Quotes About Discipleship

You could argue we are the most educated people who have ever lived. Why are we wrestling with this question, and why don't we have good answers for it? This is the question. How do we make disciples?

If we are going to build a culture of discipleship, we will have to learn to balance invitation and challenge appropriately.

Family on mission is how we stop thinking of discipleship as a task that we do and start living out discipleship as a way that we are.

we should focus on people who don't know Jesus yet, but Jesus himself gave us the model for doing that: Disciple people.

Friends are those who serve the cause when they can. Followers are those who submit their skills and resources to have Jesus transform them. But family are those who surrender completely, laying down their agenda fully for the agenda of Jesus. This is what the disciples eventually do.

So while many churches say, "We do discipleship in our small groups," the fact of the matter is that their small groups are missing one of the main ingredients of a discipling culture: Challenge.

The problem is that most of us have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church. Most of us have actually never been trained to make disciples. Seminary

Effective discipleship builds the church, not the other way around. We need to understand the church as the effect of discipleship and not the cause. If

The problem is that we don't have a "missional" problem or a leadership problem in the Western church. We have a discipleship problem. If you know how to disciple people well, you will always get mission. Always.

one creates a discipling culture, modeled on the life and ministry of Jesus, by accident. No one accidentally creates disciples. Discipleship is an intentional pursuit.

Obviously, apprenticeship is happening here. You want to learn to be a plumber? Find a Master Plumber and do what he does. You want to learn to be a disciple? Find someone with the life that resembles the life of Jesus and do what he does. This is what the disciples were doing.

The problem is that most of us have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church. Most of us have actually never been trained to make disciples.

The message was clear: to be a disciple meant that you learn how to make disciples — an ever-multiplying movement meant to bless the whole world.

The problem is that we don't have a "missional" problem or a leadership problem in the Western church. We have a discipleship problem.

From our experience, if you want to make disciples, if you want to build a discipling culture in your community, you are going to need three things: 1. A discipleship vehicle (I call it a Huddle) 2. People need access to your life (the texture of Family on Mission) 3. A discipling language (the discipling language I use is called LifeShapes)

If we're going to make disciples and move out in mission, we need to go from managing boundaries to integrating family and mission into one life, a cohesive framework and fabric that empowers a culture of discipleship and mission, not just occasional events and periodic programs.

Effective discipleship builds the church, not the other way around. We need to understand the church as the effect of discipleship and not the cause.

Where kairos is an event word—something that has a beginning and ending—repentance (metanoia) is a process word, as is believe (pistis). The Circle is a process, a way of living that does not have a specific beginning and ending. One does not become a disciple of Jesus and stand still; discipleship is a lifestyle of learning. And this learning begins with a change of heart.

We need leaders who will step out of "managing church" and make discipling others their primary objective.

We don't have A "missional" problem. We Have A discipleship Problem.

IF THERE'S ANYTHING ANY OF US SHOULD BECOME GREAT AT, IT'S MAKING DISCIPLES WHO CAN MAKE DISCIPLES.

The followers of Jesus weren't immediately known as 'Christians.' Instead they were known as followers of the Way--a way of life instituted by Jesus. Following Jesus was understood not as an act of believing but primarily as a way of living.

Jesus never called us to be believers--he calls us to be followers who believe. It was so easy for me to be a Christian early on because I thought the whole thing was an exercise in believing. But following Jesus is an exercise in living--because we believe.

Walking with Jesus (otherwise known as discipleship) becomes not a matter of learning to do a bunch of new religious things; rather, it means doing the things I have always done but doing them differently.