Category: discipleship

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discipleship

Interview on Discipleship with Eric Geiger

My friend Eric Geiger interviewed me on his blog on the topic of discipleship recently.  Below is an excerpt:

Discipleship is meeting someone where they are, and taking them where Jesus wants them to go.

This definition has served for me as a fundamental axiom in discipleship, in leadership development, and in organizational leadership. The two essential components that are at the core of my philosophy are the understanding of the individual, and the biblical vision for a life lived under the lordship of Christ. Discipleship is simultaneously intensely personal and thoroughly biblical.

You can read the rest of it here.

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discipleship personal

Being a Disciple

The 2013 Verge Conference was themed around Discipleship, and has given me plenty to think about.

As my family has grown and our church has continued to grow, my time is increasingly spoken for. It seems like there is always a person or a task that needs immediate attention.

I’ve been convicted about the necessity of being a faithful husband to Olivia, father to my children, elder of The Austin Stone, and missionary in my neighborhood.  It’s overwhelming just to list those things out!

The good news of the gospel for me is that Jesus has already accomplished the work of my salvation, and has empowered me with the Word of God and the Spirit. I can be faithful to all of those things through Him.

My first calling, before all those responsibilities, is to be a disciple. Only out of my affection for Christ, study of God’s word, and obedience to His Spirit can I faithfully live out my calling.

But there’s more good news. Jesus also gave me a perfect example. He spent copious amounts of time ministering to both the masses and individuals alike.  He pursued His heavenly Father with perfection, and used his public ministry to ensure he faithfully made disciples.

More and more, I need to be held accountable to bringing my wife, my children, and those I am leading into ministry with me. I continue to see in myself the ease with which I get lost in ministry.  The crowds crowd out my discipleship of those closest to me.

Don’t let me replace discipleship with ministry – it’s my road to failure.

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church discipleship evangelism leadership missional community

2012 Verge Talk – Who is the Missionary?

At Verge this year, I referred to the video above from Verge 2012 as the reason why we are pursuing missional communities. It’s a simple argument for the need for new forms to engage our cities with the gospel.

What do you think needs to change about how we gather as the church?

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discipleship leadership pastoring

Ministry vs. Discipleship

My friend Sean Eppers posted some content on the Woodlands Point Pastor’s blog that Tyler David and I did on “Ministry vs. Discipleship” for one of our staff meetings awhile ago.  Below is a sample:

Ministry Discipleship
Reactive Proactive
Ministry tends to involve a much lower level of relational investment, and for both parties there is a relative degree of anonymity Discipleship requires a high degree of vulnerability for both parties
Meets immediate, felt needs Transforms lives and success is replication
Often times leads to immediate results and draws crowds Often painstakingly slow and difficult with one step forward and two steps back

You can find the rest here.  Thanks for posting Sean!

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discipleship pastoring

Discipleship and Ministry | Part 2

For my initial thoughts on the challenges of remaining faithful to discipleship in the midst of ministry, go here.  I’d like to expand a little more fully on my thoughts from the last post.

In brief, I’ve found that it can be extremely difficult to continually cultivate the centrality of discipleship, or the process of selectively investing a small number of individuals in order to teach obedience to what Jesus taught (Matthew 28:18-20), in the face of increasing demands of ministry, or meeting the immediate physical and spiritual needs of individuals as you encounter them.

The question to ask, I think, is why is it difficult?  Why is it so tough to remain faithful to the model of discipleship which Jesus demonstrates?  Here’s a couple reasons:

  1. Ministry often times leads to immediate results and draws crowds (for examples from Luke, see Jesus casting out demons, Jesus healing people, and Jesus’ miracles).
  2. Discipleship often is painstakingly slow and difficult with one step forward and two steps back (Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, then immediately denies him, and the disciples making mistakes).
  3. Ministry tends to involve a much lower level of relational investment, and for both parties there is a relative degree of anonymity (crowds don’t know who Jesus is).
  4. Discipleship requires a high degree of vulnerability for both parties (Jesus weeps in front of his disciples).

Both types of investment in people are important (see Pauls discussion about he and Apollos in 1 Corinthians 3), but the two are designed for the purpose creating multiplying disciples who participate in the Great Commission.

Ministry needs to have an end in discipleship (the public ministry of Jesus reaches its pinnacle in Luke with Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ), and discipleship utilizes ministry for teaching (Jesus had his disciples observing most of his public ministry) and as an entry point into relational investment for discipleship (Jesus teaches and performs miracles before calling his disciples).

I find in myself, however, that the design of what I am calling ministry often is easiest to default because it offers quick successes and I can remain fairly distant from those to whom I am ministering.  The process of discipleship is exhausting, inconvenient, and difficult, which make it so much easier to simply enjoy the fruits of ministry (just like the seventy-two after returning from Jesus assigned task) rather than labor with love toward replication.

I am thankful, however, that Jesus did not simply minister to the crowds, but instead remained faithful to the twelve, because the movement of the Gospel hinged so much on their faithfulness to replicating disciples.  You don’t hear much throughout the rest of the New Testament about the crowds or those whom Jesus did something miraculous, but the disciples were at the epicenter of the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Let us remain faithful to a few, while ministering to many, in hopes that God would redeem and renew all things!