Discipleship That Works…

By Smokey Hurst

Jesus calls us to work together with Him in reaching the world.  His last words were not “Go and evangelize all nations” nor was it for us to “go and preach to all nations” Do I believe that these two things need to happen all over the world?  Absolutely.  My issue is when we start calling discipleship something that it’s not.  We are commanded to “go and make disciples of all nations.”  The meaning of the word that Jesus uses for disciples is “to make a duplicate of oneself.”  The discipler needs to evaluate themselves based on the qualifications that Paul gives in I Timothy 3.  For discipleship that works it cannot be merely just getting together for coffee and sharing stories about ones life or just be small talk that ends in prayer.  Discipleship is investing into someone’s life and getting dirty, allowing your heart to be broken by him or her time and time again.  Look how many times the disciples broke the heart of Jesus.  Discipleship is a relationship not a project.  Projects you can stop and start at any moment where as relationships are an on going process.  Your role is not that of the Holy Spirit.  College students just left home where sometimes parents tried to play the role of the Holy Spirit.  Meaning they were told what to do and expected to follow without question.  Your role is to pour your life into the students and allow them to think and process.  This is the stage in their lives where the reasoning and processing skills are developed.  College students don’t want to be treated as a project, but as a person. 

Discipleship is different from mentoring as mentoring is closely related to accountability.  Mentoring should happen more with older students mentoring younger students.  Discipleship that really works and changes lives occurs when the discipler gets dirty and involved in people’s lives.  You must confront and call out sin, don’t just merely discuss prayer, scripture memory, evangelism, reading the word, accountability, etc., but live it out with them.  Put into practice the things that you discuss, lead them in actually doing the disciplines.  They don’t only need information about these things, but rather need someone to live it out with them.  Someone that discipled me back in college asked “Smokey do you want to learn how to pray?” Of course I said yes, and I got out my notepad and was ready to learn.  The next thing I saw was him on his knees and he told me to do likewise.  We spent the next hour praying.  I learned more about praying by praying with men of God then I have ever learned from reading books about prayer.  Discipleship is not a project it is a relationship and relationships are dirty.  For discipleship to work you cannot be afraid to get dirty.

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