Thoughts on Discipleship

image from here

Between our recent men's retreat (summary here), the passing of Tim Keller (highly recommend The Prodigal God and his other titles), a men's ministry cohort I have been attending, and this Carey Nieuwhof article, discipleship has been on my mind a lot recently. This post has some thoughts on the topic.

Generically, a disciple is "a follower or student of a teacher, leader, or philosopher." (from Google/Oxford). Jesus had many disciples; the word occurs 261 times in Scripture- 260 of those are in the new testament, all in the gospels and Acts. (Overall, 89% of occurrences are in the gospels.) His final command to his disciples was to make disciples, per Matthew 28:18-20:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The disciples do just that, as we see in Acts and the rest of the New Testament. They lead the early church and produce followers who will continue after they are gone. We see from this that the disciples in Scripture are not just ones who follow but also ones who in turn have followers. Much is entrusted to, and thus required of, those who follow Jesus (Luke 12:48).

One goal of discipleship is maturity, growing by following those who are mature in various respects. 

From the Carey Nieuwhof article linked above:

Discipleship is the refining process by which a Christian becomes more like Jesus in their day-to-day life. We “make disciples” by encouraging other people follow Jesus’s example set forth in Scripture.

How do we do this? Nieuwhof continues and addresses and common misconception (italics mine):

The way many leaders approach maturity is to assume that knowledge produces maturity. Since when? It’s wonderful that people understand what they believe, but knowledge in and of itself is not a hallmark of Christian maturity. As Paul says, knowledge puffs up. Love, by contrast, builds up. And some of the most Biblically literate people in Jesus’ day were passed over when Jesus was selecting his disciples.
The goal is not to know, but to do something with what you know.

His article goes on to lay out what he argues are seven truths about discipleship, based on the Bible. I encourage you to read his thoughts on the matter.

In one-on-one discipleship, it is generally the more mature Christian helping others by their life and example. That involves relationship, 'messiness,' failure, and so on, as the Nieuwhof article discusses. What about in community? 

When we think of discipleship in the wider church, I would argue that discipling is not necessarily a 'top-down' approach, where we look to a core few believers to lead us all, but more of a community where we each exercise our gifts for the common good, following (and being followed by) each other in so doing. This is based on Ephesians 4: (Ephesians 4:1-3, 7, 11-16, emphases mine)

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace . . . But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift . . . And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

We all have gifts, intended to build each other up and mature us so that we grow into Christ. That means we are discipling each other! It is humbling when we think of these verses, especially as 'when each part is working properly' appears to set a condition: if one or more parts is not working properly, our collective growth is stunted. So discipleship is, in part, not just using our gifts to build up one another but also encouraging others to use their gifts, so that we are all benefiting and growing as we ought.

These are just some introductory thoughts; I appreciate any resources, recommendations, or revisions you have.