, even if only a beginner.”[1] Like the immediate disciples of Jesus, we are learning to follow Him. This book offers clear and concise guidance for beginner disciples as they require clear instructions. Differentiating from sharing the Gospel for evangelism (“The Great Commission”), Willard demonstrates “The Great Omission,” or the missing part of Christianity for many as an active, planned, ongoing discipleship.
The first reflection deals with spiritual growth in chapter one. The disciple of Christ is a regular Christian actively engaging with planned and ongoing spiritual growth. Willard says, “The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian—especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way.[2] Sometimes, we hold an active Christian up as a revered example, but he should be the norm. Today’s disciples of Jesus cannot walk in the physical presence of Jesus as the initial disciples did in A.D. 30. However, we have a present companion with us everywhere and in every moment in the person of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 12:5, John 7:39). Discipleship does require discipline and the new convert as well as the seasoned saint must decide to actively love God and seek to grow in Him each day (2 Peter 3:18). One way to look at this discipleship is routine discipline. We need consistent, steady spiritual nourishment, just like daily physical food intake. The disciple of Jesus is an example to others to follow in the footsteps of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” As followers of Jesus, we make a daily personal choice to willingly and faithfully follow Jesus. We do not become “super Christians”; we are ordinary Christians engaging in life with faithfulness and devotion to the Lord.
The second reflection deals with spiritual formation in chapter seven. Willard conveys, “Everyone receives spiritual formation, just as everyone gets an education.”[3] The idea that everyone is being formed in some form and fashion is a vital understanding. Some formations are for good, and some are for evil. Jesus’s disciples are becoming more like the world (flesh and devil) or Christ. The disciple needs more than mere preaching and teaching to thrive and see substantial spiritual growth and healthy spiritual formation. He also needs the following concepts. (1) He must want to grow spiritually (Luke 17:5). (2) He has a basic plan for healthy formation (2 Peter 1:5-7). (3) He is steady and consistent in following the plan (1 Corinthians 4:2, Matthew 25:21). The Christian must decide to be an engaging follower of Jesus and then set the trajectory of his life in the direction of Jesus in active, participatory ways. Willard concludes, “We are consciously engaged with him in the details of our existence and spiritual transformation.”[4] This statement is true because discipleship is not an accident but a decisive act of the will, heart, and mind. Like Daniel, the Christian must be “purposed in his heart” (Daniel 1:8) to do the needed things to begin and continue spiritual growth.
The third reflection deals with the logical nature of Jesus in chapter 15. Willard says, “I have actually heard Christians respond to my statement that Jesus is the most intelligent man who ever lived by saying that it is an oxymoron.”[5] It is surprising that some people would not consider Jesus the brilliant, logical, and intelligent God/Man that He was/is. Jesus epitomizes brilliance, and His reasoning, logic, and skill are unsurpassed. The Gospel of Mark 7:37 teaches, “He hath done all things well.” Everything Jesus did was excellent, beyond reproach, perfect, and, from our human perspective, astonishing. Humanity can benefit from seeing Jesus in the following biblical ways: (1) A Master Teacher offers daily knowledgeable and skillful lessons. (2) A Competent Lawyer; His arguments with the lawmakers of His day are unparalleled. (3) A Miracle Worker. This recognition is evident on several fronts, as found in the Gospels. He knew about the human body, anthropology, agriculture, horticulture, dendrology, ornithology, enology, meteorology, phenology, and ecology. (4) A Civic Leader who gained a following while merely serving people.
The teaching about Paradise being a “Room of Marvels” and the theme of dealing with grief and losing a loved one to death are vital themes, but they do not neatly fit into this book about discipleship. The last several chapters seemed to be added for their content value, while most fit rather well. I believe that every chapter of this book, including chapter 20, offers valuable insight and teaching, but this chapter is a mere supplement to this compiled book. The reason this chapter about grief and Paradise is not helpful is that not many people will experience Paradise as described by Jesus in Luke 23; present disciples are either on earth alive today or absent from the body in the presence of God in Heaven, and if this chapter were to be more effective, this idea would need to be elaborated on more fully. Is “Paradise” our experience on earth today, as suggested in the last sentence? The main goal of this chapter may have been to infer that Paradise is where Jesus is, but I did not see that as an idea until the very last sentence. It was the weakest chapter in an otherwise brilliant discipleship and spiritual formation book.
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[1] Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (HarperOne, 2006), xi.
[2] Ibid. 3.
[3] Ibid. 66.
[4] Ibid. 72.
[5] Obit. 175.
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