A few years back a group of four guys and I decided that it was time to start learning things about God, Jesus, the scriptures, etc. at a level in which we had never known them before. The idea that we were just “passing on what we were taught” without exploring and understanding it ourselves began to ring deep within each of us. We wanted to not just gather, but explore life and the world TOGETHER. I guess you could say the “light bulb” went off. What happened in the next few years transformed each of us, and is the reason I find myself in Orlando starting a church.

This wasn’t a program we joined, it was something we just created. No study guide, just the Biblical text and some books we chose to help us understand more. Once we started we had no idea of the ramifications. A passion grew inside each of us as we discovered life transformational things about God and his design for our lives. We became engulfed with finding out as much as we could. Not just to know, but to live out in the world around us. Within that group of 5 guys, each one of us now find ourselves in different states, different roles, and playing new parts in helping change the world with message of Jesus.

That passion that started inside each of us didn’t stop within that group. Although many of us still spend a frequent amount of time in conversations, we each began to take the things we learned and find new people to grow, learn, and explore with. What we learned we found we couldn’t shut up about! It wasn’t something we were told to go do (well actually we were in Matt. 28 – I will talk about that later) but it was something we could not stop ourselves from doing.

Now 6 years later I find myself with a new group of 4 guys. This (picture above) is my discipleship, (In Hebrew = Talmidim, Haverim). Each week because we all don’t live in the same place, the 5 of us gather online in a video chat room for 1-2 hours to talk, discuss, pray, and grow with each other. The video chat room is nice, but it’s the emails, texts, phone calls and tweets that go on the other 6 days of the week that really shape the discipleship that is taking place. We find ourselves living life together in more ways than just a group meeting. Most of these guys are now transplanting their families in Orlando with us to take the things we have studied, learned, and discovered and use them to display Jesus to a new community.

Many people spend countless hours discussing, meeting, and attend conferences on what “discipleship” is and should look like. What we think of discipleship here in America is very different from the picture happening in scripture and the way discipleship happens(ed) from those in that culture. We try to box discipleship into some structure where we spend years trying to figure out how to make it work. After truly living together with a discipleship group for the these past years of my life, here are some things I have learned about it:

*Disclaimer: I believe this is a very organic thing that happens when people start living life together. Not a small group and Not a program. These lists are not “the list” just personal things I have found true in this journey.

Discipleship = life transformation & life imitation

Mark 1:16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

Hebrews 13: 7-8 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

What is visible in a disciple?
1. a transformed life
2. sacrifice
3. a passion to learn
4. obedience

How do you disciple?
1. Life TOGETHER! Through close connection & extensive time with people:
“a disciple, did not grasp the full significance of his teachers’ learning in all it nuances except through prolonged intimacy with his teacher, through close association with his rich and profound mind” (p. 55)
2. Your personal life becomes authentic and a model
3. Expand your way of life in the WORLD
4. Find yourself still passionate to be discipled:
*You are not above your discipleship group, you are an equal member in it. There is always something to learn!

What discipleship is not:
1. a quick fix:
“Our culture is fascinated with instant fixes and extreme makeovers… but discipleship has always been about a process” (p. 56)
2. a program:
It’s a life TOGETHER with God and others. Not a set time of the week.
3. an “accountability group”:
Its not a time for going through some check list to make sure you answer the questions right
4. an option:
This is the Great Commandment (Matthew 28) “to refuse to become Jesus’ disciple is to consign ourselves to perpetual childhood and condemn ourselves to a wasted, frustrating life.” (p.58)

*All quotes with page number are from “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus”

Discipleship is the mission that Jesus left us with. Discipleship does not equal “convert”. We have tried to simplify it to make it easy on us. Discipleship is a long, messy, time consuming, daily interacting process with people.

If your wondering how this happens? If its not found in a program than who can I do it with? How do I begin?

My answer is simple… it happens when you and others are truly ready to find life the way God originally designed.

Today is my wife’s birthday!

In moments like this you try and think of the best things to write about someone who means so much to you. I have begun to reflect over the years that I have been privileged to know the women who is partnering in life with me. The joy she brings, the ability to care for all people, to always (sometimes a little too much) suggest that she be the one to help, and how she never stops looking for fun in life.

She brings creativity, she brings laughter, and she brings a special vantage point to situations that I can promise most will never see She has big dreams, and yet she lives for that special connection in each small moment. She longs for a closeness with people, and yet never denies it from those seeking the same. She craves the feelings found in traditions (Christmas) and relishes the memories made within those times of life. She wants to make people smile, and will stay up late to make sure that someone else finds happiness in the form of something as simple as a photo.

Her desire is to find fun, exhaust each minute of the day given to her, and never leave a situation without finding a lasting memory to return to.

She loves kids, gives up herself for them, and spends hours drawing out the traits and gifts hidden with each of them. A model of a mother, and picture of grace.

She is loyal, she is trustworthy, she is naive (a good thing), she is honest, she is wise, and she is dedicated. She is beautiful, perfect, fragile, and innocent.

She is pure, she is honorable, she is lovely, and best of all… she is MINE!

There are many more reasons, but only a life lived with her would let you truly see them.

For many reasons and more… I love you Tandy Grandstaff.

Happy Birthday!

Although many days are tough, many seem to be difficult and have no end in site, my prayer is for you to keep going, find hope, and stay obedient to what God has asked you to do.

Romans 4:18 AGAINST ALL HOPE, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

[Genesis 15:1-6] After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”

2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.”5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Romans 4:19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, …

[James 1:2] Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom (wisdom = discernment in the trial), he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

… but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

[Philippians 1: 6] being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

[Ephesians 3: 20] Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Grace and Peace be with you today.

I will be sharing some thoughts on this book in the next few days. As for now, myself and four others are meeting weekly online to study and walk through the teachings in which this book gives us “new eyes & ears” into understanding the text and Jesus more clearly. A great book for anyone wanting to see more of what Jesus and scripture have to teach us.
Click Here Now – Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus – Ann Spangler / Lois Tverberg