interview on discipleship

responded to a friend for an email interview on the topic of discipleship. thought these thoughts might be helpful.

1. what is a disciple?
easy answer is someone who is growing in their faith to become more like Jesus Christ. a disciple is a follower. i just heard dr. joe stowell, who used to be the president at moody, talking about the obsession in our culture to be developing leaders and there's all these workshops, books and conferences on leadership...but what we really need is to be developing followers of Christ...what he called, "followership". i like that! :)


2. what should a mature disciple look like?
i like what ephesians 4:12-14 talks about, that we are growing in unity and knowledge of the Son of God. a mature disciple has spent time with the One he is trying to emmulate so that he knows who He is, what He has done and what He is doing. and you spend time with Him in His Word!
also look at philippians 2:12 & 13. we are to "work out our salvation". that's the process of progressive sanctification. we are IN THE PROCESS OF GROWING TO BECOME LIKE JESUS! those 2 verses are cool because it says that we are to "work out" while God "works in" us. it's God's work of molding you to become like Christ. that's what romans 8:28 & 29 is all about. God is causing ALL things to work together for our good...and verse 29 says that our good is to "be comformed to the image of His Son".
i heard it said like this:
the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to change the Man of God into the Image of God.


3. What process(es) do you have in place for building persons into mature disciples?
let me answer it by going back to the ephesians 4 passage. verses 11 and 12 say that it's the job of the pastors/shepherds to be equipping the saints for the work of the ministry and building up the body into maturity.

our church does that by programming wholistically. we want everyone in our body to be IN PROCESS.
the process for becoming a mature disciple is one who is Worshiping Christ, Walking with Christ and Working for Christ!
we want everyone to worship together on sunday mornings. then we want everyone involved in our flock ministry so that they can experience fellowship and discipleship (growing in the knowledge of the Word and accountability). then we want everyone plugged into some kind of ministry and always reaching out in evangelism. those are our 5 purposes of the church: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism.
now, just because they're coming to one or all of those programs does NOT mean that they truly are worshiping, serving, etc...but that's the programed process we have in place to help FACILITATE discipleship.

but discipleship really happens one on one. life on life.
and we believe we have structured the programs of our church to best facilitate life on life for as many people as we can!
does that make sense?

for me personally, i meet with many of the guys in high school and at wabash. we'll meet to talk about life. and we'll always go to the Word of God to find answers and accountability for how we're supposed to live. really, i'm just meeting them along the road that they're traveling on (to become more like Christ) and i'm helping them along by showing them the truth of the Word and how it applies to their lives specifically. i almost always show them the process that God has designed for learning to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (eph. 4:1)...and that process is clearly stated in eph. 4:22-24. you "put off" the old self...be renewed in your mind...and "put on" the new self created to be like God. that's what we call the "put off/put on" principle.

i also am busy teaching the Word in youth group and in student leaders. which is basically the same thing...it's just not one-on-one and specific.

hope that answers the question.


4. what are your joys in discipleship?
i love watching young men fall in love with the Word of God. it's a joy for me to see them develop a hunger for God's Word and a desire to live it out. and i love hearing of young men who desire to serve the Lord for the rest of their lives!
and i like hangin' out at coffee shops! :)


5. what are your frustrations in discipleship?
guys that keep falling and eventually just kind of give up on the process. they miss out on the truth that if they are children of God then they are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (romans 6:11). i hate seeing an initial desire to change...but not a desire to dig into the word and persevere in doing good.

6. what advice would you give me in the area of discipling others?
read galatians 6:1-2. stay accountable yourself (ecclesiastes 4:9-12) and help a sister carry her burdens.
ephesians 4:15 - speak the truth in love.
phil 2:13 - remember that it's God work!

7. what do you think is the best example Jesus gives us in being a disciple?
a couple examples He gave...
1. a child - matthew 18:3,4...child like faith...they simply trust
2. the wise builder - matthew 7:24-27...he listens and obeys

His own example...
He grew (luke 2:52)...and His joy was obeying the Father (john 4:34)...and He gave us the ultimate example of servanthood and obedience (phil 2:3-11)


8. The book we are reading on discipleship says that we as christians are too fast and too programmed. What do you think about that statement in regards to discipleship?
i would tend to agree.
often in our culture we want what i would call "microwave christianity". where i can just pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and have it ready to enjoy. i want to just read God's Word once, have it change me and be done with the process of sanctification.
but growing and working out your salvation is a life long process simply because when Christ saved us from our sins, He saved us from the penalty of sin...and we are free from the power of sin...but until He comes again to take us home to be with Him for eternity, we still live in the presence of sin.

the most common analogy in Scripture for the Christian life is...the walk. it's not a sprint. it's a marathon...and we're called over and over again to walk in love, walk worthy, walk in God, walk in light...etc.

so we need to persevere and just keep walking!