Disciplemaking Part 2

I raised the question in my previous blog, "What happened to disciplemaking?" Recently I attended a seminar session where an individual who had written a book on discipleship was leading. A key approach involved a personal self assessment of church members as to how they were growing as disciples. The aspect of self assessment is critical, but this individual's approach had all the questions in the assessment geared overwhelmingly toward church program activities. Instead of the old six point record system, you could not have a 40 point or an 80 point record system.

Let me say clearly that church program activities are not bad except where they keep the individual from being involved in the best activities. I am convinced you cannot evaluate a person's level of commitment to following Jesus by gauging how many church events or activities they participate in. Neither can you simply ask about their "quiet time" or daily Bible reading or study and get a clear answer.

First, we must ask, what does a committed follower of Jesus look like? The answer is "Jesus!" Our job is to encourage people to grow their lives so that that think like Jesus and act like Jesus. Are they compassionate? Do they love even their enemies? Are they outwardly focused? Do they engage the world's people where they are? All of these are good question to ask.