Where Discipleship Begins

I often sit back and ponder how we as a family of believers have arrived at where we are today, and how we go about motivating others to join us in the captivating journey of being God’s chosen people.

I recently wrote and implemented a course of study titled, “The Doctrine of Discipleship.” I have field tested the course for the last three months in a small marginal community in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I then began to field test the course a second time in a city church which has just asked for guidance in building a church-wide evangelism program. Field testing is where I teach the course myself and fine-tune the material and teaching tips so that others can be trained to teach the same course. 

Getting back to the initial question of how we got to be where we are as a family of believers, I invariably come back to the simple fact that our community of faith has always promoted disciple-making.

As I began my second field test, I spoke about walking in the shoes of another; taking time to understand how another experiences life and the world. I took off my shoes and placed them in front of a young woman of 15. Her name is Sophia. I asked her to put on my shoes and inform me how they felt. She said they were a bit big, but otherwise OK. Then I asked her to walk across the street and speak to an older man who appeared to be drunk. Her goal was to invite this man into our church.

Sophia stopped dead in her tracks and said, “I can’t do what you do.”

I explained to Sophia that this is where discipleship begins, understanding that we can’t do what Jesus did, but walking together, we will be able to, in a limited fashion, be disciples of Jesus.

Written by Caspar Geisterfer. Caspar is a Resonate Global Mission missionary serving in Honduras. His wife, Leanne, serves with World Renew.