Thoughts on Discipleship
Lately, Paul Martin, our Youth Director at UPC, has been talking a lot about discipleship. Since our ministry is disciple-making, that is a good thing. Paul's passion is to see kids brought to real maturity in Christ, a maturity that is reflected in all of life, not just the "religious" compartment.
Our goal for UPC in general—for adults, youth, and children—is that we be both deep and wide. We want to give our people a solid, deep foundation so that they can be used by God to bring the blessings of the kingdom to a broken world and so that their faith can handle the trials of life. We want to give them real theology that will hold up in a hostile world.
We also want to produce kids and adults who are leaders in the church and the world. Twenty years from now, we want to look at the community in Central Florida and around the world and see that we have produced leaders for the church. That means they must be grounded biblically, theologically, and have their hearts anchored on Christ alone.
At the same time, we want to reach out widely. Both spiritual and numerical growth are goals of the church. So, if we are taking a few people deep but are not reaching out and bringing others into the family of God, then we are not being faithful to our mission. At the same time, if we reach out widely and do not produce true Christ followers--people who are passionate for the the glory of God, the salvation of the lost, the redeeming and restoring of a broken world, then we are not being faithful to our mission. At UPC, with both adults and kids, we want to succeed at both depth and breadth.
I believe that you cannot separate evangelism from discipleship. This is an important move we are making in our church this year. It is all part of the same process. Notice in Acts 2:41-47 that when people come to Christ, they are added to the church. That is, they are incorporated into the growing, discipling ministry of the body. Evangelism must necessarily include enfolding people into the church, the body of Christ, the community of disciples.
Yet, even though you cannot separate evangelism from discipleship, you can distinguish between the two. Evangelism is the process by which someone comes to Christ. Discipleship is the process by which someone grows in Christ.
At UPC, more evangelism is going on than most people realize. It isn’t happening through evangelism programs, but through the whole ministry of the church. Paul F. told his story on Sunday (April 30) and is a fine example of how it all works. While his story may be a bit more dramatic than some, that type of thing is happening all over the place at UPC. Unbelievers are coming to church, sharing in the community life, and then coming to Christ. In our Discovery Class each time are a number of people who were previously unchurched. We have already done a number of adult baptisms this year and I will be doing two more in a couple of weeks. We also have had a number of people join by profession of faith or reaffirmation of faith. In most of those cases, that means they were not converted before coming here. Do we need to improve in evangelism? Absolutely. It is still a weak spot, but some great things are happening here.
As far as discipleship goes, great things are happening here as well. I have three different men’s groups that I meet with each week. Two of them are for officer candidates. In all three, there are some men for whom the impact has been minimal. At the same time, in all three groups, there are men for whom there has been significant life change. With 450 people in LIFE Groups, my guess is this is happening all over the place.
The question is, what is discipleship and how do we do it? Discipleship is not Bible study. It is not going through a workbook. It is not completing a course. Discipleship is a way of life. The word disciple literally means learner. In the Ancient Near Eastern context in which Jesus lived, a disciple was one who followed a particular Rabbi. So, in the Christian context, a disciple is a Christ-follower.
At UPC, we have defined discipleship in terms of the whole person, what we have called H3—Head, Hand, Heart. A head that knows the truth (cognitive), Hands that serve and live in obedience (behavioral), and a heart that loves (emotive). We have related these three aspects of the human personality to three circles of relationship—God, church, world. We have this in chart form, but I can't figure out how to put it in a blog!
This chart gives us a good grid to evaluate if we are producing well-rounded disciples. For example, if a person has a great knowledge of Scripture, but is not using their hands to serve a broken world through evangelism and social justice, then this chart would identify that as an area for growth. Related to both the Hand and the Heart, another aspect that could be included in this is the fruit of the Spirit. Clearly, the fruit of the Spirit gives us a model of what it means to be a Christ-follower. Still, this chart gives us a good model of what a disciple is.
Assuming that the above gives us a good definition of what a disciple is, the question is, how do we make disciples? What does it take to produce them? I believe that both the Bible and the history of the church are clear on this. Again, Acts 2:41-47 gives us an idealistic picture of the spirit-filled church. In this model, we see certain critical elements in disciple-making. 1) Devotion to the Word, 2) Worship, 3) Devotion to Prayer, 4) Devotion to one another, 5) the sacraments (the breaking of the bread), 6) service, and some might add 7) evangelism. Also, notice that all of this takes place in the context of the church. People didn’t just become Christians, but were “added to their number”, that is, they became part of the Christian community. In this case, becoming part of the Christian community and conversion are synonymous.
While all of these are important, I would argue for the primacy of the Word. It is the normative aspect that gives definition to all of the other elements. Prayer, fellowship, sacraments, service, and evangelism that are not Scriptural or not only bad, but harmful. All of it must be built around the Word. In Acts 2, their table-fellowship was built around a devotion to the Apostle’s teaching. They did not just get together to talk, nor did they simply share their ideas about Christianity, their fellowship and discussions were governed by the authoritative word of the Apostles.
There are some today who want to make relationships primary in discipleship. This is mostly a reaction to those who think that doing a Bible study or completing a series of workbooks is discipleship. However, in making relationships primary, they are going to far. This is an overreaction. Some will point to Jesus’ model of discipleship and show that Jesus’ primary means of discipling the Twelve was relational. This is true. However, we must always remember the uniqueness of Jesus. Jesus didn’t always need to do Bible studies with the disciples because He Himself is the Word, the divine Logos, the Word incarnate. Jesus was a walking Bible study. We are not. If we are to be true to Jesus’ model of discipleship then we must do what Jesus did and that is bring people into contact with Him, not with us. The way we do that is by bringing them to His Word because He is the Word. One cannot get to know Jesus apart from Scripture. Without Scripture, by that I mean the whole Bible, not just the New Testament or the Gospels, any image that one has of Jesus will always be idolatrous.
Because of this, I believe that any discipleship model that is not biblio-centric is faulty. In fact, if we are going to produce true disciples, committed Christ-followers, our discipleship must be so biblically saturated that our people bleed Bibline, that is, if you cut them Bible comes out.
In discipleship, we tend to make one of two errors, and both of these errors involve divorcing the Bible from life. One the one hand, we can divorce the Bible from life and study it as an abstract book. We can just do “pure Bible study”, dissect its meaning, analyze the text, learn a bunch of stuff, and then close the book. On the other hand, we can be “really practical”, learn all the “how to’s” of the Christian life, talk about contemporary issues, and get “real”, and not bother with the stodgy portions of the Bible or bother to learn its historic context. Neither of these will produce disciples.
However, I must admit, if I am going to err between those two options, I will go with the first one. The reason is, if people become biblically saturated, even if it is in abstraction, at least they will have the foundation to deal with the storms of life. Truth will be ingrained in their heart and soul. In the second case, when the storms come, they will not have the solid foundation of the Word to fall back on.
Still, better yet, is to teach people Scripture and help them integrate it into all of life with a biblical worldview. This is where Deuteronomy 6 provides us with a tremendous model of discipleship. In that passage, the father teaches his children the precepts of Scripture, but he does it in the context of all of life.
I believe one of the reasons that the modern church is anemic is because Christians today are biblically illiterate. They do not have a biblical worldview because most of the Bible is foreign to them. To cultivate a biblical mindset does not come from learning a few Christian principles or “how to’s”, but from being so saturated in Scripture that you see everything through its lens. This comes from a lifetime of studying God’s Word in a disciplined fashion. So, if disciplined Bible study is not happening, I don’t think real discipleship is happening. It is that essential.
The whole church's ministry is discipleship. Worship, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship, service, evangelism, mentoring, small groups, etc... All of it works together for the purpose of equipping the saints so that the Body of Christ may be built up and brought to maturity.
Still, having church programs does not automatically produce disciples. We must be intentional. Maybe later, I will write some thoughts on that. You can check out Paul Martin's blog and see his thoughts on that as well.http://blog.likeafire.net/
Our goal for UPC in general—for adults, youth, and children—is that we be both deep and wide. We want to give our people a solid, deep foundation so that they can be used by God to bring the blessings of the kingdom to a broken world and so that their faith can handle the trials of life. We want to give them real theology that will hold up in a hostile world.
We also want to produce kids and adults who are leaders in the church and the world. Twenty years from now, we want to look at the community in Central Florida and around the world and see that we have produced leaders for the church. That means they must be grounded biblically, theologically, and have their hearts anchored on Christ alone.
At the same time, we want to reach out widely. Both spiritual and numerical growth are goals of the church. So, if we are taking a few people deep but are not reaching out and bringing others into the family of God, then we are not being faithful to our mission. At the same time, if we reach out widely and do not produce true Christ followers--people who are passionate for the the glory of God, the salvation of the lost, the redeeming and restoring of a broken world, then we are not being faithful to our mission. At UPC, with both adults and kids, we want to succeed at both depth and breadth.
I believe that you cannot separate evangelism from discipleship. This is an important move we are making in our church this year. It is all part of the same process. Notice in Acts 2:41-47 that when people come to Christ, they are added to the church. That is, they are incorporated into the growing, discipling ministry of the body. Evangelism must necessarily include enfolding people into the church, the body of Christ, the community of disciples.
Yet, even though you cannot separate evangelism from discipleship, you can distinguish between the two. Evangelism is the process by which someone comes to Christ. Discipleship is the process by which someone grows in Christ.
At UPC, more evangelism is going on than most people realize. It isn’t happening through evangelism programs, but through the whole ministry of the church. Paul F. told his story on Sunday (April 30) and is a fine example of how it all works. While his story may be a bit more dramatic than some, that type of thing is happening all over the place at UPC. Unbelievers are coming to church, sharing in the community life, and then coming to Christ. In our Discovery Class each time are a number of people who were previously unchurched. We have already done a number of adult baptisms this year and I will be doing two more in a couple of weeks. We also have had a number of people join by profession of faith or reaffirmation of faith. In most of those cases, that means they were not converted before coming here. Do we need to improve in evangelism? Absolutely. It is still a weak spot, but some great things are happening here.
As far as discipleship goes, great things are happening here as well. I have three different men’s groups that I meet with each week. Two of them are for officer candidates. In all three, there are some men for whom the impact has been minimal. At the same time, in all three groups, there are men for whom there has been significant life change. With 450 people in LIFE Groups, my guess is this is happening all over the place.
The question is, what is discipleship and how do we do it? Discipleship is not Bible study. It is not going through a workbook. It is not completing a course. Discipleship is a way of life. The word disciple literally means learner. In the Ancient Near Eastern context in which Jesus lived, a disciple was one who followed a particular Rabbi. So, in the Christian context, a disciple is a Christ-follower.
At UPC, we have defined discipleship in terms of the whole person, what we have called H3—Head, Hand, Heart. A head that knows the truth (cognitive), Hands that serve and live in obedience (behavioral), and a heart that loves (emotive). We have related these three aspects of the human personality to three circles of relationship—God, church, world. We have this in chart form, but I can't figure out how to put it in a blog!
This chart gives us a good grid to evaluate if we are producing well-rounded disciples. For example, if a person has a great knowledge of Scripture, but is not using their hands to serve a broken world through evangelism and social justice, then this chart would identify that as an area for growth. Related to both the Hand and the Heart, another aspect that could be included in this is the fruit of the Spirit. Clearly, the fruit of the Spirit gives us a model of what it means to be a Christ-follower. Still, this chart gives us a good model of what a disciple is.Assuming that the above gives us a good definition of what a disciple is, the question is, how do we make disciples? What does it take to produce them? I believe that both the Bible and the history of the church are clear on this. Again, Acts 2:41-47 gives us an idealistic picture of the spirit-filled church. In this model, we see certain critical elements in disciple-making. 1) Devotion to the Word, 2) Worship, 3) Devotion to Prayer, 4) Devotion to one another, 5) the sacraments (the breaking of the bread), 6) service, and some might add 7) evangelism. Also, notice that all of this takes place in the context of the church. People didn’t just become Christians, but were “added to their number”, that is, they became part of the Christian community. In this case, becoming part of the Christian community and conversion are synonymous.
While all of these are important, I would argue for the primacy of the Word. It is the normative aspect that gives definition to all of the other elements. Prayer, fellowship, sacraments, service, and evangelism that are not Scriptural or not only bad, but harmful. All of it must be built around the Word. In Acts 2, their table-fellowship was built around a devotion to the Apostle’s teaching. They did not just get together to talk, nor did they simply share their ideas about Christianity, their fellowship and discussions were governed by the authoritative word of the Apostles.
There are some today who want to make relationships primary in discipleship. This is mostly a reaction to those who think that doing a Bible study or completing a series of workbooks is discipleship. However, in making relationships primary, they are going to far. This is an overreaction. Some will point to Jesus’ model of discipleship and show that Jesus’ primary means of discipling the Twelve was relational. This is true. However, we must always remember the uniqueness of Jesus. Jesus didn’t always need to do Bible studies with the disciples because He Himself is the Word, the divine Logos, the Word incarnate. Jesus was a walking Bible study. We are not. If we are to be true to Jesus’ model of discipleship then we must do what Jesus did and that is bring people into contact with Him, not with us. The way we do that is by bringing them to His Word because He is the Word. One cannot get to know Jesus apart from Scripture. Without Scripture, by that I mean the whole Bible, not just the New Testament or the Gospels, any image that one has of Jesus will always be idolatrous.
Because of this, I believe that any discipleship model that is not biblio-centric is faulty. In fact, if we are going to produce true disciples, committed Christ-followers, our discipleship must be so biblically saturated that our people bleed Bibline, that is, if you cut them Bible comes out.
In discipleship, we tend to make one of two errors, and both of these errors involve divorcing the Bible from life. One the one hand, we can divorce the Bible from life and study it as an abstract book. We can just do “pure Bible study”, dissect its meaning, analyze the text, learn a bunch of stuff, and then close the book. On the other hand, we can be “really practical”, learn all the “how to’s” of the Christian life, talk about contemporary issues, and get “real”, and not bother with the stodgy portions of the Bible or bother to learn its historic context. Neither of these will produce disciples.
However, I must admit, if I am going to err between those two options, I will go with the first one. The reason is, if people become biblically saturated, even if it is in abstraction, at least they will have the foundation to deal with the storms of life. Truth will be ingrained in their heart and soul. In the second case, when the storms come, they will not have the solid foundation of the Word to fall back on.
Still, better yet, is to teach people Scripture and help them integrate it into all of life with a biblical worldview. This is where Deuteronomy 6 provides us with a tremendous model of discipleship. In that passage, the father teaches his children the precepts of Scripture, but he does it in the context of all of life.
I believe one of the reasons that the modern church is anemic is because Christians today are biblically illiterate. They do not have a biblical worldview because most of the Bible is foreign to them. To cultivate a biblical mindset does not come from learning a few Christian principles or “how to’s”, but from being so saturated in Scripture that you see everything through its lens. This comes from a lifetime of studying God’s Word in a disciplined fashion. So, if disciplined Bible study is not happening, I don’t think real discipleship is happening. It is that essential.
The whole church's ministry is discipleship. Worship, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship, service, evangelism, mentoring, small groups, etc... All of it works together for the purpose of equipping the saints so that the Body of Christ may be built up and brought to maturity.
Still, having church programs does not automatically produce disciples. We must be intentional. Maybe later, I will write some thoughts on that. You can check out Paul Martin's blog and see his thoughts on that as well.http://blog.likeafire.net/
Labels: Christian Living, Ministry
posted by Mark Bates | 9:38 AM
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