Video Transcript: Discipleship

We're looking at the transformational leader. What does it mean to be a  transformational leader? And we're starting with the area of discipleship. Jesus  said, Go and make disciples. What does that mean? What does it mean to be  discipled? Have you ever been asked or asked someone else? Have you been  discipled? Who discipled you? When were you discipled? You probably had that  question asked to you, how do you respond? How do you respond, is it that  someone came into your life and taught you? Did you read a book? Did you just  spend some time? Was it a period of time in your life when some people were  around you that taught you? What does it mean for you? Have you ever  discipled someone or led a discipleship group? What is a discipleship group and what did you do? What did that mean? In my journey, up until a few years ago, if you had asked me, How were you discipled, or when? When were you discipled, I would point to a 10 week course that was given during my two year stay in  Vienna was led by a navigator, and he took us through what became design for  discipleship, which was a wonderful teaching tool that's been used all over the  world, and I've used it many times myself and working with youth, it was great.  But the interesting thing is that I spent two years there, and I was surrounded by missionaries and by people that went through all kinds of experiences and being with with various people asking questions and observing and talking about  things, and I that two year experience really was a discipleship experience. In  fact, I began to wonder, why would I look at discipleship as those 10 weeks,  those 10 Wednesday evenings, and not consider all of the other experiences  that I was going through as I was asking questions and learning about what it  meant to live the Christian life. One in one of the young people I think I talked to  about him earlier on in the course was Jimmy. And Jimmy was a young man that got involved in our ministry, and he came on staff, and he really grew as a  leader. In fact, we had an experience where, after a few years, we had a  national conference, and we hosted it in Denver, and it's a conference with all of  these you the leaders, youth, youth leaders and other leaders as part of  Christian Community Development. So they're from all over, all around the  country and parts of parts of the world. And during that conference, they brought Jimmy and I up front, and they gave us the Tom Skinner Leadership Award. I  had no idea it was going to happen. Neither did he. They pulled us up there, and then in front of all of these people, all of these leaders, they presented Jimmy  and me. The focus was on Jimmy and what happens when you have a young  man who grows up in the hood, becomes a believer, becomes a noted leader,  and you put him in front of all of these urban leaders, what do you think  happened? You guessed it, people came after him, and sure enough, a year  later, he was off to Dallas to work with another organization. Well, you know,  when he left, there was a little bit of disappointment, because he felt that I had  not discipled him. We would get together for we would try and get together to  study books of the Bible, and we get started. And then some one of us met 

either he would miss or I would miss. It wasn't consistent, and when he left, he  felt I had not discipled him until a couple years later, he was with that. Ministry in Dallas for one year, and then he branched off and started his own ministry. And  when he did that, he later came to me and said, you know, Ted, when I left, I  thought you hadn't discipled me. But then I started running my own ministry and  my own board and making my own plans. And he says, Ted, I began to ask the  question almost daily, what would Ted do in this situation? In fact, he said I  began to remember everything you did that influenced my thinking, about about  about leadership, but in my personal journey, this matter of discipleship, what  does it really mean? Robert Gelinas, who happens to be my pastor, has written  a book called discipled by Jesus, your ongoing invitation to follow Christ. And he makes some observations. He says, we have an insufficient definition of  discipleship. In fact, we have lost the original meaning behind what Jesus meant when he said, go make disciples. And so therefore the average Christian does  not know what it means to be a disciple. So there is a deep desire for real life  transformation, but most of our discipleship activities are falling far short of our  hopes. There is a myth regarding discipleship that we need to take a very close  look at. It's the myth of modern day discipleship. It's an idea. It's a it's a good  idea, but it's a little bit off. It is an assumption that takes us in a direction that the  command was not intending for us to take. And here it is, Jesus is the model  that we are to follow as we make disciples. That's not exactly true. That's not  exactly what Jesus said. But here's what happens. This myth has subtly, subtly  displaced Jesus as the one who is in charge and actively engaged in discipling  his people. By considering Jesus as merely a model for what we are to do. We  miss that he should be the active agent that is intimately involved in and in  charge of the process. Jesus is not a method. He is the actual means by which  we are to be discipled. Let's take a closer look at it. The word make disciples is  two words, but it comes from one word, Matheteuo, and it means to be, become  a pupil, or it means to enroll as a scholar, to be, be disciple, instruct, to teach.  Here's what it means. The bottom line when it comes to discipleship, Jesus  never gave up the job. He never gave up the job. We tend to because of the  myth. We tend to think of discipleship like we are in a relay race where Jesus  has he held the baton, and now he has passed it on to us, and we are running  ahead, and Jesus is fading into the background, saying, Go for it. He's rooting  us on, but now we've got the baton and we are doing in the discipleship. That's  not really the case. It really is. We really are in a three legged race, and our  partner in the race is Jesus. Actually we are partnering with him, but that really is what discipleship is about. It's not a commission, it's a co mission. Jesus invites  us to join him as he makes disciples. We mentioned this before, but let me share it with you again. Disciple Eugene Peterson says we, says we are people who  spend our lives apprenticed to our Master, Jesus Christ. We are in a learning  relationship, growing learning relationship always. And so a disciple is a learner, 

but not in the academic setting of a school room, but rather at the work site of a  craftsman we do not acquire information about God, but skills in faith. Robert  writes this in his book. He says, according to Paul in Ephesians 4:11-13, a  pastor's role is twofold, mobilize people for service and point people to Jesus.  Pastors spend their time identifying the needs of their community and preparing  God's people to meet those needs for the glory of God and the good of the city.  In addition to that, their preaching, teaching and leadership are to point people  to a risen Savior, so that God's people have a unified experience of Jesus  attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So what's the pastor's  role? He writes, My job as a pastor is not to disciple people, but to equip and  prepare them to be discipled directly by Jesus, their great shepherd. As the  pastor of a local church, I should serve in such a way that people catch a  compelling glimpse of all that is available to them in Christ, while at the same  time being careful not to take his place in their life. So we pastors must do what  we do in such a way that people move to the edge of their seat in eager  anticipation of Jesus Himself, stepping into their lives and guiding them directly,  It really is amazing. So what? How does this impact our understanding and our  role in discipleship, thinking of Jesus as a model for discipleship confuses our  role and his role in the discipleship process. When we walk with Jesus, listening, obeying, allowing ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we  are being discipled by Jesus when we meet with Jesus, in our in our prayers, in  our reading of the scriptures, in our applying God's truth to life as we listen to  him apply his word to our lives directly. That is discipleship. Our task with youth  is to serve in such a way that youth catch a compelling glimpse of all that is  available to them in Christ. Now, don't get me wrong, other people do play a role in the discipleship process, just as we do with kids, but what they do is they  point you to Jesus. Put it another way, no matter who comes before you, no  matter what happens, you sift everything through God's word. No one has  authority. Their words only have authority to the extent that they express God's  word, that they ring true with God, and so Jesus will use many people to affirm  that which he is trying to tell us. But we are not being discipled by them. We're  being discipled by Jesus. So what if we pictured our role in discipleship, not as  the runner holding the baton, but in a three legged race with Jesus? How would  that impact how we approach youth discipleship, and how would this impact how you see yourself being discipled? I encourage you to more than consider this,  come to grips with this that Jesus is not fading in the background while someone else is discipling you he's not fading in the background while you are struggling  to disciple others. You do not take his job. Your job is to introduce them to the  one who loves them and cares for them and wants to be directly engaged and  involved in their lives. Encourage you to pick up Roberts book, discipled by  Jesus, your ongoing invitation to follow Christ, as put out by nav press, and it  was just published last year. I encourage you to read it. Ponder it. Consider that,

yeah, Jesus never gave up the job, not with young people and certainly not with  you.