Discipleship is all the rave in the church these days. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of books on the topic. But which one of them is the right one? Which one of them is the proper way to go about making disciples and following the famous line from Jesus and make disciples of all nations? The simple answer…none of them is the way to do it.
As a matter of fact there are probably countless ways to go about the process of making disciples. We know that Jesus gives some guidelines. He tells us that we do this by baptizing and teaching obedience but the methods are pretty much up to the individuals and the relationship. The key is the relationship, at least in my experience you can’t rightly make a disciple if you don’t have some sort of relationship with that person first.
A friend of mine recently published a book on discipleship called The Ways of the Alongsider: Growing Disciples Life2Life. Over the next several weeks we’ll take a look at some key concepts from this book. The difference between this book and many others is that this book focuses on me as a disciple before it focuses on making disciples.
The principle of the book is that we’ve put the role of disciple maker into the hands of the professionals in the church. We’ve, for some reason or another, made it look like discipleship is only properly done by pastors and teachers. Bill starts the book off with the idea of amateurs. We often think of an amateur as a novice at a task, someone who isn’t really all that good because they don’t have the practice or training. But this really isn’t what the word is about. Actually the word amateur, when properly defined, points us back to its Latin roots where it carried the meaning of lover. This means that an amateur disciple maker is one who loves Jesus and loves others and is willing to embark on this endeavor without compensation and often without large amounts of training. The point here is that you and I can be people who follow Jesus’ command and make disciples in our everyday lives, in the places where we live, work and play.
The best way to see an alongsider type of amateur is to see two friends meeting over an open Bible, sharing their lives together, and helping one another follow Jesus. It’s that easy! No specialized training needed. We don’t need another class or another seminar. We just need two relationships. First we need a personal relationship with Jesus. Second, we need a relationship with someone else. That’s it!
Over the next several weeks we’ll break down both of those needs. We’ll talk about what we see when we say the word disciple. We’ll rid ourselves of the unhealthy images that time and tradition have engrained into our minds about what a disciple looks like. We’ll take time to build new images of disciples. We’ll challenge ourselves with a new understanding of being a follower of Jesus. Then we’ll take time to look at the people around us to determine who God might be calling us to come alongside for the purpose of discipleship.
For now, think about your relationship with Jesus. List the things you know about his working with his disciples. Remember that Jesus’ work with his disciples dealt with daily life. How is Jesus at work in your daily life? What’s he up to in your life today? Write it down. Share it with your spouse or a friend. The come back next Wednesday as we put some of the framework up around this new image of discipleship.
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