Being a Disciple

A disciple, in addition to being a follower, is a learner. In the gospels, disciples of course were followers of and learners from Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The Matthew gospel (28:18-19) ended with Jesus commissioning us to "make disciples," to baptize them, and to teach them in accordance with His teachings.

Later, St. Paul in his letter to the Church at Ephesus, would explain that Jesus placed in the Church some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to equip the saints [disciples if you will] for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to maturity, to the full stature of Christ.

I understand the "making of disciples” to mean the connecting and baptism of the lost or unsaved or non-Christian or non-believer to God through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The equipping of the saints (disciples thus made) and the "building up of the body (all such saints or disciples takes place primarily at the local church level through the ministry of the aforementioned "apostles, prophets, etc.  It is the so built up body that transforms the world by reproducing after its own kind, i.e., by themselves making other disciples or at least getting them started on their way.

The transformation that the world undergoes is that disciples live and thrive in accordance with Kingdom principles--the will and the way of God.  Why?  That is what is meant by the "full stature of Christ."  It is God's heart's desire that we all be a bunch of Jesuses running around His earth.  Before He returned to heaven, Jesus said that not only would we do what He did, but even greater things. That is the end result of a transformed world.

That--to a certain extent--simplifies our task. As we examine Conference staffing, anything that does not create a disciple in the "full stature of Jesus" must be redirected to doing so. Selah.

Rev. Curtis DeVance