Since this is second of a two-parter and I completely failed to get this published before the end of the month (of September) I thought I’d better get serious about turning this one out ASAP. There’s also the fact that I REALLY want to get on to talking about discipleship groups, and it’s not really kosher to start talking about discipleship groups (although I did start that here by necessity) if I haven’t finished talking about discipleship. Some of the things in this one might have been better off mentioned in the last section but I do some of my best proofreading after hitting “publish” so please forgive any discontinuities you find.

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In Part 1 I talked about how discipleship should be a part of your interactions with the world in general. Living, loving, and converting the world is a large part of what we should be doing as Christians, but there’s at least… at LEAST… as much attention that we should be giving our fellow disciples. In this case, we’re not trying to win their soul… rather, we’re trying to support them in being the best possible disciple they can be. It’s a huge responsibility, and one that is not being taken nearly as seriously as it should be. Christians are human, after all – despite what mainstream media might want you to believe – and as humans we do some decidedly human things. One of those is that we like like to socialize. That’s the way we were made, and that social element – in the right context – is the single best way to ensure that out walk with Christ (and one another) is not interrupted or stunted. Let’s call this sort of context “Mutual discipleship.” This relationship between believers is what I’ll call “the rest of discpleship” for the purposes of wrapping up this article.

The Rest of Discipleship…Really?

No. Not really. I say “for the purposes of wrapping up this article” because there’s no way on Earth that I can be exhaustive in my writings on discipleship in two relatively short articles. There are significant parts of the Bible, entire books, and book series… es? Whatever. MANY THINGS are written about discipleship, so I’m most definitely not going to say everything there is to say in two blog posts written by a rank amateur. I will try my best to hit the high notes, though..

The Basis for It All – The Great Commission

Check this out. This is really getting back to basics here:

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ 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, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matt 28:18-20

These three verses are what’s known in churchy circles as the “Great Commission.” I’ll save you the Google on the “commission part” – it’s “the act of granting certain powers or the authority to carry out a particular task or duty” OR “the authority so granted” OR “the matter or task so authorized.” Jesus authorized and required us to go into the world and be witnesses for Him, making disciples as a result of that witness.

This is, to put it mildly, a colossal undertaking. Flawed as we are, with the troubles we have with our own pet sins, our own worldly desires, distractions, resistance… the reasons are many for us to fall flat in our attempts to carry out this duty assigned to us. Not only is it a giant task, but the environment we are going into is – well, hostile is the word that comes to mind.s

The Benefits of Walking Together

This being the case, it’s probably best that we not attempt to cowboy up and go into the fight all by ourselves. We’re not an army of one, and there are ample verses all over the Bible that mention the wisdom of having a team at your back when you are doing God’s work. This is where another part of discipling comes into play – strengthening, encouraging, and looking out for our fellow disciples.

As followers of Christ we’re a part of a fellowship that extends to all our brothers and sisters… and we are most definitely expected to be our brother’s keeper! If we’re doing it right, there are some attributes that we should be seeing when we are among the people that share our calling and our love for the Lord.

Here are some biggies:

Closeness

It’s not up for debate that being a Christian means caring about people. There’s that whole “love your neighbor” thing that was stressed as being fairly important. This is covered in both the old and new testaments, so it’s safe to assume that we’re meant to live by that sentiment. If we’re expected to go out to live in and love a world that by and large hates us, it stands to reason that we’d be expected to love and help out our various churchy friends as well, dunnit?

Just like discipleship’s interactions with the world models Jesus, so should our interaction with one another. I think of it as being “followers of Christ, supporters of one another.” You don’t have to look any farther than the Man himself to see this model at work in the New Testament. While Jesus taught the masses, he picked a select few in which he chose twelve disciples into which He would pour all of Himself. This was His “in” group, His “cadre” if you will. He was closer to this small crew than anyone else in the world; He knew them all like brothers, and they were as close to each other as brothers too.

We would do very well to model ourselves and our interactions with our fellow Christians on this ideal. If we strive to be close to our “cadre” – if we really dedicate ourselves to truly knowing them, caring about them – to learning their hearts’ desires, their fears, their gifts, their struggles – then we are in a position to be not only a friend, but a counselor, a mentor, a shoulder to cry on… you get the idea. I hate to use the word “synergism” because it’s really overdone, but if ever there was a time to use it now is that time. If we draw close to our fellow believers, then we are much, MUCH stronger than any of us are by ourselves. Jesus knew that and modeled it for us, and we should take the carrying on of that tradition very seriously. I’m sure I’ll talk a lot about the benefits of it as time goes on. I originally wrote another whole paragraph on this closeness but I think I’ve said enough for the time being.

This closeness is the fountainhead, the wellspring of several other attributes that you should see when disciples gather together. Before I write a whole novel’s worth here maybe I better get on with looking into those. If we follow the Biblical model of discipleship there here are a few other things you can look for in a group of believers:

Intentionality

Being in a group of disciples is not a passive activity! We’re expected to be a huge part of the lives of our fellow believers.

As mentioned earlier, Jesus chose twelve from the masses and spent time teaching them, growing them in their walk with Him. Later, the “original twelve” would go out into the world and form their own select groups into which they would pass on the wisdom, love, and strength that they got from the Master Himself. And so it would go through the generations, ideally with each small group of believers growing and maturing in Christ, and then passing what they have learned and the love they have received to yet another select group… you see how this thing works? If we take our closeness with a select group of Christians seriously and dedicate ourselves to showing the love of Christ to one another and growing together spiritually then there is little room for “falling away” because there’s a brother or sister there to catch you when you begin that fall. There’s no room for “backsliding” because there’s another Christian behind you who is there to keep pushing you forward.

This is not only Biblical – it eminently practical too! The very act of striving to be close to and understand our fellow believers leads to all sorts of benefits to us as we attempt the difficult task of living differently in a fallen world. I’m going to outline a few below and I’ll keep them all brief, because… well, they’re really common sense.

Strength

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Ecclesiastes 4:12

This one’s probably the easiest to understand. We all have periods when we are weak in one way or another, and being in a group allows you to … well, actually BE WEAK for a minute. While you’re down, they are there to be strong for you and to help you get your spiritual strength back. Strength in numbers! Your crew is there to back you up in situations where you alone may fail. Disciples don’t slog it out alone – they have a group ready to catch them when they fall, correct them when they’re in error, and encourage them when they need it.

Wisdom

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Proverbs 15:22

Many viewpoints make for better ideas. There is no shortage of work to be done for the Kingdom, and there are a ton of ways to get that work done. There are as many ways to do that work as there are disciples, and I believe that is by design. There is a place for all methods here, as long as they are true to scripture and done with the intent to advance kingdom work. Get yourself in a group and put your thoughts into the mix!

Flexibility

“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

Romans 15:1

I’m stretching the context of the verse here, but I think it works. Bear with me while I explain.

We’re not the same – and that’s a good thing. Nobody’s good (or bad) at everything and as such our strengths (and weaknesses) overlap. Disciples are NOT a homogeneous group – and like I said above, I think this is by design. Within this huge group of believers there are “big picture people,” “idea people,” “public relations people” … you get the picture here.

I was going to go all in-depth about how we’re like a melting pot and how that pot contains an alloy rather than a pure metal and how that was all awesome, but the explanation kept growing until it was just too much to read. Let’s just leave it here: when you are all by yourself, you are limited by your own talents. None of us are good at everything, and having a team of differing strengths and weaknesses allows us to effectively execute plans that we could never DREAM of if we were trying to gut it out by ourselves.

Conclusion

I’m really new at this and probably not the best at it, but in the short time since beginning to take discipleship seriously, I’ve been seeing some undeniable changes as a direct result. I have seen unprecedented growth in my Christian walk and a deeper understanding of what a walk with Christ should look like, sound like, and feel like. By far the biggest reason for this growth is my fellowship with other believers that are experiencing the same struggles, the same temptations, the same issues that I am. These fellow disciples will probably never now how much I appreciate them for being there to share in my faith journey, but without them I truly believe I’d still be stalled at the starting line.

If you have not already, I truly hope that all of you will take the time and effort to form your own cadre – your own “cord of three” – and that you will begin to pour yourself into them, and them into you. Go out there, make those connections, and get walkin’!