Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?
In my previous post “Using Words,” Aussie John commented that a good question to ask people would be this one: “Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?”
So, I thought it would be interesting to ask that question – and a few others – here on my blog:
1) Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ, and if so, what does that mean to you?
2) Do you disciple others? How?
3) Are you being discipled? How?
4) Tell us about the other disciples that you meet with regularly.
I notice that nobody has commented on this post and its very relevant questions. It is a lot easier to talk/blog about discipleship, but few of us are actually engaged in doing what Jesus said to do.
My answers to these questions…
1) I try to be. Sometimes I am better at it than other times. To me being a disciple of Jesus is obeying and living out his commands in a loving relationship.
2) Yes. We try to be in either a formal or informal discipling relationship with someone at all times. Formal in the sense that we actively seek to meet with someone whom we are discipling, and informally with the intent of seeking to build up another person on a consistent basis.
3-4) Yes, I am being discipled by two other guys, whom I too am discipling. We meet weekly for accountability and to share with one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, and teach one another.
Guy,
Thanks for the comment. I was disappointed that more people didn’t comment also. I suppose that I should answer my own questions. 🙂
1) I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, I’m not a very good disciple…
2) Yes, I disciple others, through getting together both formally and informally, planned and spontaneous. I’m trying to learn to let any encounter with other people be a discipling opportunity.
3) Yes, I am being discipled, often by the same people who I am discipling. I’ve found that I’m helped most by those who share my life the closest.
4) My family gathers together weekly with a great group of believers. We often get together with these same people throughout the week. We are learning together how to help one another grow in maturity. Also, I often have opportunities to meet with other believers from time to time.
-Alan
1. I am a disciple of Jesus. While having had a long and diverse ecclesiastical journey, I have always had a strong one on one relationship with Christ. I haven’t always “followed hard” after Jesus, but I have sold all that I have and by faith have literally left all to follow him. I am no better at being a disciple than others, but I am in a situation which leaves me little choice but to be a disciple and its a blessed place to be.
2. My life’s purpose is Making Disciples. I have at least 11 people right now that I have disciple making relationships with and many more that have been “released” to make disciples. My goal is both make disciples and disciple makers in formal and informal situations. I need to find a way to tone it down a bit and work with a smaller group because it is becoming very difficult to be discipling this many folks.
3. I would say that there are those that council with me, those that provide me an arena of accountability, and are there to pray for and with me when needed, but no one who really disciples me. Without sounding arrogant, It has been difficult for me to find someone who can keep up with me or provide an example that exceeds my own. It may sound prideful, but its a sad truth. I would love to meet that person and be challenged in that way.
4. I have mentoring relationships where I teach skills (computer or other) and in the midsts disciple them. I have a weekly discipleship group of 9 – 20 people where I teach “theory” of discipleship with weekly practicum assignments. I also have many personal relationships that are disciple making friendships. I am a missionary, so I get to focus on all this, all the time. I also work with folks (join in on what they normally do) and develop disciple making relationships that way.
Would love feedback on anything I have said as well. Peace and Blessings
I am so blessed and excited that God has facilitated this connection with this disciple-making network! You all are being used to take me to the next level of my “assignment” in the Kingdom of God, and I’m soaking it up!
Here are my responses to the great questions that you raised. I apologize for the length. I’m afraid I write like I talk — at length.
1) I am a disciple of Jesus. I am a learner; with the focused intention that my learning will be used of the Holy Spirit to transform me to the image of Christ in character, actions and fruit. I love the Lord. I love learning of Him and in Him; I love witnessing my own growth, and I get tremendously excited and ever more highly motivated to learn even more when He takes me to new depths and/or uses me to accomplish something that I know is of the Kingdom.
2) Yes, I disciple others. My calling and my passion is teaching; and I am blessed to have multiple platforms from which to minister. The most exciting for me right now is a fairly new venture, teaching from the curriculum of the Global School of Ministry, which is an awesome and continuously expnding curriculum that the Lord introduced me to through facebook! For many years, I was the Christian Education director at my church; but the principles and priorities of the Kingdom and the true Church extend beyond the articles of faith of the denomination from which I was operating, and as of this year, I stepped down to focus on reaching a broader audience. The group of 20-30 people that I now lead in study each week comes from about 5 different churches; and we’re hosted, by the grace of God, by a wonderful non-denominational church that recognizes and welcomes the vision under which we’re operating. We have a vision to establish multiple study groups across the city, and to be used of the Lord as an agent of restoration, reform and revival of the Church.
By the grace of God, I also host a couple of facebook groups, and I’m humbled and excited to have been asked to share administration privileges with a few more. I’m working to find the most effective way to manage my time and to leverage the power of these awesome online opportunities.
Finally, I pray that my friendships and work relationships are discipling relationships. I assertively try to be aware of where people are in the maturity of their relationship with the Lord, and use our interactions on whatever level, to advance that relationship. In environments such as my workplace, where it’s not always appropriate to be explicit with my witness (I’m a human resources executive) I try to carry myself with integrity and make conversational references that communicate the fact that I maintain a biblical world view. Often, those “hints” lead to deeper conversations that then extend outside the workplace, where I can be more explicit.
3) I am being discipled by a mentor who is an amazing vessel of God. At the risk of sounding like a teen-aged “groupie,” I have never met the likes of this man of God! Totally yielded to the will of God, of scrupulous integrity in his representation of the person and character of Christ, and profoundly used in training and equipping to activate and release the Kingdom potential of every believer.
Until the Lord facilitated this relationship, I “gleaned” from many; but was not being discipled by any because, without meaning to sound prideful or arrogant, everyone else that put themselves forward as a potential mentor or discipler was either woefully short in the integrity or maturity of their own relationship with the Lord, or they had some level of personal agenda operating alongside their so-called ministry agenda. It is SO exciting and it resonates so deeply to feel that I’m learning and growing in single-mindedness of purpose to advance the Kingdom of God and prepare the Church for the soon return of Christ!
4) I have two sisters in Christ who are “over the top” believers like me, and the 3 of us are of particular support and encouragement for one another, personally and in our respective ministries. Frankly, almost nobody else “gets us;” so others engage with us only so far. Of the 3 of us, I’m probably the lead discipler, though we’re accountability partners to each other. There’s another circle of believers just outside our “inner” circle, where iron also sharpens iron. None of us meet with any particular frequency; though I’m in contact with my core group at some point, or multiple points, throughout most days.
I have online and telephone discipleship conversations with my mentor — sometimes one-on-one; most often as part of a small group of mentees. He’s in another country. He ministers here in the States about 3 times a year, and I had the privilege of organizing a 2-day meeting in my city at which he taught. I also had the awesome privilege of some profound small group and one-on-one instruction at that time.
He also regularly (as in, almost every day) releases new teaching material that I study myself, edit for him, and assist in distributing further (e.g., posting to other sites; re-formatting for other uses, etc., etc.)
Other than that, I glean; including from OUTSTANDING resources such as this site!
My key challenge is time and prioritization! There is so much to learn, so much rich Truth being revealed in these last days, so much to share, so many people hungry for meat, so many people yet to reach! The depth of calling and the sense of urgency in my spirit is SO intense; and I am simultaneously catapulted and compelled to action, yet at times overwhelmed and paralyzed by the blinding light of the pillar of glorious fire that leads in the night of these last days. It’s just amazing…
At any rate, thank you for the work that you do, thank you for having asked the questions that you did, and thank you for the opportunity to share.
In Him,
Sondra
Miguel and Sondra,
Thanks for your comments!
-Alan
1) Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ, and if so, what does that mean to you?
Yes, I am a disciple of Jesus for the past fifty seven years. Over forty of those years served with an International Para-Church ministry, Minister of Discipleship on a church staff, and now President-Founder of a church consulting organization specializing in personal disciple making. This ministry has been a very high privilege and the past few years of focused ministry related to personal disciple making has been the most rewarding of my life. I cannot believe I get to get up each day and be involved in full time disicple making.
2) Do you disciple others? How?
Yes, I have focused on personal disciple making for the past seven years and have had a personal disciple making relationship with over twenty five men. We use a transferable curriculum, developed with my bother who is a pastor, called Natural Evangelism and Discipleship. It is a relationally driven, transferable, curriculum designed to speak to a post modern generation through creating a dialogue around scripture and training those we disciple in how to feed themselves on God’s Word. Our distinctive as a ministry is a commitment to each person we disciple to help them reproduce to the fourth generation. This later development has required me to focus on three, inner circle, men and then be available to others as time permits for them and me. I include these men in natural, relational, disciple making opportunities by including them in ministry I am involve in with churches, participating in their ministry, and planned social times. Several of these men have reproduced to the fourth generation. We also host a Personal Discipleship Fast Track Seminar for church leadership designed to help churches begin a movement of personal disciple making. One church with 450 average attendance now has 160 members involved in personal disciple making. To God be the glory.
3) Are you being discipled? How?
I have been discipled by several men at various seasons of my life. The president of the para church organization of which I was a staff member had a radical impact on my life through his writing. I also enjoy a reciprical disciple making relationship with those I disciple.
4) Tell us about the other disciples that you meet with regularly.
The three primary disciples are board members of our ministry and I am currently involved in a longer term disciple making relationship with most of the twenty five men I have discipled. Our disciple making ministry also hosts a quarterly breakfast, called FOCUS, for seventy plus people involved in disciple making, where we encourage relationship building and focus on topical training related to personal discipleship.
Thanks, Alan, for your writing and passionate commitment to disciple making.
Geoffrey Harris
Geoffrey,
Thanks for your comment!
-Alan
1) Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ, and if so, what does that mean to you?
To yield myself and follow by being obedient to the leading of Christ throughout each day (24/7) – i.e. Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence style. To read or hear (I’m an audio learner) the scripture frequently (John 8:31) especially the gospels, and allow it to influence me. To practice the commands of Christ and particularly the Great Commission, in all my interactions with people, as best I can.
2) Do you disciple others? How?
I’ve worked out a system through my DMin project (cell church, Neil Cole, CPM) which I teach in a variety of ministry contexts including my local church, the Emmaus community where I am CSD, district lay speaker training, my online class (www.beadisciple.com), now sharing on Facebook, and through my website and books that I am writing and self-publishing (www.disciplewalk.com). All of these activities are fishing ponds (container communities) to troll for people who are ready to be discipled. I’m sowing my system as leaven into as many social systems as I can and it is mutating as it spreads, usually by contextual hybridization.
3) Are you being discipled? How?
I’m basically mentored by authors of books – which is one type of mentor according to Bobby Clinton.
I encourage (sideways mutual mentoring) a large number of colleagues through the activities mentioned above, which often involve disciple making and related topics.
4) Tell us about the other disciples that you meet with regularly.
I informally inform a large number of people through the conversations described above. I formally train about 12-18 disciple makers a year through my online class (the really active ones – about 60 people take the course each year) who go on to adapt and use my ideas in their own way in their ministry contexts. I’m in equipping/supervisory relationships with 12 people who are or are becoming disciple makers; I meet with 9 of them on a weekly basis. So a very large number of people are influenced on a weekly basis in an apostolic manner, but the influence varies significantly in depth.