Accidental Discipleship
Apparently I’m a “xennial” - not quite old enough to be part of Gen-X but not quite young enough to be fully embraced as a millennial either. I’m part of that unique microgeneration that had a predominantly analogue childhood but an ever-increasing digital adolescence. Perhaps that’s why I can remember both the pains and frustrations of using the A-Z street atlas and the joy, first at the introduction of electronic route planners, and then at the revealing of the sat-nav. The sat-nav really was an amazing invention; no longer would car journeys be subject to a family member’s interpretation of the A-Z, and now we could get to our desired destination with a lot more ease and a lot less stress.
When it comes to discipleship, some churches either have no roadmap or, if they do, they’re still working with the equivalent of an A-Z where there is not always an easily identifiable or clearly stated route forward. Some churches disciple by accident because they haven’t thought through their plan for moving people towards maturity in Christ - consequently some people may end up being baptised in water but not all; a few may receive prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit but, as there’s no plan for all to have that opportunity, it may take years before someone even knows that this is available to them. That’s why a discipleship pathway - a simple process for making disciples that outlines the intentional and practical steps to help people live the way of Jesus - is so paramount.
A Discipleship Pathway is like a satellite navigation system that both states and shows the directions for people to get from here (wherever they are now) to there (which as I blogged about here, ultimately means a closer relationship with Jesus, ever-increasing Christlikeness, and joining in on the mission of Jesus).
Everyone in our churches – whether they’ve been there for 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, 20 years or more - should be able to clearly understand their next step in their journey with Christ. They should be able to recognise movement and progress on their journey as they move from spiritual childhood to adolescence to adulthood and maturity.
No one pathway fits every context but if you’d like to see ‘LifeTrack’ - our discipleship pathway at City Church - see the images below. That said, I think there are at least four components to any pathway which can then be contextualised for each specific setting (and as church leaders, we must create relational environments for all this to happen); these are:
1/ coming to Jesus
2/ committing to Jesus
3/ being changed by Jesus
4/ co-missioning with Jesus.
Do you have a discipleship pathway? If so, I’d love to hear more. And here’s a shout-out to all you xennials - you rock!
3 of 3: Go back to Part 2
