'In the West we often take an incremental approach to discipleship. A person is converted and we begin to ratchet up their commitment to Christ. We start them off with prayer and Bible reading. We then encourage them to "come out" to friends and share the gosple. Later we might ask them to serve in church. If they prove very keen, we might encourage them to think about cross-cultural missionary service. We don't even ask people to live among the poor, though we're impressed when they do. Martyrdom is a distant prospect. Through a series of steps, we increase what it means to follow Jesus.
But in persecuted churches, martyrdom is written into the call to conversion. A decision to become a Christian might well mean persecution, ostracization or imprisonment. To decide for Christ is to decide for death. Now think about how Jesus issued his evangelistic invitation: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). It was an invitation to die.
When the decision for Christ means a decision for martyrdom, everything else is effectively decided. A thousand decisions about money, service, career, lifestyle, reputation are all already made in that one decision to follow Jesus to the end. The choice for martyrdom contains within it a whole life of cross-centred discipleship. And that is the point: not that we should look to be martyred, but that we should call people to cross-shaped lives of self-denial.'
Tim Chester, The Ordinary Hero, p.56.
