Tag: Discipleship

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Simple Discipleship Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Dana Allin

  • Discipleship is more of a journey than it is an event. 
  • Making disciples is the primary task to which Jesus calls us.
  • Many churches know that making disciples is a core value of the church, and will even put it in their mission statement, but are failing at doing it.
  • Discipleship, which is helping others love Jesus more, has too often been overcomplicated.
  • A reason we’ve failed in making disciples is because we do not have a clear, Biblical understanding of what a disciple of Jesus is to look like. 
  • If the church helps people love God with their heads and hands, yet not with their hearts, they’re doing a great disservice.
  • As churches, we sometimes confront discipleship as everyone needs to grow in the same areas, but that is not always the case.
  • We are not only saved by grace, but we continue to grow in grace as disciples of Christ.
  • Discipleship is so much more than dispensing information. A big misconception is that the more information we have, the more transformation will occur.
  • True discipleship is about being transformed.
  • Discipleship transformation does not happen at a microwave speed.
  • To disciple, a person should know you care for them and they’re not just a project. 
  • True growth takes time and intentional effort.
  • A mistake in discipleship is feeling you have to be a mentor, which is one who has more experience. It is good to see yourself as a coach, which doesn’t mean you are better than the other person, yet you are drawing out the best of the other person.
  • Clarify your goal as where you want the person to be after completing discipleship.
  • Be careful as you give advice. Do not try to offer solutions for everything they ask, rather ask questions questions that will help them think through what they need to do.
  • If you can help disciples, think for themselves, they will be better prepared to disciple others in the future.
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Real-Life Discipleship Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tom Cheshire and Tom Gensler 

  • You can’t give away what you don’t possess.
  • If you were in a room of people and asked them about discipleship, almost everyone of them would refer to a person that helped them in their life.
  • Preaching is essential, but your preaching is not discipleship. 
  • Discipleship is 2 Timothy 2:2 in action.
  • Discipleship is the process of spiritual growth.
  • Jesus was not just telling disciples to be like Him, He was showing them how to live God-centered lives.
  • Discipleship is one individual investing in one or more other individuals on a consistent basis.
  • Which results more in your children listening — what you tell them to do or what they see you do? And this is what discipleship is about as well. 
  • You can and should be a disciple, as well as a disciple maker. 
  • You need to know who you are, but you also need to know Who’s you are. 
  • If you want others to follow your example, you must have been discipled and be discipling others.
  • Discipleship is not about perfection, but about progress.
  • Luke 6:12–13 teaches that before Jesus chose the disciples, He spent time in prayer.
  • Jesus always spoke to His Father. We would be wise to realize we cannot do anything on our own, we need God’s help. 
  • Discipleship is more caught than taught. Do not overcomplicate discipleship; recognize how Jesus walked and spent time investing in others.
  • Much of what you need to do with those you are discipling is to love them. 
  • In Luke 8, we see only 25% of the seed sown bears fruit. We should not be surprised that not everyone we disciple will bear fruit, but we still do our duty. 
  • The growth of an individual is not like a mushroom that shoots up quickly, rather like an oak that grows over a long period of time.
  • Discipleship is relational, it is life-on-life.