Tag: discipleship

What is ‘Effective’ Discipleship?

What does it REALLY take to disciple someone?

A disciple is a LEARNER. And when we look at how Jesus interacted with his ‘learners,’ we notice 3 forms of engagement.
1. He taught them, both verbally and by example.
2. He let them experience his WHOLE life, not just the rainbows & unicorns side. (come on, we all have a unicorn side)
3. He extended grace & patience when they screwed things up.

Here’s what we DON’T see in Scripture. Or at least I don’t see it.
1. Jesus taught in the Synagogues (churches), but we don’t see him teaching a Sunday School class on discipleship.
2. He doesn’t provide us with a step-by-step process for making disciples.
3. He definitely doesn’t ask his disciples to do anything that isn’t already a regular part of his own life.
descipelship
After over 20 years in vocational ministry, I’ve learned that doing organic, unfiltered life with others is the most EFFECTIVE kind of discipleship. We must not place a completion date on it, allowing Jesus to determine that. And lastly, each of us as followers of Jesus really needs to practice being the teacher AND the student…the Rabbi AND the disciple. Meaning, we should be simultaneously learning from the lives of other strong believers AND intentionally guiding others to deeper understanding of God’s Kingdom by way of OUR EXAMPLE.

What’s YOUR experience been with the issue of Christian discipleship? I’m super interested and would appreciate it if you’d drop a comment below.

 

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Who Disciples You The Most?

Note:
This is NOT a political post!

This is a quote from a sermon by guest speaker Yemi Mobolade while we were visiting our former church in Colorado Springs recently.

yemi

His message was actually on the issue of race and how we wrestle with it in the Church today. But I took it more broadly. When I heard him say the words above (in the first service) you could hear a pin drop in that large auditorium. That told me something.

Yemi had just gone to a place of discomfort and social unrest among the people of God.

And it got me really thinking. More than the political LEFT & RIGHT in popular news media, what other INFLUENCES & VOICES do you and I allow to DISCIPLE us more than Jesus?

Is our worldview concerning race, sexual orientation, environmental issues, human trafficking, wealth, abortion, marriage, etc, etc, etc. MORE shaped by the voices, books, and media in our society OR by the Word of God?

For those of us who call ourselves disciples of Jesus, it SHOULD be the later.

Then, why is it NOT the case so often?

Hey, I struggle with filtering my influences like most of us. I guess I just wanted to share this quote to stir up some challenge and thinking. This quote did that for me.

Great message, Yemi!

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