Spheres and Stages of Discipleship

Rediscovering Discipleship emphases the importance of both evangelism and discipleship. While the two are different and distinct, both are crucial aspects to building the church. Gallaty gives helpful tips and insight on what discipleship looks like and how to cultivate discipleship groups in a church setting. The three most important things that I took away from this book are the following: thinking Hebraically, encouraging new believers to engage in ministry, and how to cultivate a healthy discipleship group.

Within the book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman, the author discusses why young Christians are leaving the church and rethinking faith. He gives us an overview of the trends within the mosaic generation. Through this overview, we as student ministers can better understand the generation in which we are ministering to. With this understanding, we can reach these students and bring them back to their home, that is the Church. In this report, I will discuss the book by chapter and finish with my reflection.

Dr. Ron Crandall holds a doctoral degree in Pastoral Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He retired in 2008 from Ashbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where he was a professor of evangelism and practical theology. He has served as an Elder in the United Methodist Church and is now the Executive Director of ABIDE. ABIDE the program that he helped come up with to revitalize churches. Crandall has researched and written in the areas of evangelism, leadership, and church growth. He is best known for WITNESS: Learning to Share Your Christian Faith, and Turnaround And Beyond: A Hopeful Future for Small Membership Churches.

Earley & Gutierrez (2010) “Ministry Is…How to Serve Jesus with Passion and Confidence” (Nashville: Broadman & Holman).

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

2 – Disciple-Making – Discipleship is the “critical, perhaps even the central, element of mDNA in Apostolic Genius…” (page 113) He ties true discipleship to developing Christ-like character.

Thompson presents a very convicting treatise on the significance of relationships in the Christian witness. This book causes the reader to examine their own relationships, as well as their lifestyle, in order to evaluate the degree of the reflection of Christ in their incarnational witness. Through his systematic process of self-examination and relational observation, combined with intercessory prayer and discipleship ministry, Thompson offers a simple, yet profound method of using personal relationships to share the gospel of Christ with family, friends, coworkers, and complete strangers. He expounds on the principle that mankind is a relational being, created to fellowship with God and other humans, to develop his approach to personal evangelism and, equally important, follow-up

Discipleship students, or those who already have a faith commitment, tend to immediately join one of two categories. The first, or Stagnant, students are those who “made a decision to follow Christ at some time in life but never really grew in faith.” These students, from the outside, look very similar to the world as “the distinction between churched and unchurched students is rapidly shrinking.” These students require time to draw them into a

There are many well-meaning, devout, knowledgeable Christians who well never intentionally build even one world-impacting, world visionary, reproducing disciple. This is because they will never seriously pursue a systematic curriculum designed for the purpose of discipling another to his ultimate destination (Hodges, p117). This need is not reserved for pastors, as evidenced by the writings of Luke. Luke was a layman, a busy doctor with his hectic schedule. Yet, he made

If you follow these steps, it will lead to an infinite number of disciples because the process will keep multiplying and expanding. Expanding on the previous equation, we are called to be intentional leaders. Putman believes that it is the pastor’s job to be intentional and then equip others to be disciple makers as

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19 NASB). In this scripture we see the resurrected Christ, who, according to Rom 1:4, “was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness,” issued this command. Christ is God; he is the Son of God; and as such, he possesses all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, in light of the fact that Christ is God and has all authority, he is able to commission his church. Christ commanded his church to go and make disciples. Wilder states, “the main verb in the text is the aorist imperative μαθητεύσατε “make disciples.” Aorist imperatives, in general, convey a sense of urgency and immediacy of action.” The Great Commission involves sharing the gospel, and making disciples. A disciple is a follower of Christ. A disciple is a learner and someone who seeks to spread the gospel and its teachings to

This sphere is concerning the relationship at home with the husband as the head of the family. The husband and the wife rise the children together teaching them in the ways of the Lord. This sphere is important, because the family is an example of what a Christian family look like. The husband and wife is responsible for handing down ways of the Lord, this is culture and how a Christian family should

The New Testament leaders are an example of how church leaders of today should also behave and work[8]. They ought to be able to teach, guide the believers in the way of God and nurture their spiritual gifts. The New Testament leaders had to boldly defend the word of God in case of any false teaching. Basing on this New Testament leadership, it is important to make sure that any believer appointed to the leadership office has the laid down qualifications[9].

Jesus gave us the Great Commission, and it was not a command He left open for discussion.