This past weekend about 75 people from our church went away for the weekend to talk about discipleship. I want to share some quotes from this past weekend, but before I do, here were a two things about discipleship that we constantly drive home to the people in our church:
- It is not separated from evangelism. When Jesus sent the disciples out with the command to ‘make disciples’ in Matthew 28 he was clearly not telling them to go disciple each other. Disciple making was never intended to be only Christian-Christian relationships. Unfortunately, we have often limited it to that in the Church.
- It is holistic. Meeting once a week with someone and going through a 3rd party book is certainly not a bad thing, but we ought not think this is what it means to make disciples. We have to not only be open with people, but vulnerable with them as well. We MUST allow people into our lives to the point where they see and experience our life. Personally, I not only want the people I disciple to know where all the dishes are in my kitchen, but I also want them to know all of my finances and how we spend the money we’ve been given. Additionally, we often try to formalize discipleship to the point where it gets separated from every day life. So, we encourage less formal times together, but MORE intentional in everything people are already doing.
Here are some quotes we heard or used over the course of the weekend that may be encouraging/helpful/convicting for you:
- We cannot make disciples and worship our privacy.
- Not making disciples shows a lack of understanding of the gospel.
- Love for God always reveals itself in a love for people.
- If “abiding in Christ” does not lead you toward making disciples, you are not truly abiding in Christ.
- If your faith remains a private issue for you, it’s not the faith Jesus has invited you to live.
There were of course many other things expressed during our weekend away. But it was a very encouraging time for our church.
I hope you are intentionally talking about what Jesus meant by his command to make disciples…
Chuck / @chuckbomar
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For Chuck – Just read your book “Losing Your religion”. Was really getting excited about/by it, thinking of all the people to whom I could give copies for further discussion when I came to the last word on p. 125 and — BOOM — that was it. The people to whom I want to give the book, with whom I would like to discuss it — who need to consider it — not only would be turned off by it, put it down, and go no further, but they most likely would now be biased against anything you might have said. “Bad form”, Chuck — and you knew it when you did it. There remains 1 person to whom I can give it, with whom I will discuss it; I will be asking him to give his thoughts not only on what you have said but also how you have gone about it. It will be good — but I mourn not being able to gently lay it before all the others.