Discipleship in the Church

The Great Commission tells us we are to make disciples as we go. Many have interpreted this to mean that we are to win people to Christ. It actually goes much farther than that.

“Discipleship” comes from discipere "to grasp intellectually, analyze thoroughly, to discipline one’s self to follow the methods of another.” In the Authorized Bible, it was translated from the Latin Vulgate discipulus "pupil, student, follower."

So our command is not only to win people to Christ, but to train them in the discipline of following Him in word and deed.

Jesus trained his disciples. There were 12 of them…a small group. He did not preach to them; He saved preaching for the crowds. He taught them day-by-day, moment-by-moment. He involved them in their training by giving them assignments, such as gathering baskets, bringing people to Him and many other activities.

Churches today seem to think people are made disciples by preaching, teaching and praying. All of those are imperatives for disciples, but they cannot complete the job. The actual making of disciples is done by showing people how to do what Christ commands and by involving them in doing. This is in keeping with being doers of the Word and not just hearers.

The Sunday School is designed for Bible study. It reveals what God wants us to do. Discipleship Training is designed to teach us how to go about it. Combining them into one event gives neither one the attention it deserves.

Now, it is not the pastor’s job to complete the job of making disciples of people. His job is to pray, edify the saints and preach the gospel. The job of training disciples is left to other church leaders, whether lay persons or staff members.

Would you work for a man if he offered you $.01 per day and would double your salary every day? You’d be well advised to take that job. In one month you would have $10, 737,418.24 in your bank account!

What has that to do with making disciples? It has a lot to do with it. It has to do with church growth, too.

Think of it! If every person discipled one other person per year, in 30 years the church would have 10, 737,418 members, all trained for works of service!

Of course, that’s the ideal. In reality, even if the church were doing what it should be doing, they would only reach about half that many. But 5,368,709 over 30 years is not bad.

So, how does the church accomplish that? The same way Jesus did. Start with one and build from that. The trick is to train one then have that one train another, then have each of those two train one each, and so on until the potential is reached.

Imagine how many pastors, missionaries, deacons, teachers, etc. would be placed in positions of leadership using such a method! The good news is that it can be done!

Under the umbrella ministry of the Sunday School, a Church Training Ministry will do exactly that. Many small, age-graded groups would train for specific roles in the church. Others would train to become better disciples than they already are.

The Discipleship Training Ministry deals with some of the major issues in the church: slow spiritual growth; poor or heretical doctrines and aimlessness on the part of members.

Discipleship Training. Try it! You’ll like it!