by Don Broesamle
Good discipleship is Biblical discipleship ... not necessarily in that order.
Biblical discipleship is what Christ delivered. So just what does that look like?
It is living before the Father and walking where He leads, and taking another along for the ride. It is seldom engaging in ministry alone when the opportunity is present to include another who can teach others also.
It is a listening and responding ministry versus a dictating endeavor. Mostly it is a loving and accepting ministry, offering life examples and course corrections as opportunity arises in the life of the younger believer (disciple).
It is giving away a portion of your own opportunity to the other so he may learn by doing, and failing, and then giving him another opportunity, much to his surprise.
It is demonstrating your joy for the other, that sees the best, hopes the best and believes the best, and then acts on that understanding, even at some risk.
It is allowing his criticism to pass your way, right or wrong, and using that criticism to teach him gracious humility, or a teachable spirit, or to pass back further understanding, without rebuking or limiting the other's freedom to speak. In reality, it is a two-way street, each "discipling" the other through life together.
It happens on golf courses, in duck blinds, in Bible studies, in hotel rooms. Ultimately, it is waiting on the Father to complete the work He has begun, and understanding it is not up to us to mold the other. (2 Cor. 3:5) It is an unwavering confidence in God Who is at work in the man or woman, and a diligent resting in that reality.
It is, as a late friend described it so accurately, "a presence ministry." It is you present to serve the other, but it is in reality the Master present in you. And it is the Master Who is seen and heard. It's not about you.
This is how my own mentor, Ray Stedman, lived as Christ to me, and by his faithful love convinced me that truly God loved me even more faithfully.
If this in some manner happens to describe your own earthly father's relationship with you, you are fortunate indeed. Sadly for many, it does not.
It falls to us to be this for those who yet need to learn the love of the Father.
It is "masterful". It is joy.
Don Broesamle (broesamle@earthlink.net)
November 6, 2005