Discipleship

Discipleship.....

I've struggled throughout my walk with Jesus in defining what this its supposed to look like. Jesus as the ultimate discipler and our best example, modeled it for us as he invited a ragtag group of men to follow him around for 3 1/2 years, but I don't feel like I have ever had a good grasp on what His "discipleship process" was. In fact in all honesty i don't know if I would have wanted any of the pre-Acts disciples living life with me! Who would want a bunch of smelly fishermen, thieves and zealots hanging around you all day. My problem is Jesus did want to hang out with them. He willingly loved, served and taught them and once the Holy Spirit was inside them, they went from deniers and deserters to willingly dying for this thing.

The thought of seeing the gospel take root in a students life to that extent is really exciting. To be honest, I anticipate the thought becoming reality like a burned out business man anticipates a vacation. It is such a joy to see someone not only invite Christ to live in their hearts, but to see them bring others to do the same. I've become obsessed with the idea of multiplication instead of addition.

These things have become the framework of what I've been talking with others about latley. When I call these things framework, I think about what Paul said in 1 Cor. 3 when he talks about laying a foundation of Jesus and then building on that. I want to become an expert builder! I want to see lives founded in Jesus that are being built into and then building into others.

I recently read Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. This book has really challenged me to think biblically about building disciples. I began to realize that as a full time minister my goal and purpose should not be to grow a church, but to disciple others, like Jesus told us to. These two things may not sound that different to some, but to me they started to become two different things. One was a man made goal and the other God given.

I realized what my "discipleship methods" in the past had always lacked. Most of what discipleship has been for me was task oriented and seemed mechanical and not Jesus oriented but task oriented. It lacked focus, clarity, alignment and movement. I can see how these things are essentials as people seek to follow Jesus. This book ends with a challenge to those who read it to search scripture to define the "what" and the "how" of discipleship.

I enjoyed taking that challenge! Following, abiding, growing, being discipled, learning, knowing, serving, loving are terms I've heard to describe the life of a Christian. Picking just one term to describe this life is hard because a Christian's life should include all of this. So how do you define "discipleship or etc.?" Like Jesus did in Matt. 28:19. The point is, language is not important as long as the process communicates these elements:

1) Committing ones life to Jesus

2) Committing to follow, abide in, grow, be discipled by, learn from, know more about, serve and love Jesus

3) Committing to help others follow, abide in, grow, be discipled by, learn from, know more about, serve and love Jesus.

Jason Dukes shared with us in class once that this process is not supposed to look like an assembly line, its like a garden. I still don't feel like what I've shared here defines all that this process is supposed to include, but its a start. Let's work on continuing to defining this process together.