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Dear Discipleship-first Friends, This post is part of series by Discipleship.org leadership, which gives reasons why we believe that Jesus-style disciple making is the best path forward for families, ministries, and especially churches. I am joined by Curtis Erskine on this post. We champion Jesus-style disciple making, and we hope you will join us. I (Bobby) first learned the meaning of discipling relationships by being discipled—I was led to King Jesus and learned how to walk with him by my French professor at the University of Calgary. My professor also became a friend to my family, helping lead my mom, my dad, and my brother-in-law to faith. He discipled me in a relational, life-on-life, heart-to-heart way. He helped me become a true disciple, and it caused a hairpin turn in the trajectory of my life. I (Curt) have a completely different story of how I found Jesus-style disciple making. I grew up in a Southern, conservative, traditional, Bible-believing Baptist church where I came to believe in Jesus at a young age. However, even though I really did believe in Jesus, I was not taught to be a disciple of Jesus. Rather than the relationships and friendships within the church being used to teach me to imitate and obey Jesus, they were instead leveraged to teach me to be a disciple of our particular religious culture. While I was taught about Jesus and the Bible, it was always through a particular set of lenses that distorted everything. At a certain point, I realized that something was seriously wrong, but I had no idea what exactly it was. For King Jesus,
Bobby Harrington, Point Leader, Discipleship.org |
