If modern-day disciple making had a rally cry it would be, “Discipleship is so easy anyone can do it.”
A sentence-full of medicinal encouragement to overcome doubt; a message so sweet it goes down smooth. A message so sought after that it’s frequently repeated.
If you’re anyone, then you can disciple someone.
Anyone thinks:
“Maybe I can do this. Maybe I should. I’m not just anyone. I’m someone.
I’m not all flaws. This leader believes in me. After all, how hard could it be?
Here’s a book. Read it first. Listen and agree. Show me the ropes then set me free.
Next, I’ll give ‘em a book. They’ll read it first. They’ll listen and agree.
I’ll show ‘em the ropes and set ‘em free. Rinse and repeat.
Again and again. See, look at me!
I too, can help others learn about that poor man who hung on a tree.”
Discipleship so easy anyone can do it?
I’m not sure He’d agree.
If it’s so easy why’d He say, give up everything or you cannot be? Why do disciples have to love their enemy?
If it’s so easy why’d the Twelve have to daily carry their own tree? Why’d He have to train them for more than three?
If it’s so easy why’d He talk of the plank in my eye? Why’d He bid me to come and die?
Discipleship is so easy anyone can do it?
Now that I’ve tried it I cannot agree.
If it’s so easy why do first conversations come with fear? Why does it fall apart in under a year?
If it’s so easy why does fruit rot on the tree? Why won’t they go multiply like me?
If it’s so easy why does it hit my wound when I try? Why does it feel like my prayers don’t reach the sky?
Discipleship so easy anyone can do it? I disagree.
Discipleship calls us to impact and intimacy; neither are easy. Being a disciple requires Jesus in me. Making more requires maturity.
Making disciple makers demands all of me.
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Find this helpful? Want to grow as a disciple or disciple maker? Check out my books: The Bicycle Illustration and The Foundation of a Disciple Making Culture. Not a reader? Check out my Podcast, “The Practitioners’ Podcast” for short, hyper focused disciple making episodes wherever you get podcasts!