5 Realities of Discipleship

Discipleship is the primary task of a believer. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, doctors, plumbers, salesmen, vocational ministers...Jesus called each of us to disciple. Here are five realities we've seen in our years of discipling students.

• Disciples disciple.
  • Built into the journey of a disciple of Jesus, is the responsibility to disciple.
  • As Jesus led his disciples in the role of a rabbi, the given expectation was that they would too eventually take upon themselves the role of a rabbi. They knew there were on the path to disciple others as Christ discipled them.
• Discipleship isn't a weekly structure anymore than worship is 20 minutes of singing on a Sunday morning.
  • It's not cut and dry. It's fluid and relational.
• Discipleship isn't simply the transfer of knowledge. 
  • Education is not the full answer. 
  • It's a culture, a lifestyle.
• Discipleship is a culture not a structure.
  • We should have a mentality of discipleship in everything we do. 
  • Discipleship should be a thread woven through every aspect of our ministry and life.
• Disciples cannot be viewed as event-driven.
  • We must be willing to evaluate our systems of discipleship with different tools than we use for main services, Sunday School, etc.

"...and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:2 ESV

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20 ESV

The Great Commission or The Great Omission

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

As I've been speaking to churches over the past 8 months, the Holy Spirit repeatedly brings this scripture out. So much so, I've just started putting it in my notes.

Some people delineate the work "GO." Some focus on the word "MAKE." The phrase that has been ringing out in my spirit is "of all nations." So many times (especially in the American church), this phrase is ignored, passed over, and many times even omitted (at least mentally). This scripture is a call to go and make disciples...OF ALL NATIONS. When we omit this, we are no longer following the Gospel God gave us. We rewrite it to fit our comfortable American dream.

The Great Commission is not a call for the preacher, the pastor, the missionary, the evangelist...it is a call for ALL BELIEVERS. You cannot omit the call to go. You cannot omit the call to make disciples. And there is no way you can omit the call to all nations. Every believer is called to participate in missions. Every believer. All of us. All.

So, I challenge you. Don't just skip over phrases like "of all nations." You might just be narrowing the reality of your calling, the reality of your potential, and might just being saying no to a person who was counting on you to receive the Gospel.

Should everyone sell their houses and move to Africa? No. But every believer on earth should be sending and going. Give sacrificially of your finances to missions. Pray for missions. Go on missions trips. And don't EVER omit the reality that we are all missionaries in our communities.

Someone Believed in Me

Today as I sit and meditate upon what God is doing to get us to Ireland I am remembering a basic, biblical principle. Throughout my life so far, people have believed in me. My wife, parents, mother-in-law, my church family, Rob McClure, Pastor McNabb, Brian McNabb, Ken Isom, Doug Everaard, Nick Callaway, Greg Tiffany, Eric Treuil, Loretta Wideman, Greg Mundis...the list goes on and on and on.

These people have allowed me to jump into life and make mistakes. They help me get back up. They teach me how to tend to my wounds in life, learn from my mistakes, and trust in God to direct my path. Because someone believed in me, it sparks me to try and give that feeling to someone else.

Check out 2 Timothy 2:2. This principle is called "transgenerational discipleship." Give someone a chance knowing they'll screw up. Help them get up and learn to try again. As they grow and mature, they will find engrained in them a priority and passion to do the same thing in the life of someone else. It's worth the effort. I promise.

Through my travels, I find people in whom I see great potential. I try to connect with them, reconnect with them, help them grow, plug them in with people who I know will make them better (or who they'll make better).

I want to challenge you...believe in someone. As someone who was given a chance I implore you on behalf of the forgotten, the no names, and the misfits. Look through God's eyes. When we look through His eyes suddenly things are possible that were once impossible. People are reachable who were once unreachable. The unchangeable world is suddenly changeable.

Believe in someone today.