Am I being discipled?

We are all very familiar with the great commission in Matthew 28, "go and make disciples of all nations..." It is a clarion call to evangelism that we hear time and again, but we need to just have a double take, the call is not to go and 'get decisions' it is to go and "make disciples". A disciple is one who answers Jesus call to "Follow me", it is not hit and run evangelism Jesus calls us to but long term discipleship.

The gospels have much to say about the cost of discipleship, it is described as carrying your cross, it is costly, it involves rejection, it involves showing mercy to those who hate you... Discipleship is not easy, but as you read through the gospels you see Jesus gradually moulding the disciples, asking them challenging questions, confronting them, opposing them, giving them challenging tasks but always discipling them.

That's why come Acts the previously fearful apostles are ready to form the church, to lead it, to carry their crosses, to be persecuted, to be opposed, to face death. They know Jesus is the Messiah and they are witnesses of the resurrection and they have also been discipled, they have been trained, taught, and nurtured in the faith.

Is that going on today? Am I in a discipleship relationship? In our world of time constraints, deadlines and the like I wonder if this has been lost. If we want to see young people become the next generation of church leaders we must invest time into discipling them, if we want to grow in our faith we must ensure we are being discipled by someone older and wiser in the faith. It is what we see modelled with Paul and Timothy and as Paul writes to Timothy he says "what you have heard from me...entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." That is discipleship.

The challenge is will I make time for it? Will the church help facilitate it? How can it do so? We must because it is what we are called to do, disciples are fruit that lasts.