DISCIPLE MAKING IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
A Written Assignment 3
Cynthia Taylor
DSMN 500- B10
September, 2014
SUMMARY
According to Early & Dempsey, “a disciple is a person, while discipleship is a process. A disciple is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ who is intimately involved in the mission of Christ. On the other hand, discipleship is the process of moving the disciple towards spiritual maturity and the mission of Christ. Being a disciple is God’s perfect will for every individual life; however, discipleship is God’s will for every individual church” [1]
The Great Commission denotes that disciples must be made. Many worship opportunities have been provided by the church such as fellowship, bible study and church events that will aid in developing the mind-set of Christ, being obedient to the commands of Christ, engaging in his commission and being transformed into His image. According to Jesus disciples need to be made and informed.
How disciple are made? According to Disciple Shift, pastor and author Jim Putman describes diverse stages of spiritual growth with simplicity. In defining these five spiritual growth stages he informs the reader of their beliefs and how the local church and a Christian community should implement a plan to help individuals to maturity in reaching these stages: spiritually dead, spiritual infants, spiritual children, spiritual young adults, and spiritual parents.
Spiritually dead the first stage comprising of sinners, unsaved
It is very easy for people to read a book, even the Bible, and decide that they need to make changes in their life. Quite frankly, the concept of Great Commission worship really ties some loose ends together for me. The authors did an exceptional job of presenting the material as well as showing how the linear approach to worship “… does not create biblical worshippers with a desire to make disciples.”3
Discipleship is about engaging in the Word, following and obeying Jesus and going out to make disciples. An essential element in being a disciple is to be open to learning, to be teachable. It is a mindset to be continuously adopted and cultivated. For us to disciple others, we must be a better disciple ourselves. When making disciples, we are instructing others to be willing to be a discoverer. It applies to both spiritual growth as well as personal development, openness to new techniques, ideas and methods in all aspects of life. Our spiritual learning comes from delving into His
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Small group environments help every part grow into their right place in the body. “Discipleship is about providing a means by which we begin to shepherd people in the direction of maturity.” It requires effort and intentionality to help people grow, discover their gifts and use them for the health of the body.
A second way is when someone starts the process of becoming a disciple or being a disciple, such as in Matthew 27:57 or Luke 14:26-27. Lastly, there are those who are referred to as disciples that only occasionally followed Jesus, such as those in Matthew 8:21. Samra summarizes discipleship succinctly by saying that it is the “process of becoming like Christ.”
Disciples are true followers of Jesus Christ to share and spread the message of the almighty God. We don’t just get point out by fingers on who is going to be the disciples however, it’s someone’s faith, courage and devotion that what matters. I’ll say that being a disciple is hard and challenging because you have to be committed and devoted your life and understand the word of God. Jesus often stated that his goal was to teach his disciples about his father. Anyway, in order for us to understand God’s message we have to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Although there are two types of followers, casual followers and committed followers and they both can be found here in Pohnpei. I mention the complains above. Here in Pohnpei I mostly heard
At 15, the best of those best students would continue to the next level of education while the rest began to learn their family’s trade. These best of the best students would go to a Rabbi and apply to become one of his disciples. And the Rabbi would choose the best of the best of the best, ones he thought might be able to follow him. Being a disciple involved more than “head” knowledge; they sought to become like the Rabbi. They wanted to do what the Rabbi did.
The Nature of Discipleship According to Mark's Gospel Discipleship is usually thought of as following Jesus, being a preacher and a teacher. Somebody who believes in something, or who believes in someone, and leaves everything behind them to try to make others believe the same is my personal belief of a disciple. In actual fact, the Old Testament word 'Talmid' is a 'learner', and more obviously in the New Testament, a 'Diskipolos' is a 'follower'. The other important area of discipleship is serving others. When a disciple is healing a person, they are serving them, as he serving Jesus and God.
Over the years, many models have been developed and implemented to endeavor to make disciples. Some of the models have been effective and others have not. Among some of the most biblical and efficient models are the ones that involve small groups. Within the small groups models, they can be broken down into further detail, such as pastoral involvement, the church’s goal, missions mindedness, etc. In this paper, I will explain my philosophy of small groups in a church and the importance of the relational group in authentic disciple making. I will also explain how missional groups can help the body of Christ move out into the community. Finally, I will summarize my status in regards to living in community with other believers and being missional with that community.
Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim
The question may be asked, “what is the essence of being a Great Commission Worshipper?” David Wheeler and Vernon Whaley provides subtle element of what the significance is to being a Great Commission Worshipper – a man absolutely and similarly dedicated to evangelism and worship – and an otherworldly procedure that is formational, transformational, social, missional, and reproducible. The postulation/thesis of the book is outlined in section two when the writers doubtlessly express "
Now that the steps of discipleship have been explained, here are some characteristics that should be evident in the life of someone who has been discipled. Let’s call him “disciple Dave.” Dave is someone who is Gospel focused. Dave loves the Lord more than he loves himself, and he understands the core truths of the gospel and can explain these truths to others. He does not necessarily know all the finer points of theology, but he understands the gospel in a ways that impacts his life. Dave is a good steward of his time, and he uses it wisely by involving himself in his community. Dave’s friendships with Christians are intentional, and he works to bring them closer to Christ. His relationships with non-Christians are intentional, and he models
The church is in need of major renovation when it comes to making disciples. The concept of making disciples to follow the Lord Jesus Christ seems completely foreign to the church today. In order to achieve the desired goal of making disciples for Christ, training others to go out and proclaim gospel, and helping others to train people to disciple one another, one needs to go back to foundation of the Word of God. It is in God’s Word where multiple examples are found of how to make disciples to follow Jesus Christ. It is my desire to see more people in the church have a passion for discipleship. Therefore, this paper will examine in detail how to make disciples in a ministry context. This will be accomplished by examining the 5 V’s of discipleship—vision, values, views, vehicles, and verifiers. It is my purpose to examine each area in order to have a detailed plan of discipleship that will be used in my own ministry context to make disciples for Christ. I hope that this plan can and will be used to train others in the church to make disciples, and disciple one another, for the glory of God.
This five-step process begins by creating a definition for what it is we are addressing as disciples. It’s important to ask the question “what is…” because it helps us distinguish from other topics that are closely related. For example, if we are talking about what discipline is, we would want to distinguish if we are speaking about the punishment of a child, the act of training in a habitual manner, or a branch of knowledge. Our world is a very complicated, intricate, and interwoven place. Though people often want things to be straightforward, they’re not always that simple. It’s important to define exactly what we’re talking about in order to understand the topic as clearly as possible.
Leaders are appointed to serve here on earth on behalf of Christ since Christ is the good and chief shepherd. Leaders should lead the believers based on how Christ related with the church when he was on earth[5]. Shepherds had to feed the people of God and to protect them from predators[6]. Churches today ought to do things how the New Testament churches did[7].
According to Willard, a disciple is "someone who has decided to be with another person, under appropriate conditions, in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become what that person is."(282) A disciple of Jesus is learning to be like Jesus, giving up the will of self to the will of Jesus. Just as Jesus surrendered His will to the will of the Father. To be like Jesus, a person must do to Jesus in Luke 9:23, "he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." In other words, a person must completely dedicate themselves to Jesus and be obedient and trust God 's plan for their life. God says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." God is our ultimate source. He knows what it takes to form a person 's character as being Christlike and developing them as a disciple, just as He did the Twelve.