Across The Street: Making A Global Impact In Your NeighborhoodSample

Jesus said it plainly, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” The word discipleship, the process of teaching disciples to obey all the commands of Jesus, is thrown around fairly casually in Western Christianity. But what exactly is discipleship? How do you do it? Is it discipleship if you lead a Bible study at church? Is it one-on-one accountability meetings? Is it encouraging people to attend church, worship, and read their Bibles regularly? The product of your discipleship efforts will show you the effectiveness of your discipleship process. And the product of discipleship efforts are, of course, disciples.

But what is a disciple, exactly? A disciple is a follower. A disciple follows someone and aspires to be like that person. That’s why Jesus called the twelve friends who followed him everywhere his disciples. Buddha had disciples. Confucius had disciples. Matt, my neighbor next door, who is a jiujitsu coach, has disciples. People come to him for learning. They want to be like him and fully devote themselves to do what their master does in his area of expertise.

Making disciples—or discipleship—is the process in which you invite a person (or more than one person) to participate in your life, encouraging that person to do what you do. All of us who profess to follow Jesus are disciples of Jesus. In the Gospels Jesus invited specific people into intentional discipleship relationships with him. He called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” (Matt. 4:19). He loved them, modeled service and obedience, asked questions, and provided experiences until his disciples learned what he wanted them to learn. He even sent his disciples out on practice runs on their own, telling them, “Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!” (Matt. 10:7–8). He knew they were catching it when they did what he did. Eventually, they grew into people who spoke and acted more like Christ, and the people around them did too. This is our goal as we seek to deepen our cross-cultural friendships into discipleship relationships.