If you haven’t read the previous posts regarding FIRST things FIRST then I encourage you to do so. Using the acronym FIRST I believe that effective discipleship must be Foundational, Intentional, Relational, Situational and Transformational. Let me take a moment to look at RELATIONAL Discipleship.
Jesus demonstrated the power of relational discipleship by selecting a handful of guys and spending more time with them than anyone else. Mark 3:14 says, “He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” The first priority was to be with Jesus. That’s relational discipleship.
I’ve often heard messages on this regarding prayer and personal devotions. Speakers will often say something like the following:
- Your first priority as a minister is to spend time in prayer before you go out to preach.
- You’re called to a personal devotional life before you’re called to ministry.
- If you are not spending time with God before you preach then you will not be effective.
Now I believe all of these statements are true and can be supported by the Bible. I’m just not sure that this text is emphasizing that. I think it means what it says: Jesus wanted the disciples to spend time with him…in the flesh. Jesus was fully human. He walked and talked with these guys. He wanted to get to know them and he wanted them to get to know him. That’s relational discipleship.
To be effective in discipling others we must do it out of relationship. Simply sending someone to a Sunday School class or New Believers class just doesn’t cut it. The Bible says that iron sharpens iron and in the same way one person sharpens the other. You sharpen another person by spending quality time with them: walking with them, talking with them, and doing life together.
That’s relational discipleship.
That’s what Jesus did.
That’s what we should do.
So who are you discipling?
