Fruitful Church: Focus on Discipleship


Acts 2:24ff describes the activities of the early church of Christ.  Listed first is that they devoted themselves "to the apostles' teaching."  Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus commanded them to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20).  This passage shows them fulfilling his command.  They were telling new Christ followers about everything Jesus did and said.

New Testament writers emphasize that discipleship is a life-long process.  A leader as great as the apostle Paul said that he hadn't arrived at all he should be, but he was working on it! (Phil. 3:12-14).  

The early church was fruitful because it had an intentional discipleship process.  Fruitful churches today have the same.  They focus on both introducing people to the Lord Jesus Christ and helping them grow in Christ once they follow him.

Historically, churches have had various processes for making disciples.  Growing up, I attended what we Baptists called "Training Union."  We kids and youth called it "Straining Union"!  That may explain why it died!

Actually, programs like Training Union died for various reasons.  The problem is that many churches have put nothing in its place.  They have no intentional process of discipleship.

Someone once said, "Christianity is more caught than taught."  But the challenge today is that people are so busy, they have difficulty squeezing in time for the personal connections necessary to "catch" Christianity and for the interactions to be "taught" it!

This means churches must first make discipleship a priority.  Second, they must look for new and creative ways of doing it.  Many churches are finding success in this regard.  They're forming small groups at nontraditional times, short-term studies, mentoring relationships, and more.

Intentional discipleship begins with you and me.  Think of someone who helped you grow in Christ.  Pray that you will become that kind of person for someone else!

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