Rethinking Discipleship

Discipleship is hard. It is not easy to take on the challenge of walking beside younger believers and guiding them. And I am the problem. I am North American. I want to institutionalize discipleship. I want a program with a curriculum and when someone completes the program, boom, they have been discipled!  But life does not work like that. Discipleship does not look the same for all people.

We currently have 2 groups going through discipleship.  After having such a great response from the first group and their desire to invite more people, we decided to start a second group for 2 reasons.  First, we don’t want the newcomers to miss out on any of the material.  Secondly, our first group bonded really well: sharing, encouraging one another, and studying together after class.  We desire for the disciples to have this comradery and support amongst each other and felt it would be good to keep the groups small, so last week we had the first session with our new group, 10 men and 5 women.

The main part of what we do is tell Bible stories, beginning in Genesis, and let them respond to the stories. We ask questions to engage them and get them to think critically. It is supposed to be like a small group where everyone is invited to participate. But last week did not work out that way. I would tell a story and ask the questions and everyone would just stare at me. No response. I pushed and prodded and begged but nothing.

Then one of the men asked if we had a guitar. We do not but we borrowed one from a believer that lives nearby and as soon as the guitar showed up, they started playing and never put it down. We would hear them singing and playing at 11:00pm and then again at 4:00am. We also found access to a Shawi hymnal and had copies made. So each of them asked for a copy of the hymnal and they loved it.

I began to look at the hymns and realized something. They are awesome, each one has a beautiful message.

One of my favorites reads:

Come let us rejoice

We will work for God

All glory to Him

For Him we will live

For Him we will die

I was learning something. Maybe my idea of a cut and dried curriculum is wrong. Maybe we need to be more adaptable with discipleship. To some people the stories are powerful, to others the worship, to others the fellowship. Jesus’ command in Mathew 28 is to: “teach

them to obey everything I have commanded you.” But he never said how. Maybe I should take a fresh look at how we do discipleship.

The point really hit home for me on the last night. During that evening’s church service, I asked each person to share for 3-5 minutes about something they had learned during the week. I was expecting a Bible verse or some thoughts about the stories but instead many shared a song.

Those who did share a verse said it was their first time ever sharing something publicly and admitted that they were very nervous. Most of them were between the age of 17-23 and so this was a completely new experience. One them even admitted that he had never opened a Bible before this week.

The point is this: Do not get caught up in traditional methods. Disciples are not made in a classroom. We are all commanded to make disciples and I believe discipleship needs to be centered in God’s word but let us also remember that discipleship is life, eating together, living together, working together, mourning together, celebrating together and worshiping together. We all have a role in completing the great commission.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.