MAKE DISCIPLES

When Jesus said, " Go and make disciples of all nations, He was describing a reality that goes all the way down into the texture of a person's daily life. A disciple is someone who is learning to live the way their teacher lives, being formed by the same values, the same habits, the same priorities, and the same willingness to lay down their own agenda for the sake of something larger than themselves. The work of making disciples is the work of bringing people into that kind of life and walking alongside them as they grow into it.

Luke 9:23 gives us the clearest picture of what Jesus meant when He said it Himself, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me".

Discipleship is a daily decision to follow a person, to keep saying yes to Him, even when saying yes is a costly decision. The goal of making disciples is to bring people into that kind of relationship with Jesus and walk with them patiently until it becomes the shape of their whole life.

The church grows when we get serious about the slower, less visible, more costly work of forming people into followers of Jesus who can then go and form others. That kind of growth is harder to measure than a headcount on a Sunday morning, but it is the kind Jesus was describing on that mountain, and it is the kind that lasts.

REFLECT
• Who is someone in your life right now that you could intentionally walk alongside as a disciple?
• What would it look like for discipleship to move from a programme in your church to a practice in your daily life?

PRAYER
Lord, You said make disciples, and I want to take that seriously as a way of living. Show me who to walk with and give me the patience to do it well. Amen.

TODAY'S READING: Matthew 28:19; Luke 9:23