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.