Who Discipled You? Who are you Discipling?

Pose this question in a room full of believers, and the place will look confused.  Have you been discipled?  Have you discipled someone?

Discipleship – the Method of Jesus, is a part of two-fold legacy Jesus left to build the Kingdom of God: Message + Method.  One does not work without the other.  Yet, Christianity claims the Message without the Method......and then people wonder why it does not work.

Leonard Sweet shares results of an extensive study of major denominations, which points out that “the journey from milk to meat didn’t come from superb preaching, compelling worship, well-organized small groups, or even church benevolent service of needs – but from intentional disciple making.

The Sabbath School original intent, (as it was in the Sunday School which preceded it J), was intentional disciple making through adult Christian education.  The current “nod-to-God” model of showing up for an hour to hear religious performance does not school people into being followers of Jesus.  Discipleship is about becoming a follower of Christ, and it is not taught, but modeled.

So, have you been disciple?  Has anyone invested time and modeled Christ to you? If not, you may be wondering where to begin, and how can you become a follower of Jesus.  The answer is simple – be with Jesus in your own daily life, and be “Jesus” in lives of others.

There is no substitute to the “follow-me-as-I-follow-Christ” mentoring lifestyle (1^st Corinthians 11:1).  It is time consuming, tedious, frustrating, painful, scary! But, it’s not about making money – it’s about making people for God’s Kingdom.  Time and relationships are the main investment.

If you are not discipling you are not following Jesus!  Jesus’ disciples/followers do what Jesus did – they disciple others.  Church growth, the Kingdom of God growth is not a matter of money, business strategies, tricks, complicated plans – it is a matter of individual following Jesus and in the process discipling others.

Consider where You stand in this journey of following Jesus, discipling people.  Chose today to be a discipling disciple.