“Discipleship without Jesus Christ is a way of our own choosing.”
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dear church family,
We preach discipleship. We discuss it as central to who we are at The Road. We acknowledge its centrality to the life and work of Jesus Christ. After Jesus was tempted by Satan, and after he announced his mission in the synagogue, what did he do according to Matthew chapter four? He began calling disciples, “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Matt. 4:18-20) And we are all very familiar with the mandate of the Lord Jesus at the end of the gospel of Matthew. We are to go into all the world and make disciples. From this mandate, we derive our common reminder that The Road is to be a church that makes disciples that makes disciples.
But what is discipleship? In a recent sermon, Darin Schroeder shared the following helpful definition, “Discipleship [is] the intentional, passionate, and consistent pursuit of spiritual growth and fruitfulness, not only for ourselves but for others that God has put in our lives.” This definition has much to recommend it. Firstly, to pursue discipleship individually and corporately is to do so with intentionality. Are we intentionally structuring the life of our church around the goal of discipleship? Is the goal of making disciples reflected in the way we spend our time and finances? And here is a big question: when someone joins our church and let’s say, five years have passed, who are they? Are they a disciple of Jesus Christ who trains others to be disciples of Jesus Christ? These are the concerns and questions that have been on many of the hearts of our leaders and members in recent days.
Our discussion of discipleship is going to continue for the next few weeks, but I want to close this week’s devotional by filling out a phrase of Darin’s, “pursuit of spiritual growth.” Certainly, what is meant by spiritual growth is a close attachment to the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. To grow spiritually is to find ourselves consistently at the feet of the master, looking to his hand for direction and to his mouth for instruction. Dietrich Bonhoeffer recognized that true discipleship involved following Christ exclusively and sacrificially. Theologian James Leo Garrett, Jr. writes:
“No twentieth-century Christian and no single monograph contributed more, it seems, to the recovery of the significance of discipleship than Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his [book], The Cost of Discipleship.
When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.…
Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship.…”[1]
Finally, are you exclusively attached to Jesus Christ? Have you surrendered your life to him? This is the beginning of discipleship. Have a blessed week and we will see you on Sunday. D. V.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Dale
[1] James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Second Edition., vol. 2 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 384, citing The Cost of Discipleship, pp.49-50 (1959 edition).
