This week we’re thinking once again about discipleship. What is discipleship? The call to discipleship is laid out for Christians in Matthew 28:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That’s a pretty ambitious command—how are we to understand it today? In an overview of discipleship, Richard Krejcir elaborates on the questions raised by this Bible passage:

Is this a command, or a suggestion; does it mean we are just to evangelize and let people find their faith on their own, or does this mean we are to lead others and teach the precepts of the Scriptures and the character of our Lord? Does it require obedience and action on our part, or are we disciples just by being a Christian and being in a church on Sundays?

Read the full article for Krejcir’s answers, and his ideas about what discipleship means for the church. One of his central points is the artificial distinction Christians tend to make between evangelism and discipleship—discipleship, we are inclined to think, is just the training and education of people are already Christians, right? Krejcir argues that evangelism and discipleship are not only closely related, they’re actually just two aspects of the same activity: bringing people closer to Christ. It’s a view echoed in another article, “Why Must Evangelism and Discipleship Go Hand in Hand?” by Jerry Root.

So as we think about discipleship this week, consider that the definition we often use for it might not actually account for everything that we’re called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. We’ll back back tomorrow with a few more good articles and links about what it means to make disciples in Christ’s name!

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Discipleship, Evangelism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.