This last week I was in Seattle, WA for a week long of classes from 9am-5 sometimes 6pm. The most accurate description that I heard from a colleague about this week was, "kinda like using a fire hose as a straw." I best describe this week like this: Having a bachelors of science in Biblical Studies, I feel like I was given the puzzle pieces and the picture, and now I'm getting the chance to put it together. It has been an amazing and challenging week of these masters classes.
http://retrain.org is the program that my brother and I are going through this year. It basically is a masters degree in one year in the field of "missional leadership." This particular week was under the leadership of Pastor Bill Clem on the topic of Leader as Disciple.
Previous to this course, I would have said that evangelism and disciple-making were separate entities. Clem put into biblical perspective that they are to be one in the same. "Disciple" by definition is a follower. If our purpose is to make followers of Christ a decision is one thing, but a changed life is another. A true conversion to Jesus Christ is a starting line of the race of new life through the Holy Spirit, not a lobby or waiting room to heaven. Disciple making therefore doesn't start after conversion to Christ, it IS Conversion that transforms someone into bearing the identity of Christ.
Becoming a true Disciple of Christ is better described as accepting God's loving offer of being apart of His story of salvation through Christ, as opposed to making Jesus apart of our story. In doing so, we pick up and respond through the Holy Spirit to his call to "follow me" and we are imparted his righteousness and, before the father, are reconciled.
As a disciple then we are to seek to mirror Christ. In mirroring Christ, He, through us, is creating disciples. It is therefore not programs that make disciples, but Disciples that make disciples. Discipleship is best described then as Life on Life, not a class. How has Christ transformed you? How is your relationship with Him evident to the outside world, so that all someone has to do is be in your vicinity to notice Christ in you? Being in community, showcasing the Christ transformation in your life, will draw people toward following you thinking, "wow, something about him/her is different, they are patient, they are kind, they are honest, and overall they just seem like they actually enjoy life, what is that?" When people start following you, they aren't following you, but Christ in you. And when Christ in you ministers to them through you, discipleship happens.
There is a reciprocity in discipleship because what happens is this, Disciple A, more mature in their relationship with Christ, is "discipling" Disciple B who is perhaps younger and less mature in their walk with Christ. As disciple B is being ministered to by Christ through Disciple B, they are becoming more and more like Christ (that is sanctification). When Disciple B becomes more and more like Christ, Christ starts ministering through Disciple B to Disciple A, and the result is an eternal growing relationship in Christ just as two mirrors facing each other create an infinite reflection.
As a disciple grows in Christ and mirroring Him, they are able to withstand hardship and trials. Why? because they have the power of the Holy Spirit in them sanctifying them into being more and more like Christ. A true disciple endures, A true disciple trusts, and a true disciple bears fruit in the process.
A disciple could then be defined like this: A follower of Jesus Christ whose faith endures no matter how they feel or what circumstance they are in because God promises a good return.
That ultimate return or blessing of God is eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." To believe IS to be a disciple, not to have said a prayer. Praying to receive Jesus Christ is to become apart of the salvation story and reflect Christ to others where forgiveness and not going to Hell are icing on the cake.
So where evangelism and discipleship are combined, talking to a non-believer is a conversation centered around Christ as the transformer of lives in following him, and not a "get out of hell free card." We are saved from hell, but our motivation for following Christ is unity and reconciliation with God. In Christ we are then able to find victory over sin's control, supernatural power of the spirit in bearing fruit in suffering, and an overwhelming sense of worship that is not just in church, but evident in all aspects of life, so much so that the lost are found following Christ mirrored by you.
This is a concept that I'm going to be chewing on for the rest of my life. What I do know is that I'm so humbled that God would have chosen me to partake in the fullness of life in Christ Jesus and that someone as sin-broken as me could be used by Him as a light to shine into the darkness of the world the light of Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.
What do you think? Is "disciple" a bigger concept to chew on for you? In Matthew 28, what does it mean to go and make disciples? How are you seeking to fulfill the great commission? And how can we work together in doing so?
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