Matt 28:19-20: “Jesus said, . .’Go . . . make disciples; baptizing . . . teaching . . . I am with you’ “

            Discipleship is all about building (growing and developing) relationships, with God and with others.  As we live our lives as disciples of Jesus, we are constantly involved in a process, a progression, of moving from being ‘natural’ (like the world and the flesh) to being spiritual (more and more like Jesus).  So it is with discipleship, a constant moving up the continuum from being more like me to being more like Jesus.  As much as we’re able, being like Jesus should be the focus of our lives in everything we do, especially in discipleship.

            So how do we teach disciples?  Just for clarity, I’ve deemed “make disciples” to mean     [1] “helping people make a commitment to Jesus”.  And, [2] “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I (Jesus) have commanded you”.  That sounds like we’re supposed to be teaching rules and required activities and acceptable associations.  My reading of the Bible indicates that is NOT what Jesus was talking about at all.  I submit that “teaching them” (the newly born-again disciples God has made through us) is all about teaching them the “mind” and the “attitude” that Jesus had when He was walking around on the earth, and teaching them to discern the attitude that Jesus has right now, through the Holy Spirit.  So while I’d like to present a seamless dissertation about what Jesus thinks and says, a tome which has a beginning and an end and three major points with three sub-points under each point; that method just doesn’t seem to fit the subject matter.  How do you teach the “mind”, the “attitude” of Jesus?  You do it one principle at a time; one story at a time; one shocking experience at a time.  By constant contact and relationship, you show what being a disciple looks like, so they learn the way a child learns, from the day she is born.