Quotes About Discipleship

Discipleship is for the sake of the world, not for the sake of the church. It is carried out in those situations where people spend their life.

the governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be "Christians" forever and never become disciples.

In short, nondiscipleship costs you exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). The cross-shaped yoke of Christ is after all an instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with him and learn the meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul.

So my first point is simply: life in Christ has to do with obedience to his teaching.

we can speak of marriage as an adventure, but only because for disciples, marriage is now subsumed under the category of an aspect of our adventure in Christ. How on earth could we explain how ordinary people could risk commitment to another person for a lifetime, especially since we have no way of knowing all the implications that this commitment entails?

So this is the law that always operates in the life of the Christian man: The longer he lives in Christ's discipleship the greater grows his poverty and indebtedness. But the riches and abundance of his Lord also grow greater and greater and make up for all he lacks. He must decrease, but his Lord must increase. And this he does far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.

He who would teach the people to pray must first himself be given to prayer.

The minister's leadership of the congregation in its mission to the world will be first and foremost in the area of his or her own discipleship, in that life of prayer and daily consecration which remains hidden from the world but which is the place where the essential battles are either won or lost.

When Jesus says to Simon, "Follow me," the response is a single act of faith and obedience; there is no gap between a mental action of believing and a bodily action of following. The human person is not a mind attached to a body but a single psychosomatic being.

In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Only the obedient believe, and those who believe are obedient" (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 69).

Ministerial leadership is, first and finally, discipleship.

When Jesus calls his disciples 'brothers' and 'friends', he is contradicting general Jewish usage and breaking through into a new concept of brotherhood which is not tribal, but open to any person.

We've got to move from membership to discipleship to being full-time Christians, not part-time saints. That means operating comprehensively on the value system of Heaven as we move about in history.

As disciples of Jesus Christ we have a responsibility to work together with like-minded believers, to raise our voices for what is right.

If you are saved, the work is only half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ.

No one teaches well unless he has first learned well; no one learns well unless he learns in order to teach. And both learning and teaching are vain and unprofitable unless accompanied by practice.

Every day that we're not practicing godliness we're being conformed to the world of ungodliness around us.

Training leaders is part of the work of discipling.

Teach the people the Word before converting and baptizing them

Teach them to understand biblical principles before converting them

Dedicate your life to delivering people and teaching them the ways of Christ

Let's not forget that our call as Christians is to make much of Jesus. The Great Commission calls us to make disciples of Jesus, not to recruit other people to a works-based lifestyle that makes us feel better (for a while) and makes them feel like constant failures. We are sharing the gospel, not hawking a product for commission. We must emphasize grace before we talk about commitment, because once grace becomes a believer's identity, commitment will follow.

When unprepared people think they're strong enough to resist any intimidation they may face, they're at great risk for abysmal failure. Pride in one's own strength cannot take the place of spiritual preparation. Discipleship is crucial to our ultimate destiny, but its cost is total commitment. Jesus warned against failing to count this cost before committing (Luke 14:25-33).

If Jesus had to suffer, why would we think ourselves exempt? After all, as He explained, "a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master" (Matthew 10:24).