Pros And Cons Of Discipleship

Living life as a Christian, in many ways is difficult in that there is always a war being fought by the enemy for your faith. Dickson insists that, “there are clear New Testament passages urging us all to speak up for Christ when we can” (Dickson, 101). Christians are called to a life of spreading the gospel to all mankind and nations. Dickson urges that the gospel is the announcement of our King coming to make all things new again. Christian’s are called by Jesus Himself to spread this news and work of God’s anointed King and messiah Jesus! The main nugget Christians should take from this is how everyone is not an evangelists, however, Christians are clearly called to proclaim Christ from our lips as well as

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.

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

grown strong in the Lord. These are reliable disciples who are qualified to teach others.14 2

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

Today, as I attend school with the major heading as “Missions,” I hear a lot of talk about different methods in creating disciples. However, “Paul’s modus operandi for training was time on task” (pp. 59). In other words, disciples were made through time spent rather than strictly content. It sounds like relationship was a key aspect. Paul also focused on transferring these converts into true believers. It seems a lot in churches today, individuals are more focused on content rather than time. Therefore, they spend more time in the church “learning” than spending time with those that need “discipled.” With that, people in the church tend to “convert” others or brag about increased attendance, but have no plan to turn these individuals into true believers.

So discipleship can be summed up; to follow, to learn, to preach, to believe, to serve. All factors are

Nearly two decades later, I started to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It would start with a simple but powerful statement, “We are called to make disciples, not members.” That statement would lead me to reflect on and seek out a better understanding of what it meant to be a disciple. That, in turn, led me to study and reflect on the concept of servanthood. I realized that developing a more personal and authentic relationship with Christ required more than just attending worship, working in the church and simply believing in Him. I realized that living a Christ-like life required a different way of thinking, a different way of living.

21). I agree, it is vital that the disciple is involved in an intentional, ongoing plan that challenges themselves to greater Christ-likeness which manifests itself in the nurturing of others toward wholeness. This is what we are called to do when we become children of God. Christian Spiritual formation cannot happen in solitude; therefore, the purpose of spiritual formation is to ultimately lived out in community. This aligns with my view of personal and corporate spiritual formation. If we are not conformed to the image of Christ, we cannot incarnate in our relationships with others. Therefore, if we say we love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit we are to love others. The image of Christ will be seen as the ultimate reality of human wholeness, the consummation for which each heart longs (Mullholland, p. 21). Therefore, God’s people has a role in healing brokenness and injustice in the world (p. 21). We are to be the salt and light of the world (Matthew

We as Christians do not grasp that the principles of discipleship are lifelong commitments. We fail to understand that discipleship, obeying Christ constantly, is a never ending journey. There are two key ingredients to becoming, and making effective disciples for Christ. We must be in His word daily, and bring our sins out of the darkness of secrecy. Discipleship is not something that we do, and finish; it is a climb with God one step at a

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.

While the goal of Christian education and discipleship is spiritual formation of the new believer into a true disciple who makes other true disciples, this concept has been watered down in the American church today by emphasis on programs instead of progressive spiritual growth in every member’s life. There are many

Jesus told the disciples that if they call him Lord they must do what he commands (Matthew 7:22). To be a disciple of Christ, we must submit to Jesus and trust that He is our Lord and Savior. We must have faith in Him and look to Him as our guide. Disciples of Christ should obey Jesus because God is not a man, but a sovereign God who has every right to command His disciples. Christ is not just a sovereign God, but also a saving God who suffered on a cross so that humans could receive salvation. Disciples of Christ who are saved by grace are not their own, but bought with a price that Jesus paid on the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The disciples are called blessed because they have obeyed the call of Jesus.2 To be a disciple of Christ, we must

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.

Discipleship: The belief that all have sinned and fall short and everyone needs redemption from sin. Therefore the discipleship call to conversion is central as