Intersected

Starting with our first Re:Train class, the past year has had a significant focus on discipleship. I got my discipleship paper back from Bill Clem and, while my grade was OK, his comments will definitely make it more biblical and usable. Discipleship is tough and it takes time. The Trellis and the Vine is probably the best book on discipleship I’ve read and here is a blog post from Aaron Menikoff that has many similar ideas.

First, every Christian needs to be discipled. … The Great Commission of Matthew 28 and the call to encouragement of Hebrews 3:13 makes this clear. …

Second, every Christian should feel the responsibility to make disciples. … The Great Commission is for all which means discipling is for all.

Third, discipling can take place in small groups and in one-on-one relationships. … As a few gather or just a couple, Christians should take deliberate steps to apply the Gospel to each other’s lives.

Fourth, discipling requires commitment. Often the commitment comes in the form of time. I met this morning at 7am with four wonderful brothers for a time of discipling. I get paid to do this. These men were meeting before their workday began. That is commitment. Sometimes the commitment is emotional. Getting to know someone spiritually means being there to hear tough stuff. Sometimes it means listening while someone is obviously immature but they need to talk and process so they can grow. Sometimes it means being willing to challenge–which can make the relationship awkward. All of this is commitment, and that it costly.

Fifth, discipling is less about what you do and more about “life on life.” … But at the core of it all needs to be humans applying God’s Word so that sanctification takes place. This can be done in conversation at a ball game and it can be done through Bible study in the living room. The key is that the Word is being applied to life. This means discipling relationships may look different from person to person. Where does friendship end and discipling begin? It’s not always easy to tell. Regardless of the answer, in a discipling relationship lives are being uncovered, challenged, and encouraged.

Sixth, discipling may require discriminating between low-hanging and high-hanging fruit. … Strategy may lead you to invest your time in someone you have reason to believe will be likely to model well the gospel for others. This is all helpful but a word of caution is in order: sometimes the people God puts in our lives–whether they be low-hanging or high-hanging fruit–are exactly the people we should be serving.

Seventh, discipling takes time. … It never ends. We never graduate.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under Community, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, ReTrain, Small Groups, The Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Thoughts on disciple-making from Aaron Menikoff”

1. Mike Says:
   May 6th, 2010 at 9:20 am

   Thanks for this, Chris! Awesome reminders!

2. John G Says:
   May 7th, 2010 at 8:46 am

   There are differences between disciples and professed Christians, very possibly the difference between walking the wide road and breaching the narrow gate in Matthew 7:13,14. These are radical times. Apathetic or lukewarm Christians are in great spiritual danger. The key is Matthew 6:33, seek first His Kingdom…