4. DISCIPLE

BEING FED AND FEEDING SELF SPIRITUALLY

WHAT WOULD A DISCIPLE SAY?  “I can feel God working in my life more and more. I’m learning to hear his voice, I’m trying to obey him. I know following Jesus means lining my life up with Jesus’ teachings and commands, things like being baptized. I’m willing to do that. I’m starting to see my sin more clearly. I ask God to forgive and change me regularly now. I’m spending time on my own in prayer, Bible study and serving others. God has put a desire in me to help others connect with Him like I have. But I’m nervous about this. So nervous in fact, sometimes I don’t say or do the things God asks because I don’t think I’m ready.”

Helping someone reach the DISCIPLE stage may take a while but once they are there they may not stay long. The DISCIPLE who is spending time in prayer and the Word does not need a lot of convincing that they should be investing in others. What they do need is:

  • Confidence that God can use them to help others grow in their faith.
  • Permission from their leaders to start discipling others (sometimes).
  • Someone to model for them what discipleship looks like.
  • A simple plan of what to do with the person they are discipling.
  • A way to find people around them that need to be discipled.
  • A reality check that discipling someone is difficult, messy, and sometimes fails.
  • A sense of what kind of fruit to look for in those they are discipling.

Tips

1. Try to add someone who is CURIOUS or a BELIEVER to the time you spend with a DISCIPLE so they can begin to see what the DISCIPLE MAKER life looks and feels like.

2. Begin the transition of treating this person as a co-laborer in Christ and not just someone you are mentoring.

3. Train them early in things like Gospel Conversations and Social Field Mapping so they can find new candidates for discipleship from the harvest.

4. Push them to take some leadership in one area of service in their spiritual community (even if it is something small and temporary) to help them understand what it takes to make a community work.