Rediscovering the Process of Discipleship (Part I)

In my last blog I concluded that disciples are people who are following Jesus and learning to become increasingly like Jesus outwardly in our competency and inwardly in our character—in our being and our doing.

In this blog I want to share some things I have been learning about the process of discipleship. I just articulated the first thing I learned already, which is that discipleship is a process!

Discipleship requires effort. “Grace is not opposed to effort,” as Dallas Willard said. Becoming a disciple and making disciples will require our effort. It does not happen instantly. Neither does it happen “to us.” It is something we engage in every day by choosing to follow Jesus.

Remember, Jesus invited His disciples to “come follow Me.” Following is an ongoing process. He told them if anyone wanted to come after Him, they have to deny themselves and pick up their cross daily (Luke 9:23). In other words, being a disciple is not about making a decision one time in a meeting (see my earlier blog on the difference between converts and disciples). It is about a lifetime of choosing to follow Jesus every day. Eugene Peterson describes discipleship as “a long obedience in the same direction.”

Becoming a disciple will require us to become disciplined! Hopefully you can see the obvious connection in the words there! Just as an athlete disciplines herself for a race, she undergoes training to achieve her goal, so disciples will undergo training to achieve their goal.

Now, the goal of discipleship is not “to be saved.” That is a gift given by grace. The goal of discipleship is to become so radiantly transformed into Christlikeness that it impacts those around you with God’s love and goodness. That will require effort, process AND a whole lot of the Holy Spirit’s empowering grace! It cannot happen apart from the work of Holy Spirit, but it also cannot happen without your conscious cooperation either.

Jesus had a process for training His disciples. It involved eating countless meals together, traveling places with each other, sending them out on ministry assignments to cast out demons, teaching them, explaining things to them, showing them how to do stuff and even rebuking them for misunderstanding Him. Ultimately, He sends them out in the power of the Holy Spirit to go and make their own disciples in every nation.

Over the centuries, the Church has developed and engaged in all sorts of “spiritual disciplines” to help us with the process of being transformed more into the likeness of Christ. Things like contemplative prayer, fasting and Scripture reading are widely known disciplines (widely known may not mean widely practiced!).

But there are many other disciplines that will shape us and transform us. Things like practicing generosity and giving, offering hospitality, healing the sick, going on mission trips, engaging in community. All these practices can position us for the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us more into the likeness of Christ.

In my next blog I will look at a key aspect of the discipleship process displayed throughout the New Testament.

In the meantime, what spiritual disciplines will you intentionally engage in to help you in the process of becoming more Christlike?