If we’ve ever sat down to have a cup of coffee, you’ve probably heard my emphatic declaration that discipleship is never a program!

I say this often because when we as leaders put all of our faith in leadership development tools and strategies to do the relational work of making disciples, we miss it by a long shot. Discipleship, as Jesus showed us, is the act of cultivating deep Kingdom-centered relationships with a handful of people.

The truth is, it is much easier to make converts than to make disciples. We must not stop there. We need to make time for and place a value on the perfecting, restoring, and equipping process of discipleship

When I refer to discipleship on my blog, I’m not discussing a model or a church planting method. I believe that discipleship begins with a trust that the seeds of Christ still work. Discipleship is what we find in the heart of Jesus to see the Father and see with the Father, and to do what we see the Father doing as we intentionally invest ourselves into those the Father gives us, inviting them into the place we have at His table.

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The core of Christian belief is that orphans get adopted, and that strangers find family. When I talk about family, I am focusing on the transformation of the way we think about the fact that we have been adopted into God’s family. Again, this is more than a mental assent that we have been born again and are children of God in a generic sense. Becoming sons and daughters means that I am no longer destined to live life as an orphan under the bondage of fear. I am free to embrace what it means to belong to a Father who has chosen me to belong to Him.

The goal of the gospel itself goes beyond the salvation of our souls from sin and hell. The goal of the gospel is that through the life, death and resurrection of the Son, we who were once far away are brought close and restored to the Father. That we who were orphans find a place at the Father’s table.

There is a significant difference between the way that orphans and sons/daughters approach life. Orphans don’t have the luxury of receiving. And unfortunately I’ve seen many Christian leaders still live their lives as orphans, even when they understand the doctrinal truth of adoption. I am passionate about equipping and encouraging leaders to lead from whole hearts; giving them permission to cultivate identity not as something they can check off of a religious checklist, but as a way of living life connected to the family of Father God.

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As you embrace a life of following Jesus, you will be faced with the opportunity to become overwhelmed by the needs of the world. You will see needs everywhere around you. You will see poverty in the nations and brokenness in your neighborhood. Even in the lives of your disciples, you will be faced with the reality of your own limitations.

One of the most important things that every Kingdom leader needs to know is that God’s plan is not for you to be poured out and empty. It is good to have a heart to share every good thing that God wants to give to us, but in a dry and weary land the best way to bring a flood is to learn how to remain in the place where He fills our cup to overflow. If we allow Him to, God will pour into our lives, because of the value He places on our hearts, and then we can trust Him to refresh others out of that overflow.

I am stubbornly committed to persuading leaders of the necessity of living life from overflow, not so that you will have something to give to everyone else, but so you can continually come back to that place of knowing that the Father actually values your heart, and has more than enough for you

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Jesus modeled a commitment to building deep relationships with those He discipled. One of the things that I have learned while following His example is that it is easier to be excellent at disciple making when all of the pressure does not rest on me.

Because things have changed in our culture today, I think it is easy for us to categorize the calling of Andrew, Peter, James and John as the calling of four individuals. But Jesus didn’t approach them as individuals and say, “I will make you to become a fisher of men.” He approached two sets of brothers and said, “I will make you fishers of men.” In every story where we see Jesus sending out His disciples, He sends them out in pairs. Throughout the rest of the New Testament, we continue to see people being sent out to preach the gospel in pairs or in teams.
Please do not underestimate the importance of building a culture of disciple-making around you. As you give yourself to inviting others to follow Jesus, it should become natural for those people to become disciple-makers themselves. A community that carries the culture of disciple making and the identity of family takes more time and energy than words can express, but experiencing this aspect of the heart of God is worth it everything we have.

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