Discipleship

Discipleship or learning occurs in many ways. Certainly, God plays the major role in making disciples. He works in the hearts of each of us to draw us into a closer, more vibrant relationship with Him. He loves us, convicts us, encourages us, and much more because He desires to finish the work He began in us with our salvation.

God most often uses others to disciple us. Through the church, He uses corporate worship, the preaching and teaching of His Word, Bible Fellowship classes, books, and resources to help us grow in truth. However, these alone, generally, do not produce the type of disciple that Jesus described in the above verses. This is probably due to the fact that there is little accountability for learning in a large group environment, in Bible Fellowship, or in our own personal reading. Truth taught in the context of loving and accountable relationships often is necessary for real life-changing learning to take place. The Lord uses small group Bible studies, prayer groups, and accountability groups to grow us. When we follow the example of Jesus, we discover that the Lord uses mentors in a small group setting to grow us as disciples.

Discipleship is not all due to God’s role in our lives or the impact that others can make on us. God also expects us to fully cooperate with what He wants to do in our lives. Much of it is up to us. We are encouraged to follow the example of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”

Since a disciple is a learner and we never come to know everything, then we can conclude that every believer has opportunities to grow to be more like Christ. We all have a “next step” that we can take to continue to change.

Discipleship includes four categories of growth. We must grow with our:

• Hearts—KNOW (Passion—deep love of God, His Word, others, and the lost)
• Heads—GROW (Intellect—biblical knowledge)
• Hands—SHOW (Behavior—serving and discipling others)
• Feet—GO (Actions—sharing the gospel)

Open Door Equipping Center offers opportunities for growth in theses categories. Classes (lecture-based) and groups (2-12 in size and interactive) are available to expand the intellectual part of our discipleship. Groups (on-going and seasonal) are also available to change our hearts and make us emotionally and relationally healthy. The result of growth will always affect our “hands” through serving others in the church and our “feet” by going into our community and sharing the gospel with the lost.