1. Religion
a. one of the 12 personal followers of Christ
b. one of the 70 followers sent forth by Christ. (Luke 10:1.)
c. any other professed follower of Christ in His lifetime.
2. any follower of Christ.
3. a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower: a disciple of Freud.
The question that faces American Churches and has for decades is "How shall we make disciples?" Rightly acknowledging that they cannot make anyone fit the first definition of a disciple churches usually target a merger of the second and third.
What I mean is this. If it's any follower of Jesus then it must be every follower of Jesus. That's the churches hope in form of expectation. In order to shape people into disciples churches then use knowledge based settings to do the job. Sunday School, Bible Study, Small Groups, devotionals, etc.
To make disciples we decided we would feed peoples heads.
Then came along groups of believers in Jesus who thought that works must be a part of this head knowledge. They were equipped with the Book of James. (Faith without works is dead) Thus poured forth discipleship programs based on getting people active and radical.
To make disciples we decided we would fill peoples calendars.
The apostle Paul put emphasis on mind renewal and trust. Trust our good God, trust His good Scriptures, trust the complete work of Jesus in you, trust that His way is better than your own, trust that God is bigger than our circumstances.
What if we decided to make disciples by feeding peoples trusters?
Might we all of the sudden experience a beautiful messy life of trusting enough to be free to fail and free to soar? Might we need a tad less study times (we still need some) and a tad less church activities on the calendar (we still need some) and load our days with conversation and prayer as we bear one another's burdens and encourage practical active and passive trusts in Jesus?
In my experience taking the time to know Life in my life creates a dependency and fruitfulness I cannot get on my own. Stuffing our heads and calendars and not knowing Jesus any better and not sinning any less is making us cynical.
Stuffing heads and calendars is how we build commerce, business, and winning sports teams but Paul would say do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Jesus told the disciples when He washed their feet He would have them lead differently. In humility. In trusting. In following.
