Very early on in my faith, my brother who was instrumental in me putting my trust in Christ, started talking about discipleship. He had run into some Navigators at the university. The talk coincided with changes in his life like waking in the pre-dawn hours to go pray with people, like doing the dishes at home to serve our hardworking, widowed mom. I remember a conversation we had in which he insisted that before leading anything, we all had to grow. At the time, none of it made any sense to me.
A couple years later, I started to understand what my brother was going on about. It took some doing, but I too started hanging around the Navigators. Before long, I was having “one-to-ones” with a Navigator staff. I was part of a group, most of us trained toward growing as disciples of Christ. The whole thing was disciplined, fast paced, somewhat systematic. And I grew. I thank God for those days. They became the foundation for my ongoing discipleship.
The word disciple is outdated and arcane. Nowadays, it is used sparingly, and usually to invoke a particular sort of devotion. And so, even as the word appears over 200 times in the New Testament, the few of us who use the word, mostly understand it in the way we experienced it. Meaning, we don’t really know what discipleship is, we mostly have a general idea based on the discipleship tradition we experienced. Couple years ago, I conducted an informal survey. I asked every Navigator staff person I bumped into this question: What is making disciples? I couldn’t get a straight answer.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
I think in the Great Commission, Jesus tells us what it is. He even throws in amongst whom we ought to begin the work. I hate to do this, but in the interest of brevity, I’m going to give you what I think are the answers. But I’m not going to show the work. I hope you’re interested enough to look for yourself. Based on Matthew 28:18-20, I believe making disciples is leading people to faith in Christ and helping them grow in him. That’s it. It’s noteworthy to point out what it does not say: It does not give specifics of how, nor does it tell you how many or how long it should take. It doesn’t say exactly who, but does point us in the direction of non-Christians.
So what if we strip the word, and thus the work of its elevated ambiguity, and said it like this: “As you faithfully live your life, lead some people to Christ. If any of them put their trust in him, help them start a relationship with him. Do it however way you think best. No time limit. And with as many or as few as the Lord enables. Maybe in all your days, you’ll be blessed to help a handful become followers of Jesus. Oh and it’s a group project so don’t do it alone. Lastly, because Jesus promises to be with you, to strengthen you, anything is possible.”
I think most of you would say, “That’s it? I think I can do that”
