Being (& Making) a Disciple

2,000 years ago, the definition of a disciple was laid out:

Disciple – n. – a person who is an adherent or pupil of the doctrines of another; a follower; a person who believes Christ’s teachings, rests in His atoning sacrifice, imbibes His spirit & follows His example. One who is giving (Matt. 10:42), self-sacrificing (Matt 16:24), humble (Mark 9:35-37), loving (John 13:35) & vocal (Mark 16:15).

But somewhere along the way…

 21st Century Disciple – n. – a person who prayed a prayer, goes to church sometimes, takes part in a weekly 1 hour small group to “go deep”.

…so what happened???

 Discipleship, in how we see it in the Biblical definition, is lacking in 2012.  In fact, it has become so prevalent that quite a few leaders in the church today have noticed the lack of true disciples & have started to write books and preach sermons in order to awake people to this famine of followers of Jesus.  Books like “Radical” by David Platt and “Mutliply” by Francis Chan are aimed to trying to wake the church from this lazy, laid back faith we’ve adopted.

The church is described as the bride of Christ: a bride that is committed, loving, submissive, self sacrificing (Ephesians 5) .

But then over 2,000 years we went from disciple to 21st Century Disciple.  The shift was from bride of Christ to just wanting to date Christ: no true commitment of time or effort, loving Christ along with a ton of other stuff, arrogant and selfish.  We have taken what it is to be a disciple (active, passionate, going, teaching living) and we’ve tied the disciple to a pew, made them passive and left all that Jesus following to the people who get paid to do it full time.

It is time the idea of being disciple become an active, talking follower of the One who came to earth to redeem us and send us out.

So this month as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we’re going to take time to go to see what it is to follow our Savior in a series we’re calling “Being (& Making) a Disciple”.  So check back often as we’ll go through some truly practical steps in being a living, active, passionate follower of Christ.