Personal Theology of Discipleship Essay

Hull, Bill. The Disciple-Making Church: Leading a Body of Believers On the Journey of Faith. Updated ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010.

Jesus then goes from speaking to His disciples specifically, to calling out to the whole crowd, in which He goes from speaking plainly to once again speaking in metaphors and riddles. Within this passage Mark uses the words of Jesus to reveal the true cost of discipleship. He tells the crowd that if anyone chooses to come after Him then the condition of that decision is that they must take up their cross and follow Him. So one must ask: What does it mean to deny yourself? What does it mean to take up your cross? And when you follow Him where are you going? So then one must put this into context by looking at what has not yet happened in Mark. When Jesus denies Himself, He is essentially denying the human instinct to self preserve through a fight or flight response. When Jesus picked up His cross, He was deciding to be rejected, tortured, mocked and falsely accused on His way to Calvary where He died for the sins of all. Therefore, if you want to go after Jesus, you must be willing to commit to sharing the gospel with others at all costs, you must be willing to tortured, mocked, and falsely accused and you must also be willing to die, not necessarily for anything that you have done, but so that others can reach salvation. Historically, during this time period, the cross was a well known style of execution in Rome, and so although one reading this might see this as simply a metaphor, it is actually a foreshadowing of reality, which can be seen in the fact that all the

According to Early & Dempsey, “a disciple is a person, while discipleship is a process. A disciple is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ who is intimately involved in the mission of Christ. On the other hand, discipleship is the process of moving the disciple towards spiritual maturity and the mission of Christ. Being a disciple is God’s perfect will for every individual life; however, discipleship is God’s will for every individual church” [1]

According to Bill Hull, “While certain pockets of evangelicalism have grown, overall, the church is in a decline. Many congregations can attest to Hull’s assessment, in that, churches in America are indeed experiencing sharp declines in its numbers of baptisms and church attendance. Over

Looking up the word disciple in an English or Greek dictionary yields similar meanings. The English language defines it as, “A person who is a pupil or an adherent to the doctrines of another; follower.” (disciple) The Greek simply defines it as, “A learner or pupil.” (Strong 45) The most common definition of a disciple is someone who follows behind or one who is learning from another. While the Bible does build upon the idea of following and one who learns from another, there is an additional element to be seen. In Luke 14:25-35 Jesus shares the heart of a disciple. (Schadt) The first aspect is hating one’s family and even their own life. Without complete devotion to Christ there is not any progress in the Christian walk. A disciple is one who loves God more than he loves his own flesh. Second, he must carry his cross and follow Jesus. In the time of the Roman Empire carrying one’s cross visualized one’s agreement that the Empire’s death sentence was proper condemnation. In the same way Jesus asks for meek submission in aligning yourself with His mission and purpose by carrying your cross. (Walvoord, John F.; Zuck, Roy B.; Dallas Theological Seminary; 243) The last characteristic of a disciple is giving up everything. Sacrifice of all the heart holds dear. Once again this shows where the allegiance lays. Is it in the physical securities of possessions or is it in

This five-step process begins by creating a definition for what it is we are addressing as disciples. It’s important to ask the question “what is…” because it helps us distinguish from other topics that are closely related. For example, if we are talking about what discipline is, we would want to distinguish if we are speaking about the punishment of a child, the act of training in a habitual manner, or a branch of knowledge. Our world is a very complicated, intricate, and interwoven place. Though people often want things to be straightforward, they’re not always that simple. It’s important to define exactly what we’re talking about in order to understand the topic as clearly as possible.

was owed a great sum of money by one of his servants. The king let the

Theology can seem like a scary word to some people. For some, this word evokes images of large libraries and stuffy book lovers sitting on the library floor reading huge volumes of work by the like Karl Barth 's Church Dogmatics or H. Orton Wiley 's three-volume Systematic Theology. For others, you picture a university or seminary where professional pastors and future professors go, but come back to your local church with bigger words and ideas than you can account for on your child 's language arts homework. And still for some, the idea of some professor sitting in an ivory tower writing and scheming up some new and novel idea just trying to make your life miserable that is surely unbiblical. Surely, it 's not something for the

Another way evangelism relates to the Christian walk is that we as Christians relate to each other. Wheeler and Whaley remind us that it is important for the members of the church to get along and love one another. I was going on a witnessing tour through our neighborhood and came across a home that was filled

Discipleship is the study of theology, having a religion, and being a follower of Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had many themes and studies pertaining to discipleship. Throughout his book Bonhoeffer shared his views and the way he sees discipleship. I learned about Bonhoeffer’s writings on the call to discipleship, discipleship and the cross, discipleship and the individual, and the church of Jesus Christ and discipleship. By learning discipleship through Bonhoeffer it allowed for me to broaden the way I view theology and the following of Christ. The themes in this book allow for one to grow in their theological outlook.

Leaving the disciple making process to chance, or to coincidental occurrence, is negligence at best. Reliance on the Holy Spirit in this process,

Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the

As humans we are constantly seeking for ways to satisfy our needs. We look in different sources that will give us temporally satisfaction; however, we end up failing. As sons and daughter in Christ we tend to walk searching for other sources to satisfy us. We consider things we “wish” we had on a daily basis; by our way of thinking we are actually saying that Jesus is not enough to fulfill our every need. One thing that it is vital to keep in mind is that Christianity is not about religion, but it is about a person. Encountering Jesus is not a one time event, but it is a continual encounter. Learning how to plug into the real source is the first step of spiritual formation. It is a process that requires a willing heart.

One of the most difficult questions a Christian is often asked is where they are in their spiritual journey. Celebration of Discipline helps us understand the important aspects that help deepen our faith. Foster writes that there are three categories of disciplines me must learn: inward, outward, and corporate. Each category has four subcategories. I believe that prayer, service, and worship are the most essential in spiritual growth.

Discipleship can be defined as submitting oneself to the control of the Spirit in order to become progressively and holistically conformed to the image of Christ for the reconciliation of all people and things into right relationship with God—the triune God. It doesn’t look the same in every situation. Discipleship is based out of relationship, horizontally, being between people, and vertically, being between God and His people. Relationships with people cannot exist without relationship with God. And God is love. Therefore, discipleship is all about love. Love is never passive, but it is a verb, which always is a response through an action. Love is active.