true discipleship

Several years ago, Bev and I felt like God was inviting us to consider a new way of discipling people. I had reviewed the prior ten years of ministry and found some things to be lacking. While it certainly looked like we had been very successful, (starting a number of new churches and ministries) when I looked past the initial seeming success, I felt like we had missed the point on some key issues. Those issues had to do with relationships and discipleship. We had made discipleship a program, a track one follows. In many ways, discipleship had become a formula for us.

When I placed our efforts at discipleship against the template of Jesus' life, I quickly became aware of the deficiencies of our way. As a result, Bev and I decided to more fully embrace the "Jesus model" whereby we would invite a few people to join us on this pursuit of Jesus. The past several years have been the most fulfilling of my spiritual life as I share deeply with others.

On the other hand, I have discovered that when you stir people to radically follow Jesus and then help them "get there", a painful reality emerges. Two couples that we invited along on our journey have embarked on a journey of their own, pursuing Jesus to "the uttermost parts of the world". As such, great geographic distance now separates us (Thank God for telephone and email!)

When I step back and take a look at the big picture, the pain of geographic separation is overshadowed by deep joy. Joy in seeing people literally bring the kingdom of God to earth. Joy at seeing people fulfill their destiny of greatness. Joy at seeing people risk all, losing their life to find it again. Joy at seeing Bev and my hearts being reproduced in other places with other people.

Now that's true discipleship!