Sometimes I read books, articles, or posts that need to be shared. Kandi Gallaty (Robby’s wife) wrote a great blog post on LifeWay Women. I want to encourage you to read her entire post at What Is Discipleship? The following five paragraphs launch her post. Let them whet your appetite to finish the entire post.
“Discipleship seems to be the topic of most conversations and conferences these days, which is fantastic! My husband and I have been passionate about making disciples for over a decade, and it brings us great joy to see so much discussion happening in the church today. Most believers have a genuine desire to participate in the Great Commission; however they aren’t really sure what to do and where to start. I hope this article will be helpful to you, no matter what stage of life you are in, as you pray about what God is calling you to do in the area of discipling.
Often, if we don’t know what to do, we do nothing at all. My husband calls this “paralysis by analysis.” We may see the problem, but if we don’t know how to practically solve it, we avoid it.
For many years we have thought discipleship is just learning as much information that we can about Jesus. Filling our heads with knowledge about Him. While growing in our knowledge of Jesus is certainly part of discipleship, it’s not all of it. Many of us are good at articulating and sharing the gospel, but we’re not good at sharing our lives. Yes, we learn information but if we never pass that on we merely become a gospel consumer and not a coworker. The truth is that the gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else.
We live in a society where we were taught that the pastors and elders of the church do all the ministry instead of equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Looking at Jesus as our example, we don’t see Him constantly inviting everyone to the synagogues to hear the Rabbi preach or teach that weekend; we see Him being the guide to a group of disciples on a daily basis and living life with them. He was teaching the disciples to follow after Him as He followed after God. That is discipleship.
Looking at Jesus as our model for the method of making disciples, we see that He was intentional in how He led them. He was always teaching them His Word. He taught them how to minister to others. He let them assist Him in doing the work of ministry until they were ready to be sent out to do ministry on their own. They weren’t “assisting” Him anymore; they were on the front lines themselves! Imagine the conversations that took place when they all returned and shared what God had done on their trips! Discipleship changes the “come and see” mentality to a “go and tell” one. True discipleship teaches you to live out your faith….”
Read Kandi’s entire post at What Is Discipleship? For more ideas about discipleship, check out these posts:
- Disciple-Making Strategy Questions
- New Year’s Personal Discipleship Questions
- Disciple-Making: Where to Start
- Scripture Memorization and Disciple-Making
- Discipleship and Relational Prayer
- Disciple-Making Goals for the Year Ahead
- Materials for One-on-One Disciple-Making
- Discipleship Through Church Ministry and Programs