We follow Christ – which proves to be a lifelong journey of learning that we call discipleship. As we follow we grow and mature. A crucial element of our maturing discipleship is helping others who are coming to Jesus and are new to the faith: repeating the discipling process among them.
Jesus discipled an eclectic group of men and women, and then clearly commissioned them to go and themselves make disciples. The disciple-making-disciple model is scalable (and has potential for exponential growth) … which we guess is why Jesus chose it! We are learning to embrace this model: committed to discipleship ourselves in the worshipping community (Sharing the Walk – as described in this post), and challenging ourselves to make the space and time needed to walk alongside newcomers so they can begin to grow as well. This will include modelling the habits of discipleship, giving opportunity for wrestling with questions, encouraging people to step out and have a go themselves, and seeking the empowering of the Spirit.
Within this process specific courses and special resources have value and a place: helping those young in the faith gain key understanding and growth, or learning about certain aspects of Christian faith and life. These courses will complement, rather than replace, the underlying discipleship process – since much of the growth will likely emerge from the life-on-life sharing together.