New Perspectives - What is Discipleship?
New Perspectives – What is Discipleship?
Joshua Bush, Discipleship Minister
You’ve had a month to stew on what we left off with last time. What are your thoughts? When thinking about the definition of discipleship, I hinted at a definition: Following Jesus, being formed by Jesus, and being on mission with Jesus. The goal of discipleship? The answer is maturity in Jesus Christ.
What do these mean? Let’s break it down.
Matthew 4 paints a picture of Jesus’ call to his disciples to come and follow him. When approaching Peter and his brother Andrew, Jesus says something interesting that makes clear of what discipleship looks like. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” These are the words that we pull our definition of discipleship from.
In their book Discipleshift, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington lay out how the words of Christ give us a template of what discipleship looks like.
Let’s start with the first phrase, “follow me.” What does it mean to follow Jesus? Essentially, it means that where ever Jesus goes, we go as well. If he goes in a direction, we follow suit. Jesus leads, we follow. It’s as simple as that. It means that we recognize who has the authority, the power, and the direction over creation and over our lives. We respond and submit to His leadership and guidance. It means that we act in obedience to His instruction and align our lives in accordance with His will and desires.
This is also the step where we align our minds, our heads, with Jesus. We conform our thinking, worldviews, understanding, and perception of our lives to our leader. We must make the decision to follow before we can actually follow. In order to do that, we must know who Jesus is, what He’s about, and where He’s going as well as choose to go in the same direction. We must learn and believe the truth about Jesus. This changes where we go at the head level. Following Jesus…
The second phrase is “and I will make you.” This corresponds to our hearts and urges us to become more like Jesus. You see, we can know everything there is to know about Jesus, but what good is it if we ultimately don’t change because of our knowledge about Him? This is where we are being formed by Jesus. Once we’ve made the mental decision to follow Jesus at the head level, transformation must follow at the heart level.
Jesus calls us to be made new and to enter into an ever-increasing formation to be more like Him. This is not to say that we need to perfectly clean up our act before we can become His disciples. It is a process that we should strive towards, not a goal to be achieved. We will never reach perfection on our own. Jesus does not expect us to become perfect before we choose to live our lives in accordance with His will. Our striving towards being as close to a carbon copy of Christ is our number one priority and it happens through this formation of the heart. Being formed by Jesus…
The final phrase is “fishers of people.” Here is where we put our resolve to follow Him (head) and our ever-increasing formation towards Jesus (hearts) into action. Here is the “doing” portion, the hands. To be on mission with Jesus means to do the same things He did. It means to reach the lost, advance His Kingdom, and make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. Why? Because these are the things Jesus did. Seeking God’s Kingdom first means we put aside our own lives in order to put God’s leading and direction first. To be “fishers of people” means to be commissioned and to accept Jesus’ call to action. We must serve Jesus and the community of disciples who belong to Jesus. Being on mission with Jesus…
That is how we define discipleship. A disciple follows Jesus, is being formed by Jesus, and is on mission with Jesus.
Surprise! If you are doing these things, then you are striving towards the goal of discipleship: Maturity in Jesus Christ. It gets even better. Mature disciples of Jesus Christ not only follow Him, are formed by Him, and are on mission with Him, but also teach and show and model others how to do the same. Not only that but then those disciples can’t help themselves but to make more disciples. Disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
Yes, the methods are plenty. The road is long. There’s always more to do. We know that relationship is the vehicle, the “how” of discipleship. We have our destination: maturity in Christ. We have our map: Following Jesus, being formed by Jesus, and being on mission with Jesus.
It’s time to start the journey.