6.5 Personal Discipling: In a similar way to personal outreach and evangelism, the Great Commission pastor or leader develops a ministry of personally discipling others, keeping a finger on the pulse of the growth and maturity of those who have committed to Christ. Note that the Great Commission is not exclusively about evangelism. The mandate is not, “go and make converts” or “go and make believers.” Rather, the mandate is, “go and make disciples,” incorporating both the conversion of a lost person, the starting point, and discipleship, the journey of that new believer into sanctification and service.

The Greek word for disciple is maqhths, transliterated mathetes (pronounced muh-thay-tace), which carries the basic meaning of pupil, student, or learner. So, a disciple is one who learns. Our context concerns disciples of Christ, students of Christ. In the culture of Judaism, rabbis took on disciples or students. The practice, though, was that students would seek out a rabbi, meaning teacher, and essentially apply or seek permission to become that rabbi’s disciple. The student did the seeking and made a case for his discipleship qualifications. Jesus, often referred to as “Rabbi,” flipped the script. Would-be disciples did not come to Him and apply. Rather, He went to them and “called” them to be His disciples, making an offer that they essentially couldn’t refuse because of the power of the Holy Spirit. This is one way of describing the methodology deployed by Christ in “seeking and saving the lost,” (see Luke 19:1-10).

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume, informs, “In the New Testament, the word mathetes occurs only in the Gospels and Acts. It is attested some 250 times, almost always for those who follow Jesus (TDNT, Abridged: Bromiley, ed., p. 559). Further, mathetes implies a relationship to a particular teacher (TDNT, p. 556), so being a student was not a general categorization for someone who was a student in the sense of the word’s usage today. Rather, to be a student, or a disciple, was to affix that learner to one particular teacher. The disciple, then, was a follower of that teacher.

In the Christian context, there is but one Master Teacher, one Master Rabbi, one Messiah, one Savior and one Lord, and that, of course, is Jesus Christ. All true believers, then, are to be disciples of Christ, regardless of what human teacher or preacher might contribute to our learning. They are acting on behalf of Christ as disciples of Christ themselves, but our true devotion, our ultimate allegiance, is to Christ first and Christ only. With this understanding, we can appreciate Paul’s frustration revealed in 1 Corinthians 1:

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)

While in seminary, I studied under a number of remarkable teachers: Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr. Roger Nicole, Dr. Richard Pratt, Dr. Allen Mawhinney, Dr. Reggie Kidd, Dr. Steven Brown, Dr. Ronald Nash; Dr. Steven Childers. I was never, however, a student of any of these gifted teachers. I was, and am, a student, a disciple of Jesus Christ, as are they. Some have gone to be with the Lord while others still serve. Either way, their investment in discipling me, as fellow disciples of Christ, continues to pay dividends in my life and ministry to the glory of God. This is an example of discipleship at work.

With these broad strokes as a backdrop, let’s move in for a closer look at you, a pastor or leader, as a personal discipler. The objective is to center the disciple on an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus Christ. As such, one analogy would be to think of yourself as a tour guide. You know Christ and His kingdom so, as a guide, you will lead the disciple into what you already know and have experienced in terms of knowledge of Christ and relationship with Christ. Note that discipleship is not about trying to foster allegiance in the disciple to your or any other visible church. That might come and it’s a credible outcome, but it’s not the objective.

There are three elements that I want to emphasize regarding personal discipling: 1. The Ministry of the Word and Prayer, 2. The Conversion/Discipleship Gap, and 3. Obedience-Based Discipleship. In Acts 6 the original disciples, who were foundational to the establishment of the Christian church, called attention to the priority of the practice of prayer and attention to the Word of God. We read, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word,” (Acts 6:4). These two are the pillars of discipleship and any approach to discipling must firmly establish and then build on the disciplines of prayer and absorbing the Word into knowledge and practice. Paul said this about prayer, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ for you,” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Concerning God’s Word, we find this regarding Ezra’s selection by God to serve in a very important and unique way, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel,” (Ezra 7:10). Discipleship must feature prayer and the ministry of the Word.

There is a two-dimensional gap between conversion and accelerating into robust discipleship. One is knowledge apprehension and the other is time lapse. As a rule, a new convert does not have a broad understanding of Scripture and has yet to develop strong spiritual disciplines. Often, the follow up with new converts is not timely, allowing significant time to pass before moving toward discipleship. Pastors must keep tabs on new converts and make sure that they are moved quickly from conversion into personal discipleship. It might not be that you, as a pastor, will personally disciple everyone, but you must see that every is discipled. This concept might expand to an entire congregation, not just those who are recent converts. When the time lapse gap is closed between conversion and discipleship, and when discipleship intentionally builds biblical knowledge and practice into those being discipled, spiritual growth happens.

The Great Commission speaks directly to teaching, but an important distinction regarding teaching is often missed. Consider this: at training events, as we discuss the Great Commission, I will typically ask the question, “What does the Great Commission tells us to teach?” Many times, the initial response goes like this, “Teach all that Jesus commanded,” or “Teach the commandments of Christ.” At first glance, these sound like correct answers, but they’re not. Jesus says, “Teach them to observe [or obey] all that I have commanded you.” Of course, in order to obey the commands of Christ, the disciple needs to know what they are so the commands of Christ do need to be taught, but the emphasis on not on knowing the commandments, it’s on obedience.

Knowledge and obedience are two very different things. Many times, as a parent, I said to one of my children, “You know better!” What’s implicit in that statement? It’s implicit that this child had knowledge of what was the right thing to do, but, obviously, chose to do what was wrong. In other words, there was knowledge but no obedience. The objective of discipleship is not knowledge, it’s obedience to biblical knowledge, so we must promote an obedience-based discipleship. Many churches feature a staff position titled something such as Director of Discipleship. However, I’ve yet to come across a church that staffs a Director of Obedience. Hmmm. It seems our typical approach to Christian education is a knowledge-based approach rather than a promotion of Christian living in an obedience-based approach. Obedience-based discipleship will secure and develop the life transformation that begins at conversion.

A final comment: Discipling resources abound so I’m not going to address that here. These are easy enough to find online and through the recommendation of those who are effective disciplers. Seek out this information and select what seems best to you in the context of your discipling ministry. 

Leaving a Gospel Footprint becomes more and more of a reality when personal discipling is grounded in the Ministry of the Word and Prayer, when the Conversion/Discipleship Gap is closed, and when Discipleship is Obedience-Based.


6.6 Corporate Discipling: The companion to personal discipling by a pastor or leader is the corporate discipling within a congregation, being equally concerned about the depth of congregational growth as the width of congregational growth. C. Peter Wagner comes to mind, longtime missiologist and professor, and one of the early leaders of the Church Growth Movement. I’m not going into the pros and cons of the Church Growth Movement here. Rather, I’m drawing on Wagner’s identification of three levels of local church ministry: 1. Cell, 2. Community, and 3. Congregation. This concept isn’t exactly trending these days but I find it to be a helpful way of organizing strategy in the local church.

In brief, the cellular level represents small groupings of people such as, well, small groups, ministry teams, Bible study groups, perhaps a complete staff or gradation of staff, perhaps a group of elders or deacons, missions teams, etc. These are excellent formats for up close, corporate discipling. The community level is the mid-grouping, larger than a small grouping but typically not as large as a full congregation. In conventional churches, this might be the group that gathers for a Wednesday night dinner and Bible study, a men’s group, a women’s group, or other departmental subset. Groups of this size might be too large for the intimacy that can develop at the cellular level, but tend to consist of folks that are regularly engaged in the life of the local church, “insiders” if you will. Pastors and leaders are wise to consider how the communities of the church might be leveraged for corporate discipling. The congregational level is the all-church level and could even consider inclusion of fringe folks, newcomers, and guests. This would be the group that attends worship services, special services (such as Christmas and Easter), and special events, for example.

Though the context of corporate discipling is groups of people at the cellular, community, and congregational levels, rather than personal discipling of individuals, the same three elements should guide the content: The Ministry of the Word and Prayer, the Conversion/Discipleship Gap, and Obedience-Based Discipleship. As these three elements are engaged in the corporate context, each brings a challenge that is somewhat different than engaging these elements in the individual context. The Ministry of the Word and Prayer will require a broader approach to application since the context involves numerous individuals within the group(s). The Conversion/Discipleship Gap will require broader assimilation strategies and practices to move individuals who have experienced conversion or, perhaps, renewal, into corporate discipling opportunities. Follow through on Obedience-Based Discipleship will require a broader approach to accountability to ensure that orthopraxis is following on the heels of orthodoxy.

Leaving a Gospel Footprint becomes more and more of a reality when corporate discipling is also grounded in the Ministry of the Word and Prayer, when the corporate Conversion/Discipleship Gap is closed, and when corporate Discipleship is Obedience-Based., all three operating at three levels: 1. Cellular, 2. Community, and 3. Congregational.

Modifié le: mardi 20 juin 2023, 10:33