A disciple is a disciple-maker. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Yes, a disciple is one who is mature and steady in their faith, but also, one whose faith multiplies in the lives of others.
Yes, a disciple is a Christ-follower, but also one who follows Him in order to become a fisher of men.
At the end of the day, a true disciple of Christ leads others into a reciprocal relationship with the Lord of life. It’s that simple, but is it that easy?
For many years, I thought of myself as a disciple of Christ. I was studying my Bible, going to church services and activities, and striving to live a “good” life. Like most churchians, I was doing what I saw being done around me and following the system. To borrow from Bill Murray, “I was not a slacker, I was doing the work.” But I was just as confused and ineffective as his character in What About Bob.
I knew the Lord said my life should bear fruit and I sort of assumed it was producing something of benefit on planet Christian where I lived. I invited others to church, especially to the special sales events like Christmas programs, summer camps, and youth retreats. But the few that joined the program just as quickly left for other, what I considered, worldly pursuits.
I began to wonder what was wrong with me. What was it about my life that kept others from wanting the good news of salvation that I was promoting? I began to wonder if something was lacking in my Bible comprehension. So, it was off to Bible college and seminary.
There I realized I was doing pretty well. I knew as much theology as most students. I had developed, or could fake having, as much Christian character as many around me. I found the classes and course work relatively easy. And so, much of my “education” was experienced on auto-pilot. Yet deep inside, I knew something was wrong.
Then one day, I started a course with an old professor who’s teaching methods seemed archaic. He still used chalk and a black board. He outlined his thoughts on the board alphabetically and numerically, literally reading each roman numeral and letter as he went. And yet, it was in this classroom that I learned what I so desperately needed.
One early fall morning, when I was tired from working until midnight and studying until two a.m., with my first cup of coffee on my desk, I watched him write axioms for life on the chalkboard, and I have never forgotten. They struck me like a ton of bricks, shook me to the core, and set my life on a new course.
- It is more important what happens in you than to you.
- It is more important to be than to do.
- You can not give to others what you do not possess yourself.
As he spoke them, at first they sounded a bit colloquial, but the more I read them, again and again, they just made sense. There was an undeniable logic to the phrases. A foundation upon which character could be built and from which impact could spring.
I wrote them down, took them to my dorm room and read them over and over again. For years I kept the paper I wrote on that day, but have lost it along the way. These simple truths haunted me. Lots of things had happened around me and to me in my life, but I had never understood what God was doing in me. I had followed the system that was supposed to lead to becoming a “good” person, but didn’t understand that God’s process of discipleship is about character formation, actually transformation. I was focusing on the outside, but God was focusing on my heart.
The gospel I had been taught, led me to believe the end goal was about ensuring I would one day get into heaven when I died. I knew nothing of the journey from here to there. I believed becoming a Christian was about something I said when I walked down an aisle one day during an invitation at a youth retreat. In fact, that very idea was regularly reinforced at the bastion of higher education that I attended.
But this old professor and his three phrases began to reshape my perspective of what God was doing in my life. With many Sunday afternoon conversations, he helped me understand what this life with God was all about. Most importantly, I began to understand grace — God benevolently working on my behalf to help me become and do what I could never become or do on my own for his glory and my best good.
In grace, God was transforming me from the inside out. As I committed to following Jesus (even obeying His commands), in many ways I was becoming more Christlike. The idea of my inner character being the spring from which my normal and natural actions and reactions sprung was beginning to take root.
And — here we get to the subject at hand — my life began to impact others for eternity.
Where before, I had little impact in the lives of others, being about as valuable as a seedless grape, now my friends and coworkers wanted to listen to what I had to say. The renovation Christ was doing in my life began to season my words. My appreciation for the love and grace God was pouring out on me began to spill out on others. I could, for the first time, truly give to another something of present value and eternal significance that I actually possessed myself.
Most christians know they’re supposed to share their faith with others. A few of the more bold actually try to do so. Some even invest in the latest “how to share your faith with others” seminar at church. Yet, studies show that most “believers” actually never share their faith and of the few that do, most don’t do so twice.
What’s the problem? The same one I experienced for years. We’re proclaiming the wrong gospel which leads to a plethora of church programs but rarely to true discipleship. We spend hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars, trying to get people into heaven when they die, but pittance helping heaven get into them right now. We want them to adopt our external forms of religion but don’t know how to help them simply follow Jesus. And as a result, what little “evangelism, conversion, or whatever you want to call it” that happens rests solely on the shoulders of the pastor/clergy as the expected duty of the professional Christian in the pulpit.
The call of Christ is a call to both conversion and discipleship. And the call to discipleship is a call to following Him. And that call is for every believer. Even the youngest Sunday School student can finish Jesus’ words from Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17, “follow me and I will _____ ___ ________ __ ____.”
I was following Jesus (or so I thought), but I wasn’t catching any fish. My life was not reproducing life in others. Even when I learned some slick programs for how to trap people into “spiritual conversations” that I could manipulate toward “salvation” conversations, still precious few wanted what I was selling.
But once God helped me (through my gracious professor) understand what being a disciple was all about, then making disciples began to naturally take place. It’s absolutely true …. You cannot give to others what you do not possess yourself. But fortunately, the opposite is also true … you can give to others something you do possess.
The greatest need of the church today, in fact the greatest need of our families, cities, states and world today, is for everyday believers like you and I to take up the call to follow Christ as his disciple. As we commit ourselves to learning from him and allowing his Spirit to transform us from the inside out, we learn that he is capable of using everything that is happening around us and to us to conform us to His image. In fact, that is exactly what Paul said God has predetermined to do in Romans 8:29 – to make us like Christ.
And if we are becoming like Christ (more important to be than to do), then what we naturally choose to do will have Christlike results. And we know that in this effort he has already promised to be with us.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28-18-20, MSG {emphasis added}
Making disciples is, first and foremost, about being one. Reexamining the gospel we’re sharing to insure that it lines up with good news of the kingdom Jesus and the apostles proclaimed, is where we have to start. But it must be accompanied by a call to becoming Christ’s apprentices (disciples) which will always lead to making disciples who make disciples (giving to others what we do possess ourselves).
Jesus promised it … “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Yes, it is that simple.