Why do I need discipleship?

Here are some issues you may have considered:

  • I need someone to tell me who Jesus Christ is and what Christianity is all about.
  • I am a new believer but don’t know what to do next or who to ask for help.
  • I am a church member but seldom if ever experience all that is promised to followers of Jesus Christ.
  • I am frustrated, stagnated, or discouraged by cycles of commitment and apathy, progress and failure.
  • I struggle with my own weak devices and initiative to grow in Christ. It always seems just out of my reach.
  • I hear the challenges to become stronger, mature, and self-feeding but I just don’t know how to get there.
  • I want to help unbelievers come to Christ or help strengthen struggling believers but I need to be equipped.

Could it be that you've never decided to become a follower of Jesus as He defined it? Consider these wise comments from those who see discipleship to Jesus as the pathway to break-through on these issues:

It is enough (the minimum) that a disciple become like their Master. Jesus the Christ Matthew 10:25 emphasis added.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried”. G. K. Chesterton -What’s Wrong With the World

“If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but if the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a glad thing, but it is also a heroic, holy thing. It tests us for all we are worth. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.” Oswald Chambers – My Utmost for His Highest

“’Every Christian must see themselves as the link to the next generation,’ writes William Barclay. We need to practice the handoff. When all else fails, read the directions. It is not that Jesus' way has been tried and found wanting; it has been largely talked about but not implemented. We must return to small, reproducible, long-term relationships as the means of transmission of the gospel from one generation to the next.” Greg Ogden – Transforming Discipleship 

“The cost of non-discipleship is far greater than the price paid to walk with Jesus. Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated through with love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly the abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.” Dallas Willard – Spirit of the Disciplines 

“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” Richard J. Foster- Celebration of Discipline 

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer” – The Cost of Discipleship 

“Put first things first and we get second things thrown in. Put second things first and we lose both first and second things.” C. S. Lewis – God in the Dock 

“We do not become able to obey by merely trying to obey, but by becoming the kind of person who naturally does obey. That means our intention is to acquire, by intelligent effort and grace, the inward character of Jesus Christ Himself.” Dallas Willard – The Great Omission 

“Relationships of trust establish the environment of grace that best make disciples…. An environment of grace is a community in which disciples accept each other where they are, celebrate how God made them, and encourage each other to train to be godly.” Bill Hull –Choose the Life


For more detailed information, contact Bob Schweter or Donnie Cook.