So... you want to be discipled?
A practical guide to get discipled, or realize you already are!
In the past several years, the church has finally caught on to this beautiful thing called discipleship. Suddenly in churches we have discipleship pastors, pastors of spiritual formation and we’ve begun to see these “pathways” of discipleship, or even “discipleship pipelines”. We have all begun to realize that discipleship sounds like something we really want for ourselves, but we’re not exactly sure how to get it.
So… what is discipleship?
The word disciple in the New Testament Greek, comes from the word which means “learner”, or “pupil”. To be discipled is to put oneself in the position of "learner”.
So, discipleship means for one to be taught, or one to teach another.
It’s actually pretty simple. We love to overthink and overcomplicate things. We often ascribe the spiritual life to be easy and complicated, when it’s actually hard, yet simple.
Jesus’ followers, his disciples were committed to learning from Jesus. However, Jesus wasn’t giving out Mdiv degrees, he didn’t have a classroom, and he didn’t assign a lot of papers for the disciples to write. Our western ideas of “learning” come from our historical attempt at education in a formal setting that includes a hefty financial investment, formal papers, books, tests and reports.
However, is this the kind of learning that Jesus invited us into when he told us to make “disciples of all nations”?
I don’t think so.
While being a disciple certainly involves an acquiring of new information, I don’t believe that discipleship is overly academic. I don’t believe that discipleship always has to be sitting down at a table with coffee and a workbook, or even the Bible.
Jesus did discipleship in all kinds of ways: he invited the disciples to live life with him, he invited the disciples on a journey with him to teach others, he ate with the disciples, he taught large crowds of people, he taught the disciples, he modeled prayer life for the disciples, he sent them out two-by-two to do the same things he did, he put them in places where they had to exercise faith, and he opened up the scriptures for them and illuminated them in ways they had not yet experienced.
So… what does that have to do with modern day discipleship? Well, I’m here to tell you being a learner can come in all kinds of forms. Here are some ways that discipleship can look like:
Reading the scriptures
Reading the scriptures with commentary (bestcommentaries.com is a real helpful resource!)
Listen to a trusted podcast that opens up the scriptures (the Bible Project is a personal favorite along with Practicing the Way)
Find a mentor to disciple you
Reading books from those who have walked with Jesus a long time and learning from what they have to say
Joining a small group of someone you respect and observing and learning from them
I think the books, the study the Bible reading and the podcasts are pretty straight forward, however, they’re not exactly in communion with another person which is invaluable importance in terms of wisdom, correction and encouragement.
I think we struggle to find mentors or disciples because I we often think that having someone disciple us always looks like sitting across from one another with the Bible and some great questions. I’m here to tell you, that isn’t always the case, and isn’t even always the best scenario. Having someone intensely focus on you doesn’t happen in most settings unless you’re paying hourly for therapy or in a one-on-one tutoring session.
The people of God are busy. We don’t always have time for sit down coffees where we can open the Bible together. We are busy bringing the Kingdom of God, doing ministry in our neighborhoods, hosting small groups, volunteering, raising children, etc. Most of us don’t have time for a sit down coffee with one person.
So, then, how can you be discipled by your local heroes of faith?
Get into their life.
Seriously! It’s not that hard.
When we put ourselves in the position of learner, we look for ways that we can “follow” along with our leader in what your leader is already doing, not necessarily take them away from the environment that God has called them to minister in. It’s like this with God too… we want to look to see what God is already doing, not ask him to bless our plans instead.
So, if you want a mentor to disciple you… here are some practical steps that you can take to be mentored:
Identify someone in your faith community or context that you respect
Identify that person’s schedule - what kind of ministries do they do? Do they have kids? Do they go to baseball games? Are they homeschooling? Ask them questions about themselves
Figure out how your schedule can melt into theirs. How can you serve this person in a way that engrains you into their life.
Can you babysit for them?
Can you bring them a meal?
Can you sign up for their small group?
Can you show up for their kids baseball games?
Can you join in whatever ministries they are a part of?
Once you have figured out ways to engrain yourself into their lives - observe how they live their life.
What are their study habits?
How do they face hard things?
How do they parent?
Where do they fall short, and how to they respond to their own weakness?
What do they pray about?
Formulate and then ask questions when you have the opportunity
The people of God want to mentor you. They want to invest in you. It’s talked about over and over in scripture of the commands to meet together, sing together, read scripture together, exhort one another and so on and so on. However, mentorship really happens the best when we’re willing to live life together and make it significantly less programatic. So… if you’re one of those who is currently looking for a mentor or discipler… get observing and serving!