Dear Kingfisher family,
For the past three weeks my wife and I had two couples from Nagaland, India living with us during our most recent In-House training. The focus was on disciple-making, and we read through the whole of the gospel of Matthew, following Jesus step by step and learning from Him how to be a disciple and to make disciples.
As usual the experience was uplifting, spending quality time with believers from another culture and background, but it was also challenging as we had to be open to be impacted by the presence of the risen Christ in our midst while we read through this gospel.
What I learned from this process over the years is the following:
- We often read the Bible through the glasses of our own culture and tradition. When we are challenged by the cultural background of the time it was written in, it leads to new insights and surprising discoveries of what we missed previously. The experience of learning how to be a group of disciples following Jesus get’s new dynamics when we are from different cultural and language groups who have to put love into practice every step of the way.
- We experience being challenged by the person of Jesus himself. We hear what He says, see what He does and have to take the next step in following Him.
- Jesus demands from us to put what he taught into practice. Just knowing the truth is not enough. We have to live the truth.
- Discipleship is following Jesus step by step. It begins with a first step, but without taking every step behind Jesus as He walks out in front of us, we loose sight of Him as He fades in the distance. Following Jesus is beginning on a journey where He takes us along the route He chooses and to the destination He desires.
- Discipleship is a growth process where every step of the journey counts. Every teaching, experience or parable builds on the previous and leads to another step following Jesus. We cannot skip sections in think it is possible to join later on again. The sequence of hearing, seeing and putting into practice cannot be broken without disjointed growth. In Bible-study you can move on to the next interesting passage but in discipling the chain of teaching, experience, demonstration and following cannot be broken.
- Discipleship is all about personal transformation. Jesus calls us to follow with the promise to “make” us into what we are not yet with the promise that the outcome is to become a disciple-maker guiding others along the same road we just now walked.
Following Jesus in this way is intense, focused and transformative. We invite you to join either on-line or in person.
Your brother,
Pieter Steyn