One of the great lacks of the church in our time is Biblical discipleship. Jesus focused most of his time and ministry around this task, and his last commandment is very clear. He doesn't tell us to go and build churches or make people pray a prayer, he asks us to go and make disciples! A disciple in this context is a follower of Jesus Christ, one that is "caught" by Him and His love, and desires to walk with Him, trust Him and obey Him! (Matt 28:18-20).

This is where everything gets started. Jesus is the center and source of the Christian life. You could actually say that He is the Christian Life (John 14:6, Col 3:4).
Discipleship starts with getting connected with Jesus Christ. He is a real person, and our lives as Christians is about knowing Him and live in a personal, intimate relationship with Him.
Without Jesus the Bible says that we're dead in our sins (Eph 2:1), but when we are connected with Him we have life, and life abundantly! (1 Joh 5:11-12, John 10:10).

But how do we get connected or connect someone to Jesus? Well, He made it all available to us by grace through His death and resurrection! We only have to receive it by TURNING to Him and TRUSTING Him to make it a reality in our lives (Mark 1:15, Eph 2:8-9). We give up our own life and surrender it to Him, then we receive His life (!!!) which is a sinless, holy, eternal, abundant... etc. and real LIFE! (Luke 9:23-24).
It's an actual exchange that takes place. He makes His death a reality in our lives, to put our sinful nature to death; and He makes His resurrection a reality in our lives, so that He can live His life in and through us! Salvation is a miracle!

This is what baptism in water symbolizes.
He also wants to fill us to overflowing with His Spirit (Acts 2:38), who brings the power and presence of God into our lives!

The new life - that is, getting connected to Jesus and having received Him as our Lord - is all about a personal relationship with God! (John 17:3).
It's not about rules and regulations in order to please God, but about being a new creation that is continually being transformed into the image of God's Son Jesus Christ.
Through prayer - listen, talk and fellowship with God, a two-way-communication line - we can experience God's presence in our lives and respond to His will. Through reading and studying the Bible (God's Word) God will reveal Himself to you and give you from His own wisdom!

Jesus said: "Go and make disciples, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all that I have commanded you." (Matt 28:19-20)

To be a disciple is a lifestyle, not a one time event! We follow Jesus every day, all the time, and we teach others to follow Him also.
Jesus says that if we love Him we will also obey Him (John 14:15). We will truly let Him be our Lord, not only in theory but in reality! (Luke 6:46).

As already stated, the call to follow Him is first of all a call to a personal relationship with Him (1 Cor 1:9). Through that relationship He will enable you to listen to Him, grow in the knowledge of His will, and mature - both spiritually and in all areas of life.

We need to let His will be done. It's our choice how we respond to what He reveals to us. Do we let His will be done or do we try to get things our own way? As disciples we don't own our lives anymore. Jesus payed a price for us and now He owns us!

What do we teach our disciples? First of all, it's the practice - not simply the "knowing of" - of being a follower of Jesus Christ. God doesn't want hearers only, but doers of His Word (Jam 1:22), and it is in this "exercise" that we find our joy (John 13:17, Jam 1:25).

We train our disciples to:
- Fellowship with God and develop a deep relationship with Him.
- Read the Bible, since the Bible is the Word of God and where we find revelation about God and His will. The Word of God is spiritual food and provides light for our souls.
- Be a natural witness of what Jesus has done in their lives. We share Christ because we believe everyone is lost without Him!
- Share the everyday life with other disciples of Jesus. We are one family, and many times have great need of each other.
- Serve and put others best first! The Bible says that every believer has been given some spiritual gifts to use to build up each other and show God to the world. It can be healing, teaching, prophecy, leading... and many other things (see Rom 12:4-8, 1 Cor 12:7-11, Eph 4:11-12).

How do we disciple someone?
We look at Jesus! He didn't have a school class or a seminar to put His disciples in, He Himself was the "school". He lived with them, walked with them, ate with them, went fishing with them, travelled with them, ministered with them, prayed with them... And all the time He showed them His life and ministry through His personal influence and friendship! They were taught without knowing it at first.

When we disciple someone, we start with being friends, and through that relationship we show what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We answer their questions and teach them directly in the situations they face rather than only giving a theoretical lesson in advance. We point them to Jesus and to His Word, so that they will learn to "eat" by themselves, and not becoming dependent on our or other people's interpretations...

A part of becoming born again is that you get a new family - you get connected with other sisters and brothers in the "God-family". The Bible says that one sign of the new birth (salvation) actually is that we get a special love for our fellow Christians (1 John 3:14).

The Bible says that we as believers are a body - the body of Christ! (1 Cor 12:27). We are connected to each other no matter if we want to or not. It's family!

We are to love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, honor one another, edify one another, comfort one another...etc. We share life and Jesus together, and He is ministering to us also through each of us!

When we meet, everyone have something to share (1 Cor 14:26). It's not a one-man-show!
One of the most central parts of our gatherings is the breaking of bread, or "communion" as many call it. We eat bread and wine together as a celebration and remembrance of what Jesus has done for us on the cross! Through this meal we also manifest the unity of our fellowship (His Body) and get to know each other better!

We also worship God together, pray for each other as anyone has needs, and study the Bible to grow together in knowledge of God and His will. God wants to use each and everyone of us to build one another up!

The message about Jesus Christ is "the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes" (Rom 1:16) according to the Bible. We believe it is the best Good news there ever is, and that every human being on this planet needs to receive Jesus to be saved!

Jesus also told His first disciples to spread this message to the whole world (Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47-48, Acts 1:8). As disciples, we are a part of this movement. We have heard it from someone, and now we can pass it on to someone else! Disciples make disciples! We multiply, and spread the wonderful "disease" of salvation!

Reproduction is natural for all kind of life. The Bible says that we as believers in Christ are determined by God to "bear fruit" (John 15:16). Fruit doesn't only taste good, but it's main purpose is hidden within it - seeds! In one fruit there can be many seeds, and every seed can become another tree, that in turn can carry many more fruits, with more seeds... It never ends.
The "secret" with discipleship is disciples that make disciples that make disciples that make even more disciples...etc. Jesus didn't focus on the big crowds, He invested His time and energy in a small group of 12 men. They were to be equipped to carry the message and multiply themselves!

When you disciple someone it is very much like being a mentor. You are their personal coach. You are the example that points them to Jesus until they've matured enough to follow Him by themselves.
As a mentor you're being both a disciple and a discipler, a mentee and a mentor! At the same time as you follow Jesus, and have your human mentors as counsellors in the faith, you are discipling others. We're on a journey together, and Jesus is our big Teacher and Rabbi!

Now we come to the issue of "church" and what it is. Church-planting is a common word among Christians today. In fact, Jesus never told us to start any churches, He said that He - not we - would build His church (Matt 16:18). But He told us to make disciples (to plant and build people), and as we will see, this will lead to churches. Where people start to believe in Jesus you will soon find some kind of fellowship between these people.

In the Bible the word church is never used for a building, an organization, or a meeting! The word (ekklesia) is used exclusively about the people that believes in Jesus Christ. It's the fellowship of disciples, the community of sisters and brothers in the "household of God", the body of Christ on this earth.

The first Christians had very simple churches. Often they met in their homes for fellowship, worship, prayer, teaching, baptism, breaking of bread...etc. This made it easy for these groups to spread and multiply themselves!

A pastor named Neil Cole said something like this: "We want to lower the bar for what it means to be church, and higher the bar for what it means to be a disciple". He saw 800 new small churches started in one year all across America!

When we focus on making disciples, we will automatically get church (that is, the fellowship of believers). But when we focus on building church we can easily end up using the people as a mean to our end, and we're not guaranteed that we get disciples!

Don't misunderstand me. Church is a wonderful, God-made, "thing". It's the beautiful Bride of Christ! It's the expression of Jesus Christ on this earth! But we must never forget that church is the people, and that it's the job of Jesus to "build it" (it becomes better that way).

If we want to have groups/churches that multiply - and when we talk about multiplication we're talking about more people being connected to Christ and starting to follow Him, which in turn leads to more groups/churches - we need to be focusing on disciple making.

According to the New Testament, leaders in the church are to equip EVERY believer to minister (Eph 4:11-12). A leader is not the one to do everything, but rather to inspire and encourage everyone to expect God to use them. If we equip everyone to personal evangelism, disciple-making, and realization that it's not difficult to "have church" at home, the chances are that we will start to see multiplication! Don't add any extra-biblical demands. Rather, cut away everything that is not necessary or simple enough to copy!

Let's NEVER forget that is's all about Jesus!
Paul said: "I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who He is, then Jesus and what He did - Jesus crucified" (1 Cor 2:2, MSG).

He is the Beginning and the End; the Father's beloved Son; The Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Everything is created by Him and for Him, even you and me! He is our Life, our Way to the Father, and the Truth that sets us free! Everything in Universe is centered around Him, and He holds everything together! Our Christian lives should also be centered completely around this Man, our Lord and Savior, our Bridegroom and eternal Love!

We can do nothing of eternal value without Him (John 15:5), and we need Him desperately as disciples and disciple-makers!

Discipleship comes down to being loved by and love Jesus, to trust Him with everything we are and have, to live for one goal only: His glory in and through our lives, and then to share this life with others during the way...

God is being glorified when we are being Jesus' disciples (John 15:8). Logically, He must also be glorified by others becoming His disciples.

Be blessed as you "go and make disciples"! And don't forget to enjoy the ride as Jesus Himself promised to be with us always as we do this!