DNOW: Discipleship Lesson 1

While Christianity is growing and flourishing in many parts of the world, it seems to be declining in America. In the Bible Belt, the buckle is coming off. The decline in the number of Christians and cultural strength of Christianity is affecting church life, social values, and politics. George Barna and George Gallup consistently tell us that their research and polling demonstrates that in terms of moral values and lifestyle choices there is little distinction between Christian and non-Christian.

There is without a doubt a discipleship deficit in the North American church. We are suffering from the preaching of cheap grace and generations of Christians who are not interested in discipleship. It seems the pervasive assumption among professing Christians today is that we can be "Christian" forever and never become disciples of Christ. This, of course, is contrary to what Jesus said. To our own detriment, we have defined discipleship as optional, a choice and not a command. The problems found in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have never decided to follow Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ."

"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"        (Matthew 28:16-20)

The church must rediscover discipleship and return to the disciple-making method Jesus modeled and commanded. The solution to our ineffectiveness as church is to train people to be spiritually mature, fully devoted followers of Christ, and in turn to have those disciples make more disciples. God's ultimate plan for your life is to bring glory to His name as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

"My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples." (John 15:8)

When Jesus says "Follow Me", He is asking you to give Him everything. Jesus made it clear that the cost of discipleship is great!

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)

As we begin this study on What Does God Say About Discipleship, we see that the major problem in American churches is the drifting away from the plan that Jesus put in place to grow His church. Before we can talk about the transformation required to become a genuine disciple of Jesus, we must first address the Gospel. The Gospel we believe determines the disciples we are and the disciples we make.

Next week we will continue with a lesson on THE GOSPEL. This will include a survey of five false gospels being preached and followed today, and how each creates a different kind of disciple. These false gospels represent man-made religion, as opposed to God's revealed Gospel.

NOTE: Thanks to Dan Tankersley, Pastor of Discipleship at Calvary Baptist Church, for providing the foundation to this course. Many excerpts above are taken (with permission) from his book titled: Discipleship Foundations: A Primer for Biblical Disciple Making.