Defining Discipleship

It’s tough sometimes to hear a clear voice on how discipleship should be defined. We always like to attach methodologies to it – “you disciple people by…” Today I read a simple, yet thorough definition of discipleship that includes all the essential elements. Tony Evans, in his devotional book Get Serious says “(Discipleship) is that process that occurs in the framework of accountable relationships in the local church, whereby Christians are progressively brought from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity.”

What I really like about this definition is that it includes the role of the local church and the relationships to be found there – something missing from the equation in most modern discipleship viewpoints. I think the Jesus movement brought about a lot of great changes in modern Christianity, but one weakness has been the marginalizing of the role of the local church.

We have perhaps fallen short in thinking our established public programs can produce disciples in and of themselves. Sunday School is great, but as a program, doesn’t produce disciples en masse the way we’d like. But when people who connect in Sunday School connect beyond Sunday School in a sometimes unspoken accounability, discipleship occurs. In fact, we’ve had a hard time realizing that the one thing you can’t really program is relationships. People often cry out for more in the way of a connection, and many churches are hasty to promise a place for connection, but the mysterious way in which souls connect can’t always be offered as a growth strategy – it just happens.

Discipleship should be the intentional aim of the local church – it’s why Jesus left us here – to reproduce. The local church is the greatest place for real discipleship to occur. Relationships form in community and the local church must provide that context as no other kind of ministry can.