Disciples...

Jesus chose His disciples from the common people. Four of them were fishermen, one was a tax collector, we're not sure what the others did before Jesus came into their lives but suffice it to say they were probably involved in the family business. He chose these men to preach, teach and lead. He called them to set up, plant and grow churches. Most of the disciples were untrained (in anything other than the family business), uneducated and in many ways not spiritual in worldly terms. He didn't raise them to lofty positions. He simply called them to make disciples of their friends and neighbors...who would then make disciples of their friends and neighbors. Thus the cycle begins and grows.

Why then have we made it so hard? We leave the task of making disciples to the “experts”...preachers, teachers, youth leaders. We send them for training and throw money at them. Some are brilliant leaders...but where did we ever get the notion that it was “their” job? When did we abdicate our position in God's Kingdom? Is it because it's too hard? We might be ridiculed? We're too apt to play a numbers game and thus make it a competition? We don't have the time? We don't want to expose ourselves or our feelings?

Should we not simplify the nature of making disciples? Each new disciple of Christ reaches out to help make another. Think of the possibilities if this was one of our primary duties...the churches we have now could scarcely contain all the new members. The task is not to be the greatest disciple, it is to make as many disciples as possible.