The young man made the decision to follow Jesus on the beach on a beautiful spring night. He looked at the leaders of the group and said, “I know I needed to do what I just did. But I have a question, ‘What did I just do?’” I loved his question on the beach in Cocoa Beach as this young man had been someone we had been sharing the Gospel with for several months. The Holy Spirit met him on the beach and he knew he needed to say, “Yes.” Yet in his saying, “Yes,” it brought new questions and a desire to know more.
How often when someone comes to Christ for the first time do we celebrate with them and then leave them to their own devices to figure out the details of their decision? How often do we invite people who decide to follow Jesus to live in fellowship, community, and relationship as they begin their process of growing?
Jesus commands us “to make disciples,” not to make “converts.” We read in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus’ call on our life as mature believers is to do more than put a notch in our proverbial belt of another person who makes the decision to follow Jesus. His call is to celebrate the new follower of Jesus, while committing our lives to walk with the person as they begin to grow in Christ.
We see this active in the way the disciples organized the new believers in Acts 2:42-47. We see them:
They were teaching what Jesus had commanded them and they were living in an intimate relationship with one another where the closeness of their lives created opportunities for each person to share their needs and to have those needs met. Just as the disciples had a common purse, the disciples seem to organize these early believers into community much like they experienced in their life with Jesus. They did not send the 3,000 who were added to their number (Acts 2:41) to live on their own, but through their invitation to live in community and fellowship with one another, we see in verse 47 that “the Lord was adding to their number each day those who were being saved.”
We are called to a life of discipleship based in community and fellowship. This discipleship goes beyond the Sunday morning gathering for worship where a person hears a message and goes home. It moves to a point of transformation where each day is another step in the believers maturing in their relationship with Christ. As we disciple and are being discipled, we grow together in our relationship with Christ, our relationship with one another, and our relationship with ourselves as we become more aware of God’s design and desire for our lives.
Living the Adventure Ministries is seeking new ways to engage people in the discipleship adventure where we witness the ongoing growth within people who are following Jesus. It is our desire to move past the era of conversion to a deeper place of growing discipleship where life begets life, accountability is strong, and shared discipline helps us build one another up to love and do good works.
How are you engaged in discipleship? Are there people with whom you are regularly meeting for regular encouragement, accountability, and growth? How are you making disciples as you grow in your own discipleship adventure?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for inviting us to be part of a fellowship and relationship where we help one another grow in our relationship with you. Forgive us for the times we have not engaged new believers into these deeper relationships. Give us a vision for how we can be better disciple-makers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.