by Jason C. Dukes: The following content is an excerpt from the eBook Inviting Along. Download your free digital version in your favorite format here.
Can we learn Jesus by ourselves? Can we learn Him apart from relationships that embody His teachings as well as His grace? Can we learn Jesus apart from living it out within community, from life together as He intended? Furthermore, in order to “make” a disciple, wouldn’t we have to live out these family-like relationships as light in darkness together among both those who have already believed Jesus as well as those who are yet to believe?
What is the goal of this thing we have called “discipleship” anyway? Is it just for me to know more about God? To better myself? To become a good person?
Let me pose another question before we dive into the suggested shifts from informational discipleship to relational disciple making the way Jesus did it?
Think about this: Is the goal of discipleship to make good individuals?
Let me ask it a different way. If the goal of discipleship is good individuals, then why did Jesus pray what He prayed in John 17? Check it out:
“I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in Me because of them and their witness about Me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, so they might be one heart and mind with Us. Then the world might believe that You, in fact, sent Me. The same glory You gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as We are—I in them and You in Me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that You’ve sent Me and loved them in the same way You’ve loved Me.” (John 17:20-23, The Message)…
Source: The Importance of Relationship