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What is Discipleship?
I don’t know what the word “discipleship” means to you. Bible study? Scripture memory? Evangelism training? A twelve-week course through a Christian book? Christian Discipleship has often been reduced to these things, but it’s so much more than that! Discipleship is a deep and growing soul-full relationship with Jesus, it’s becoming his apprentice in life to learn how to participate in the life of Trinity and obey everything Jesus taught. I love the way Dallas Willard paraphrases Jesus’ “Great Commission” which is clearly a call to make disciples:

How important is discipleship? Isn’t that just for a minority of Christians who are really serious about their faith? Think of it this way: While the word “Christian” is only used three times in the New Testament, the word “disciple” is used 292 times! (in the NIV version). Dallas Willard says, “The New Testament is written by disciples for disciples about discipleship.” Discipleship is the only way the Scripture speaks of the Christian life. To be a Christian is to be a disciple, or at least it’s supposed to mean that.

It seems to me as I look around the church that most of us are crowding around Jesus to see what exciting thing he’ll do, but we’re not looking him in eye, not touching him, not sitting at his feet, not obeying his teachings in our day-to-day life. We’re tying to live without his power. We want his blessings, but we don’t want him. If only we had the eyes to see how desperate we are for him and the courage to cry out to him! Our lives are bleeding away and we need to push through the throng of people and creep along the ground until we can reach up and touch the hem of Jesus’ robe (Luke 8:40-48). We’re paralyzed and it’s time that we plead with our friends to carry us to Jesus, cut a hole in the roof of the jam packed building he’s in, and then drop us at Jesus’ feet so that we can rise to our feet in Jesus’ power and walk with him and live for him (Mark 2:1-12). In other words, following Jesus is urgent! It ought to be our number one, all-consuming life priority.

Jesus is Accepting New Apprentices!
Jesus is waiting for us. If we knew what an incredible opportunity he offers us it’d take our breath away! Our hearts would skip a beat! We wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him until we became one of his disciples. Jesus is the distinguished professor emeritus and we can be his privileged students. He’s the master artist and we can be his chosen apprentices. He’s the successful business entrepreneur and we can be his invited junior partners. In other words, being a disciple of Christ is like studying under the personal guidance of Saint Augustine! Painting with Rembrandt! Going into business with Ray Kroc! Yes! Yes! Yes! And so much more because Jesus is so much more than even these great masters.

Now, notice that Jesus is the discipler. Make sure you think about it that way in your spiritual mentoring relationships. I tell the people who join my annual Christ’s Ambassadors small group, “Jesus is discipling you, I’m not. I’m simply inviting you to follow Christ with me.” The words “with me” are real important here. I can’t lead people into a promised land I’ve never been to! Ray Ortlund led me to be discipled by Jesus, inviting me, in his words, to “rub up” my life next to his when I was part of his discipleship group and in my one-on-one monthly meetings with him as my Spiritual Director. And what I’ve experienced can be true for you too. Jesus is present when his disciples gather in his name. He disciples us - just as he did for Peter, James, John and the others - through his Word, his Spirit, and his body (the church - us!). We get to be with Jesus in order to become like him! Then we help others to be with Jesus in order to become like him and then they in turn help others. That’s discipleship.

Here’s another analogy. Probably you’ve heard the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I apply that to discipleship. I don’t want to fish for people; I want to teach them how to fish for themselves! I want to point out the fishing holes and teach people how to catch fish in them for themselves. I want to show people the spiritual disciplines and help them to walk more closely with Jesus so that they’re still doing it years after our meetings are over, delighting in his words as being sweeter than honey to their taste (Psalm 119:103), following the voice of the Spirit as their personal guide (Isaiah 30:21). This is the way the Apostle Paul discipled Timothy, Titus, and so many others. He said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV).

Discipleship is Done Soul-to-Soul
I believe that the point of Spiritual Direction and discipleship groups is to connect soul-fully with Christ. So we meditate on the inspired Scriptures to look at how Jesus lived, both in his ministry and in his private life. We worship God from our hearts. We learn from Bible heroes and saints present and past. We pray through spiritual disciplines together. We encourage one another in our ministries of caring for others. And through it all we open our souls to one another, sharing our struggles, longings, and the very life of God that we’re experiencing. Sharing your heart and your spirituality with Ambassadors for Christ in this way is powerful! It draws you closer to your spiritual friends and also to your own self and to God. It changes you over time from the inside out so that you become a person who is more and more like Jesus in your character and lifestyle.

This kind of soul-connecting personal discipleship is not the way “church” is normally done today, but it was the consuming focus of Jesus’ ministry. Though the gospels record a number of scenes of Jesus ministering to thousands of people at a time only a few hundred in total were recognized as followers of Jesus before he ascended into heaven (1 Corinthians 15:6). Crowds of people came to him when they were hungry, sick, demonized, worried about a loved one, or confused, but only a few people followed him as disciples. Jesus invested most of his time and energy day after day in this small contingent that centered around 12 men and a few women. He developed close relationships with these disciples. They had deep discussions. He taught them what was most important. He showed them how to live. He gave his life to them. If they didn’t believe in him and come alive with his life and share his message with others then Jesus would be long forgotten today.

So Jesus shows us that the most important thing that we can do with our lives is to learn from him as his apprentices and then to pass on his way of life to others – soul-to-soul.

Counting the Cost
We need to ask ourselves if we really want to be disciples of Jesus. Do we want Jesus above all things and in all things? Are we ready to give up everything else? Jesus often asked people, “What do you want?” (Matthew 20:32). Many people who said they wanted to follow him didn’t stick with it. They came up with all sorts of excuses that emerged when Jesus asked them what they really wanted (Luke 9:57-62, John 6:66-67). So how about you? Think about it. Consider how you spend your time… what you think about… the things that are most important to you… Do you want all this to be an expression of your love for Jesus? Do you want to be “yoked” to Jesus in all that you do, think, and desire? Jesus said:

As for me I really do want to live my life yoked with Jesus and I’m learning to step into this way of life. I’ve discovered that Jesus is like a trained ox that pulls the plow of the kingdom of God over all the fields the world so that a harvest of souls might be reaped for God’s glory. He comes to me and my field of influence in the world and offers me to get into the yoke with him, to work alongside him. Together we can do the Father’s work in Jesus’ humble and gentle way and in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Working this out in the reality of my day-to-day life is requiring quite a bit of change on my part! I have to “watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41) continually.

If you’re like me then in each of these situations you like having control of your life. We think that this is the way to freedom and peace, but it’s not. God’s life comes to us as we surrender our own agendas and responding to him. This means not needing to get our own way. It means accepting and learning from pain and difficulty. Jesus put it this way:

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat - I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self (Luke 9:23b-24, MSG).

A Lectio Divinia for You
One of my favorite spiritual disciplines that has helped me and my spiritual friends to follow Jesus is the ancient practice of “Lectio Divinia” or divine reading. This is a prayerful way of listening to God speak to us as we read and re-read his Word together is a reliable spiritual discipline that has been practiced by Christians for many hundreds of years. David Benner, Psychologist, Spiritual Director, and author of “Sacred Companions,” begins most of his “Spiritual Accompaniment Groups” this way. I learned it from Ray Ortlund. I find that listening to God in set aside quiet times helps me to listen to him all day long.

For instance, consider doing a Lectio Divinia on Luke 5:1-11. In this passage Jesus invites Peter, James and John to become his disciples, showing the three fishermen how to fish for people! Here we learn the three life purposes of Jesus’ disciples. We can think of these as the three core priorities of being Christ’s Ambassadors. I’ve organized my life mission statement and my discipleship groups around these three values:

These three life purposes are an extension of the “Greatest Commandment” that Jesus taught us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength… Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). Worship is loving God. Growth is being loved by God and others. Service is loving others. These three life purposes form a holy triangle with worship at the top, growth on the bottom left, and serve on the bottom right. Like other holy triangles we find in Scripture (most especially the Trinity!) each of the three are distinct and also connected. To worship God is to grow in Christ-likeness and share Christ with others.

To grow is to draw closer to the God we adore and to become more fruitful. To serve is to honor God with our actions and to share our growth with others.I encourage you to step into Luke 5:1-11 and imagine that Jesus is talking to you. Try using the Lectio Divinia format of slowly reading through the passage three times, pausing between each reading to listen to what the Holy Spirit speaks to you. As a guideline you might focus on the Worship-Grow-Serve priorities by focusing each reading on one of the three priorities. Here are some questions to help you do that:

1. John saw how attractive Jesus is. What do you learn about Jesus in this passage that helps you to worship him?
2. Peter realized that he didn’t deserve God’s kindness and was overcome with guilt. What do you see in the deep waters of your soul?
3. Peter, James, and John left behind their family, business, and way of life to follow Jesus. What do you have to leave behind to follow Jesus?