Christian = Disciple

It's always amazing how God uses a number of avenues to communicate.  The most recent example I've seen is the burden for discipleship that God has placed on the hearts of a number of people I know, seemingly all at once.  In our church, some discussions with our leaders about what our focus needs to be in the coming months narrowed in on this subject.  At the same time we were starting to see this need for our own church, we started hearing from fellow leaders at our local sister churches that God was speaking the same thing to them.

What this specifically means for all of us remains to be seen, but it seems clear that the focus of Summitview Community Church of Greeley (and, apparently, Fort Collins and Loveland) for the coming months (and probably years) will be discipleship.

Now discipleship should certainly be the priority of every church all the time, we all know that, but practically, it seems our energy as a church seems to drift toward maintaining structure and systems and it becomes easy to lose focus on discipleship.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this.  First, discipleship is hard work.  It requires an investment of time and energy.  It is not just the passing on of knowledge, but it also requires the pursuit of relationship.  Relationship requires openness and vulnerability and leaves us open to the possibility of being hurt.

Another problem is that discipleship cannot be 'forced'.  One has to desire discipleship for it to occur.  This means being willing to learn, open to input, and humble. If the members members of a church do not desire discipleship enough to pursue it, perhaps that church has not exalted Christ enough to create that desire.  That's a sobering thought.

But no matter how hard the work is, or how far we feel we are from being successful in it, we must pursue discipleship.  First because Jesus commanded it (Matthew 28:18-20).  Second (and I think we lose sight of this) because being a Christian is synonymous with being a disciple (Acts 11:26).  We really don't have a choice but to make discipleship our first priority.

It seems the leaders I know have a real burden to make disciples.  And even though I know that it will mean hard work, I also know it is some of the most rewarding work God has given us (as evidenced by the deep relationships I have with the men who took the time to disciple me).  I don't know what 2010 is going to bring in terms of change as we pursue this, but I do know that I'm looking forward to it!