A book on disciplehip

My friend Nathan sent me his book. And yes, he wrote this one. This book will be helpful in discipling new believers in the mission field. My wife and I are planning to start a discipleship class. In a country where nominal Christians abound, a strong discipleship program is badly needed.

Here is the blurb written at the back cover:

The New Testament describes the Church as a living organism, a body whose one head is Jesus but has many parts. It is a living community which is growing and who welcomes new members into its fold.

Who takes care of new followers of Jesus? The burden cannot be carried by the pastors and leaders only. This can be like the coming of a new baby into a family. Filipino families, in general, depend on a host of helping hands to take care of the new member of the family. There's ate and kuya, lolo and lola, auntie and uncle, friends and neighbors (if possible), and yaya for those who can afford it. Taking care of a new member of the family is a bayanihan effort. It takes a community to raise up a child.

In the same way, it takes a spiritual community to grow spiritual followers of Jesus. The more helping hands, the better. Here is where an ordinary believer can contribute to the vision of building up the kingdom of God where he is. Any maturing believer in Jesus can help by coming alongside a new follower of Jesus to help that person grow deeper and stronger in his or her relationship with the Lord. This book, Helping a New Follower of Jesus to Grow, is a tool for that kind of a growing relationship.

God works quietly and secretly among men and women who have surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. He does not apply a forceful power that cannot be resisted. God is rather like a man planting a seed. Its success depends on the type of soil in which it is planted. Like a mustard seed, its growth is slow and undetectable. Yet at a future day, Godliness will come out in great power and glory. What is so great about it is that God invites everyone who calls upon him as Lord and Savior to partner with him in his projects. Would you like to take a part in God's kingdom work? Try it and see how great a thing God can do in you and through you.

Congratulations Nathan for a work well done.

Discipleship

It's Saturday. All of us in the house thought that today is Friday. The five-day summer Bible camp has somehow disoriented us. It had been a busy week for us.

Meanwhile here is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about discipleship. I'm delighted to find a copy of book in a Resource Center in Chiang Mai about a month ago.

Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and , because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ.

With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps even to put it into practice; but it can never be followed in personal obedience. Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. And a Christianity of that kind is nothing more or less than the end of discipleship.

In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ. Because the Son of God became Man, because he is the Mediator, for that reason alone the only true relation we can have with him is to follow him. Discipleship is bound to Christ as the Mediator, and where it is properly understood, it necessarily implies faith in the Son of God as the Mediator. Only the Mediator, the God-Man, can call men to follow him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, pp. 63-64