What is Discipleship Anyway?

I have dedicated a lot of my efforts and content, and quite frankly my life to the idea of discipleship and making disciples. And I know a lot of people are hearing the words discipleship, disciples, and disciple making around the church but they aren’t quite sure what they mean. 

As pastors and church leaders, it is our responsibility to share the vision for a discipleship culture in our churches. But most of our people aren’t really sure what discipleship really is and how to live into it as followers of Jesus. Here are some common questions around discipleship and some simple responses you can share with the people in your congregation, your small group, or just around the water cooler.

What does discipleship have to do with me?

If you are a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ and call yourself a Christian, then it has everything to do with you! In Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus gave his final instructions to his first disciples before he ascended into heaven. He told them and is telling us to make disciples, baptize them, and then teach them (us) to obey everything I have commanded you. According to Jesus, learning and obeying his teachings is a lifelong proposition.

If you look closely, Jesus is also telling us that part of our role in this life is to make disciples. This means that as we grow in our understanding of Jesus’s commands and teaching, then it is our responsibility to share it with others so they can become disciples. This disciple making is the part that scares most Christians about discipleship, and we have a million excuses for not doing it. Let’s be honest, we have a million excuses for not engaging in our own discipleship journey in the first place. But let’s continue…

Do I just need to join a small group and/or a Bible Study?

The answer is yes, and no, but mostly NO! Yes, it is important to belong to a small group because that is where we live into the community that Jesus teaches us about when we go to a Bible Study. But discipleship is our lifelong journey of pursuing an obedient relationship with Jesus Christ. It looks different for all of us because we have different God-given purposes and gifts that are designed to enable us to serve a specific role in God’s Kingdom.

So, the first step in our discipleship journey is to understand our God-given purpose in life and how God wants us to use it. This is where the church helps us in becoming a disciple, by guiding us through these discoveries through study, prayer, and self-understanding. That may sound a little woo-woo to you if this is a new concept, but study, prayer, and self-understanding are the foundations of our life as disciples. Bible studies help us to hear and see God’s Word for our particular life and small groups help us to live out the life God wants for us through support, encouragement, and accountability.

How do we go about “doing” discipleship?

This is the part where it gets tricky. Everybody’s discipleship path is unique to their purpose and gifts, so it is hard to prescribe a formula for your lifetime. Hopefully, your church employs a Proactive Disciple Making process that can help you find your pathway. If you are new to following Jesus, then the beginning of your journey could follow a more prescribed “first steps” to assimilate you in the community of Jesus Followers and the local church.

The most important thing to remember is that your discipleship journey is not intended to be traveled alone. Aligning yourself with a guide at the beginning of your new pathway is critical to understanding how to move forward, like finding the right resources for your growth and the encouragement you will need to overcome adversity. Guides are critical partners in the early parts of our discipleship process. Later, as you mature in your faith, you will find mentors who will help you more specifically to live into your unique, God-given purpose.

Hopefully these questions and answers will help you help your people understand discipleship. The hard part is that our people rarely ask these questions aloud, so we have to find other ways to get this message across. The key is to keep your message simple and have a process in place to get people on track.

If we are going to be churches that will continue to share the Gospel with new generations of believers, then it is imperative that our congregations not only have a clear understanding of their role as disciples and a path that they can follow, grow, and serve. A Proactive Disciple Making process can be not only the on-ramp to finding your path, but a support mechanism as we grow and continue in our journey. Our talk to our congregations about discipleship needs to be backed up by the support and tools they will need to find their purpose and path to follow Jesus.