HEALTHY DISCIPLESHIP
ARTICLE
Steering Clear of Abuses
In over 42 years in Christian ministry, 30 as a pastor, I have seen many abuses regarding discipleship. I've seen movements come and go—some different, most basically the same by different names. I've done things right in discipleship and done things wrong. I've learned that mentoring and discipleship, for many reasons, needs to be conducted prayerfully and carefully. Discipleship that begins as valuable and rewarding can become abusive and unhealthy. What begins as freedom can turn into bondage. What began as counsel can become control and what was once healthy and enriching can become rancid and rigid. What begins with anticipation and joy can end in disappointment and heartache.
Discipleship must be from alongside and never cross the line into control. Discipleship is healthy when a disciple is very much kept
his own person, very much kept the Lord’s disciple.
Discipleship requires the disciple gaining knowledge of biblical truths, acquired by diligent study. However, discipleship also requires the disciple’s prompt response with action based on this acquired knowledge. Otherwise, everything just becomes cerebral. This kind of discipleship only results in a lifeless heart and a heavy head, packed with dead dogma.
We learn to walk by faith in Jesus’ Lordship, filled with His Spirit, obedient to His Word, becoming an overcomer by His power, a disciple of His making, a minister for His salvation, becoming a recipient of His triumphant victorious Christian life; this is what discipleship is all about.
There are just too many man-made discipleship programs, manufacturing man-made disciples. Healthy disciples are always divinely designed and divinely developed.