In churches in general there seems to be something lacking. Some churches have guests, which are great. Their presence proves that the membership is investing and inviting people to Christ and His church. There are attenders. These are people who go to church, but do not commit to membersip. There are members who are baptized believers that make a covenant with a group of God’s people to be the church. Then there are volunteers who are members that provide vital acts of service that make the church work and enable it to function. They teach, greet, sing, etc.
What seems to be missing are genuine disciple makers. Jesus commanded us to “go and make disciples” in Matthew 28:19. This was not a suggestion.
Before you can make a disciple, you must know what one is.
John 15 gives us a simple picture of what a disciple looks like:
- v.7 A Disciple Is Connected to Christ by Active Faith
- v.8 A Disciple Is Visibly Transformed by Grace
- v.9-10 A Disciple Obeys Jesus for Love’s Sake
- v.11 A Disciple Is Filled with the Joy of Jesus
- v.12-13 A Disciples Provides Sacrificial Love to All People
All of these qualities are inspired by the Spirit of God and can only be lived out by those who have and are being transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These qualities are also modeled and managed by people who are in relationships with other believes that are sharing and showing them how to be more and more like Christ.
This is the ultimate goal of disciple making – being like Christ. There are many things a person can do in the name of God, but unless a person is a disciple they are not living out God’s demand for His people. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer is known for saying, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”
Friends let’s not fool ourselves into becoming social Christians that have no value to God’s Kingdom work. Let’s be Spirit-filled Christians who are daily becoming more and more like Jesus and who are equipping others to do the same.
A Christian should always be in a relationship with one person who is helping them be more like Jesus and at the same time always be in a relationship with at least one person that they are helping be more like Jesus.
It would be wise to memorize 2 Timothy 2:2 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." This is discipleship.
Share you questions or comments with me at jpettus@lhbg.org.
1 comment:
I am reading Dallas Willard's "The Great Omission" and he quotes Eim's book "the Lost Art of Disciple Making". Willard asks the question, "does that model [convert to disciple to worker]not make discipleship something entirely optional?
What do you think? What are you doing to help Christians to understand that discipleship is NOT optional?
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