Everyone agrees; Discipleship is important. Discipleship is fundamental to the church and every facet of our churches and who we are. Not just one facet like Children’s ministry, Music ministry, Youth ministry, Senior adults ministry…. but every facet goes under the umbrella of Discipleship (Matthew 28:19-20).
I mean first of all, what does it mean to be a “Disciple of Jesus?” There’s a whole lot of confusion, what biblically and truly what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We must define what it means to be a disciple.
Being a disciple always leads to mean, making disciple. From the very beginning of Christianity, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19) the whole picture there is Jesus saying ‘This is what it means to be a disciple. So much more than following certain rules, path or regulation’ This is Jesus saying following into a personal relationship with me, and become more and more like me, this is what it means to be my disciple!
Inevitably therefore, Jesus wants to be as we look at the text, you and I, I (Jesus) want to make you in a disciple maker, fisher of men, from the very beginning of Christianity, we are in this effort of making disciples. So in any attempt bringing that apart, and saying “Well, I’m going to be a disciple over here but I’m going to be one day a disciple maker ” is missing the whole point. When I think about discipleship, being a disciple making disciple who in fact, make disciples! I would even push, if you’re a fishermen and you don’t smell like fish? You’re not a fishermen! We are not by definition, “disciple” that Christ has called us to be.
Intrinsically and inter-twineably with each other, understanding biblically and practically in our lives is fundamental in our life and in our churches today more than ever.
