Video Transcript: About Discipleship

All right, let's talk now about discipleship. What is discipleship? If you were to  ask me, When was I discipled for a long time, I would point to a 10 week by 10  week class every Wednesday evening, a navigator missionary who was a part of our fellowship would take us through what is now known as design for  discipleship. It is a wonderful it is a wonderful curriculum to take a young  believer through all various doctrines and practices related to Christianity. But I  spent two years in Vienna surrounded by missionaries, and it was interesting to  me that I would I would point to discipleship as that 10 weeks and not all of my  experiences around people that were walking with me and helping to shape my  life. I mean, it would be, it would be as if discipleship would be the discourses  that Jesus gave to His disciples and to the crowd, but not really pay a lot of  attention to the other situations and circumstances and his response to different  things that took place over the course of his life. I mean, many will equate  discipleship with Bible study or one on one mentoring. I mean, if someone asks  you, how are you discipled? What would you say? You might say, well, I spent X  amount of time with this person, or I continue to be in a Bible study with this  person. Or you may feel like I haven't been discipled. No one has really, really  taught me. So I really feel like I'm not discipled the way I should be. So what is a disciple? Eugene Peters Peterson says that a disciple. Says that we are a  people who spend our lives apprentice to our Master, Jesus Christ. We are in a  growing learning relationship always, he says, A disciple is a learner, but not in  the academic sense of a school room, but rather at the work site of a craftsman.  We do not acquire information about God but skills in faith. So when it comes to  discipleship, discipleship is about having a dynamic, ongoing, loving relationship with Jesus Christ. When the Bible talks about salvation, we tend to emphasize  the past. I have been saved. Someone will ask you, when were you saved? And  you will share your testimony and say on this date at this time, or you might say  it was around this time that that my life changed. For by it is by grace you have  been saved. So you have been saved. But look at this, Though you have not  seen him, you love him, even though you do not see him now, you believe in  him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. You are receiving. You are  being saved. It's not that you're not saved and now you're going to be it's that  there is a there are different dimensions to salvation, and one is a point in which  you gave your life to Christ and the Holy Spirit came in and took up permanent  residence in your life. But then there's the ongoing that salvation is richer than  just that one point, it's also growing, you are being saved. And then look at this  passage. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall  we be saved from God's wrath through him? We shall be there is a point when  salvation will be complete in that we will we will be like Him. John says, who we  shall see Him as He is. So salvation is more than a point of entry. It's a process  discipleship and also the final destination of the believer. So let's talk about 

youth group and what is a discipleship culture. Talking I was talking with youth  about the logistics of an upcoming event. I was in the van, and we were talking  about this event coming up, and one of the one of the one of the young people  

asked the question, Well, Ted, where is God in all of this? And I was taken aback by that, by that question. Now I realized it was a good thing, because what that  meant is that he was figuring out from our club meetings together that that was  an important question, that, where is God in the God is in our lives in various  ways, in various situations. Well, where is God and all this, this, this planning  stuff, where is God and all that. So he had experienced this that club gatherings  were shaped around questions they had about God and Christianity and life,  and because that was it was about those issues that we brought God into the  picture. Here's what God you've heard it said, Here's what I say to you that  generated that question, but it's an important question, Where is God in all of  this? So we talked about God's perspective on life issues that's bringing Jesus  to the point of felt need. Now, how about applying the Great Commission to  youth ministry. What if we dared to apply the command go and make disciples of all nations to youth ministry? Might we be compelled to approach youth  gatherings not as an evangelistic military strike, but as part of a larger, sustained discipleship culture. By that, I mean a culture where questions are freely asked  and answered and that and that God's perspective is welcomed, and people can ponder and consider and allow God's ideas to change, move aside those ideas  that they have because of growing up in the context of the code of the street. So saved versus not saved or disciple, not yet a disciple open to becoming a  disciple. How do you view your young people? What are the elements of a  discipleship culture? Well, first, there is a steady witness from Christian leaders  whose lives are transparent, accessible and worthy of imitation. Paul said,  Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. I remember when I got saved and I said, I want to be a missionary, one of the first things I learned was that missionaries  live in glass houses, and what they meant by that is that our lives are an open  book that people can see. They can see us what's on the inside as well as  what's on the out. So it was, it was a call to live a life that was transparent  meaning, you must allow God to transform you so that what people see is a  transformed life, transparent, accessible and worthy of imitation, a discipleship  Culture matches youth's natural search for meaning with the discovery of God's  purpose for their lives, you recognize that youth are created. They're created  uniquely in God's image, and they will not really be satisfied unless they  discover the answer to that question, Who am I? Why am I here? What is my  purpose? That's their search. And our our programs with them, our meetings  with them, are all about helping them discover the answer to a God given  question. Another element is that we ensure that the Bible, this is the written  word concerning the living word, is central to discerning and understanding life.  Again, where is God in all of this? We look to his word. We look to his word, and 

then finally, learning by doing, where serving others becomes the classroom in  which youth discover God and themselves, and in so doing, they are  transformed. We must find a way to where youth are engaged in meaningful  work and meaningful influence on others. We'll talk about this a little bit later. I  don't know of a better way for this to happen than to have your adolescents,  your high school adolescents, work with elementary the elementary kids from  their neighborhood, small group of elementary kids, and then let that group be  the core group of a small extended time. Could be like a vacation bible school or a short summer day camp, but something that the high schoolers can be fully  engaged in developing and leading and in so doing, influencing the young  people of their neighborhood. Those are some of the elements of a discipleship  culture. So what are the implications for youth ministry? One is that leaders  must be in a learning, growing relationship with Jesus. Always you cannot take  young people where you have not gone. If you do not have this dynamic  relationship with Jesus, you will not be able to share that with others, because,  again, young people will see it. Excuse me, they're looking for they're looking for leaders whose lives are transparent and worthy of imitation. And then secondly,  salvation goes beyond a one time experience. It is dynamic. For believers,  salvation gets richer over time, and that's what you want to convey to your  young people, that your life is not static. It's not that you've arrived and you're  helping them so that they too might arrive. It's about you showing them. This is  what a relationship with God looks like, and there's nothing my the guy who led  me to Christ said this just a few weeks after I became a Christian, he was  teaching the Sunday school class, and he made this statement. He said, There's nothing you see in me that you cannot become and when he said that, I said it's  on, if God can do with me what he has done with you, then it's on. That's what  you want to convey to your young people. Then discipleship rich environment is  one where you've continually explore the question, Where is God in all of this? I  would encourage you to read Eugene's, Peter Eugene Peterson's book, a long  obedience in the same direction, discipleship in an instant society, if we change  the way we think about discipleship, then it can impact what we do with youth,  and we can allow ourselves say, let's create a discipleship rich environment  where Jesus is at the center and we're Giving honest answers to honest  questions, and we're helping young people discover who they are in Christ.