Describe Discipleship

The last words of Jesus to his disciples were "move and make disciple of all nations" in Matthew 28:19. It is the discipleship essence - but when discipleship is a process of making disciple we need to initially understand what the disciple is.

What’s Disciple?

The disciple is Jesus follower. In the gospel we saw him calling the people to go after him.

As Christ walked beside that Sea of Galilee, Simon and the brother Andrew cast the net into a lake, for they had been fishermen. Jesus said, “Come, follow me.”

Mark 1: 16-17

Here, the implications of the gospel are that Christ called many individuals to follow him.

However, when we stick to the description that limits the discipleship in following Christ, we’re missing much of the time. Both of the quoted scriptures are partial quotations - in a very next verse will Christ explicitly give those that he called the duty to do.

The passages showed us that Christ was appointing them in carrying his mission on with the others. Discipleship isn’t a brainy exercise. We’re not called to know about Christ. We’re not called to clap his message. We’re called to follow his footsteps, literally and to declare the great news about the God’s Kingdom to the states.

How we’re trying to make discipleships?

For so many years, it appears the church had depends on Sunday sermons and services to create the next age group of believer. Round the world, it’s now varying in two significant manners.

Initially, many were dumping the church. In the entertainment and consumer age church merely doesn’t compete. People are not satisfied with the preacher or the worship leader, so they’d stop or move on coming along.

Next, lots are staring to grow the church in a totally different manner. The emphasis is changing from the Sunday Christianity to the entire life Christian discipleship. When we encourage people in actively living out the lifestyle of Jesus, the outcomes will be astonishing. The obedient discipleship that challenges people to distribute their faith and then dwell it out every day is even harder than those sitting in the pew, but it’s also more engaging. The living faith is satisfying. When people came in contact with the believers that are fully alive, the outcomes may be infectious.

The disciple making movement is growing at extraordinary rates in dubious places. As a church obsesses about how to stop the decline - the worldwide church is exploding. And so what we may learn from all these?

How are we doing discipleship?

Within our faith, we are following someone's steps. Within our faith we are leaving footprints in guiding others. It is the discipleship principles.

At the hub of the Disciple Making Movement is the commitment in taking Christ at his word. Bible study tools will differ from places to place, however at the center, a scripture authority is paramount. It is not just the academic authority. It’s not a mere belief of a scripture as God's word. Instead, it is the authority that leads to obedience. When Christ says Go, then we’ll go.

To make discipleship lessons, we should be like Christ and do what has been done. So what did Christ do?

Keep the cycles moving

Starting from all that had gone before, we’ll see that the disciple-making is the cycle, and while the procedure of becoming the disciple is a lifelong one, it’s relatively a rapid one. Christ spent three years only with his disciples – then, they go to change the humanity. Having modeled the discipleship with the others, we must be anticipating them to do similarly, and the moment we 'sent them' it’s time to become on the guard for the next individual to disciple.