I get asked all the time how we do discipleship at Elevation. Related to this question, I also get asked how we follow up with new believers.
Do we relentlessly call people until they’re in a small group?
Do we offer 57 Bible studies for people to grow in their faith?
Do we provide a yearlong systematic theology course for new believers?
We do have specific and practical things that we do. But when it comes down to it, our philosophy is pretty straightforward and simple:
We point the way, and we clear the path.
1) We point the way.
Like I said yesterday, there’s ultimately nothing we can do to force people to grow in Christ. Nothing. So whether we offer a 26-option discipleship program or a 4-option one really doesn’t matter. If someone really doesn’t want to grow, they’re either going to say no 4 times or 26.
For that reason, we keep it pretty simple.
We give new believers material to help them grow in the initial stages of their faith, and we call and encourage them to get plugged in. We constantly stress the importance of small groups. We faithfully proclaim the Word and encourage people to read it for themselves. In short, we point the way to what it looks like to have a relationship with Jesus for themselves.
If they decide not to walk that way, that’s their decision. And we’ve made the decision that we’re not going to chase all of them down if they do.
Some people might say to this: Is that what Jesus would do?
