Retelling the Gospel with Relevancy
Anyone who has been to a third world country and seen effective ministry being carried out by the illiterate and unlearned will understand that it doesn’t take a seminary degree to be a disciple. But the ability to grasp the Gospel is essential in coming to Christ. The ability to retell the Gospel is crucial if we desire to see others come to Christ. So every believer from the newest to the most mature should be able to retell their story of Christ meeting them (their testimony) and the story of how that was accomplished by Jesus (the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, otherwise known as the Gospel). (1 Corinthians 1 :26-31, Romans 10:14-15, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
A Commitment to the Body of Christ
When Jesus saves us, He sets us in spiritual families that corporately represent Christ. We lose our individuality and gain a corporate family more amazing than anything we have ever participated in. This family is at the same time a universal brotherhood and a specific, and local group to which we belong. We begin to tangibly demonstrate our love for Jesus and our status as disciples as we demonstrate love for other broken humans redeemed by Jesus. (Psalm 68:5-6, Ephesians 4:4-6, Romans 16:3-5, 1 John 3:14-18, John 13:35, Romans 12:9-21)
A Commitment to Care for Orphans and Widows
God found us when we were unwanted orphans (spiritually) and adopted us into His family. Truly following Him, then, means we take care of the weakest and most broken parts of society, whether they are believers or not. We demonstrate the reality of our Gospel by caring for widows and orphans. (Romans 8:15, James 1:27, Galatians 6:10)
A Commitment to Reproduction
The Gospel and it’s effects were designed to spread from person to person with little difficulty. Our commission from Jesus is to teach whole nations the realities we’ve learned from Him. If we miss this element, we cease to be a discipling culture. Paul wanted Timothy to not just teach other people, but to teach people in a way that they could pass his teaching on to others. It was this commitment to spreading both the Gospel and its associated lifestyle that allowed it to reach most of Europe in a short period of time. The same will be true today. (Matthew 28: 18-20, 2 Timothy 2:2)
Simply put, we are to be people who know Jesus deeply and follow the Holy Spirit. This will cause us to grow in character, express the Gospel in word and deed, care for fellow believers, and take care of widows and orphans wherever we find them. When we commit to reproducing this lifestyle in those that are following Jesus around us, we begin to see a discipling culture take root.
One thing to know is that none of these characteristics require extensive schooling or training. Most of them are just the result of you following Jesus and learning to trust His leadership. All of this can be taught (and more likely caught) in the context of the body of Christ on mission. That has deep implications for our current training systems across the body of Christ, but that’s a topic for another post…
