True discipleship will lead to being like Christ and doing the works that He did. It will also lead to persecution just as He was persecuted. Even so, to do the works of Christ is the greatest experience we can have. To love as He loved us and to demonstrate this love with our lives is our highest calling. This is the goal of our discipleship—for the Master to continue living His life through His followers, doing the same works.
A large discipleship movement during the ‘70s and ‘80s sought to recover true biblical discipleship. It went awry leaving a trail of wounded, disoriented people. This kind of thing often happens when the Lord is about to release or restore something significant. There is almost always a “Saul” before a “David,” or we might say man’s attempt to bring about the purposes of God before we allow God to bring forth His own in His own time.
Saul was anointed by God. He fought many battles against the enemies of the Lord. Even so, he was the result of God’s people wanting to be like the nations around them and have their own earthly king. God had promised them a king in Genesis 49 and that he would come out of Judah. One of the reasons Samuel was called as a prophet was “to give strength to the Lord’s king,” so it was apparent that it was close to the time for their king to come. Even so, the people could not wait for God’s choice to mature and demanded a king right away. God gave them the best that was available at that time and anointed him so he would be the best he could be, but God also warned that he would result in many unnecessary problems.
After Saul, the people of Israel did not want another king for a long time, even though David, God’s choice, was recognized in his own tribe of Judah. After the discipleship movement of the 1970s, even the word “discipleship” could hardly be used by Christians because of the pain and confusion it caused for so many. Even so, it does not negate that discipleship is the basic mandate of The Great Commission and is the only biblical way that we have been given to mature Christianity. It must be recovered.
Possibly the most basic way that the discipleship movement of the 1970s went awry was the devotion of the leaders to making people their own disciples rather than disciples of Christ. Our whole purpose is to connect God’s people to Him, not ourselves. Those whose devotion is to make other people their own disciples should raise a serious question in us as to whether they are even true disciples themselves. Who could have possibly truly beheld Christ and presume such a thing with His people?
This does not negate the place for mentoring and that the Lord’s sheep know His voice, but lambs will have to follow the sheep for a while until they mature enough to know His voice. Even so, the transitional ministry to the New Covenant was John the Baptist, and he is the most basic example of what New Covenant ministry was to be like. John’s whole purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord, to point to Him, and once the people began to follow Him, to be willing to decrease as He increased.
The goal of biblical discipleship is to lead people to Jesus, not to ourselves. For too long the church has been promised the Lord, but all they ever get is us! Those who are making true disciples are making them into disciples of Christ Jesus Himself, connecting them to Him. If their job is done right, they themselves will become unnecessary because the disciples have their own relationship to Him. We may stay connected with those who have so matured but only as brethren and co-laborers for the sake of His gospel. The ultimate goal of those who are making true disciples is to work themselves out of a job—to lead those they are teaching to a place where they no longer need them because they are growing up in all things into Him.
