Powerless Discipleship

You haven't fully made a disciple until your disciple has made a disciple.

When we define discipleship as a class one completes or merely an "introduction" to walking with Jesus, we castrate the power of the process Jesus intended us to experience.

When you read the gospels and watch Jesus disciple his twelve, the process is powerful, practical, radical, and transformational. So much so that these men were compelled to repeat the process with others.

Perhaps we aren't experiencing the power of discipleship because we are trying to rush the process. We are trying to find short-cuts.

Or perhaps we're not seeing radical replication because we are not making the main thing the main thing. Remember, Jesus said, Hey, here's a final word of instruction and inspiration…go make disciples!

Or maybe it's because we have gotten away from what discipleship is all about. If you define it the wrong way, you will deliver it the wrong way.

You see…

Discipleship isn't about regurgitating biblical information, it's about radical transformation.

Discipleship isn't simply about "educating" a believer. It's about encountering Jesus in a way that changes us profoundly.

Discipleship is not filling someone's head. It's about forming their hearts.

Discipleship isn't about conforming to "church lifestyle," it's about courageous living in a world that may reject us.

Discipleship isn't about learning to work for Jesus, it's about learning to worship Jesus so that you walk from a daily overflow.

Discipleship isn't about making life more comfortable, it's about breaking out of comfort zones to represent Jesus in every moment, regardless of the response of those around you.

Discipleship doesn't just teach me how to live. It shows me how to die to myself every day.

Discipleship isn't just about knowing and doing, it's about being.

Discipleship isn't just about learning to live like Jesus, its learning to lead like Jesus and reproduce other disciples.

Discipleship isn't only about one and done. iI's about one becoming two, two becoming four, four becoming eight, eight becoming sixteen, sixteen becoming thirty-two, etc…

You just can't do this FAST.
]You can't accomplish this in a classroom.
You can't do this apart from relationship.

When you rush the process of discipleship, you end up with anemic believers who don't know how to die to themselves and let Jesus live through them.

When you have a group of anemic believers, you have a church that is not experiencing the presence and power of God as He so desperately desires.

If we slow down and get back to the heart of the process as Jesus modeled, we might just see a movement He intended for our church, for our city, and for our nation.