After having been blessed to sit at the feet of some amazing disciple makers over the last several years, here is a quick list of some things that I have learned that I would like to pass on to you.
1 – Your approach must be simple. Complicated won’t stick.
2 – Your approach should be influenced by Jesus. He did it best.
3 – You must get people in the Word to understand the Word, live the Word, and share the Word.
4 – Paul said it aptly in 1 Cor 11:1 – “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” People will watch you to see what you do. Make sure you are following Jesus and modeling what it looks like when you mess up and reconcile things.
5 – Reproducibility is important. We know this because it was important to Jesus and the early church. If those you disciple aren’t making disciples, you will want to examine that.
6 – People won’t go beyond where you are at in your walk. So keep growing. Your growth can limit the growth of others.
7 – They aren’t your disciples, they are Jesus’ disciples…you are just pointing people to Him (much like John the Baptist).
8 – It requires community. Life-on-life relational discipleship. Disciples aren’t made in isolation.
9 – The Holy Spirit’s role is crucial.
10 – You really cannot pray enough.
What would you add to the list if you were writing it?
Bonus – any level of accountability you implement must be mutual/reciprocal rather than hierarchical/uni-directional.
3 Responses
Where is God in all of this, Matt? Yes, Paul speaks of imitating Christ – but even more, of imitating God (Ephesians 4, 5)
He speaks of the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians – restoring our relationship through Christ. “We” seem to leave God out of our relationship journey, and place our “all” in the relationship with Christ.
Imitating Christ MUST lead to a restored relationship with the Father, so that we, too, may become one with the Father, as He is one with the Father. Our oneness seems to be limited in our language, spoken and written, with Jesus.
This is a list of some of the things that I have learned that I would like to pass along. It seems your list would include various other items, all of which I am sure would be helpful. This list has no claim on being all inclusive.
I would add that someone who is discipling another must practice patience. People who are new to Christ don’t remove every obstacle at once. They will screw up, fail God, and continue to feed some addictions. A discipler must allow for knucklehead behavior, because in truth we are all knuckleheads from time to tune. Those are teachable will grow. It takes time, so practice patience.