Re-Thinking Discipleship

Explore. Imagine. Experience. Discipline. Relate. Train. Receive. Care. Act. Inspire. Understand. Enlighten. Grow. Transform.

These are words that describe the process of spiritual growth. Components of a challenge passed down to us from the red letters of Scripture and the generations who have gone before us. Though the word has grown stale and cold for many of us, it is the adventure of discipleship.

The pages of Scripture reveal anything but a dull life for the disciples. As far as we can tell, Jesus never herded his twelve Galilean buddies into a living room for an evening of cookies, Kool-Aid, and surface conversation and labeled it a “discipleship group.” Discipleship with Jesus was never reduced to a workbook of questions with obvious and simplistic answers. It was raw, active, in your face. People were being raised from the dead, demons were flying out of people, and Pharisees were being smacked upside the head (metaphorically speaking). And there was never a one-size-fits-all approach to anything.

Somewhere along the way, we replaced spiritual workouts with spiritual worksheets. How do we reclaim the adventure?