What is a disciple?

In his book, The Intentional Church, Randy Pope challenges us to define what a disciple should look like. Although we give lip service to discipleship, few of our churches have ever defined what a disciple is and how he or she should live. We spend a lot of time and energy on the process of making disciples, but we seldom stop long enough to actually determine what the end product should look like. Jesus taught us that it was by our fruits that people would know that we are Christians, not by how much we know.

This sums up a lot of what we do in the church. We focus on programs and processes without ever determining what we are actually trying to do. The church is in the transformation business. Part of our function, according to the Great Commission, is to lead people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and then to help them become disciples of Christ. We spend a lot of time developing programs and providing training, but we seldom measure the results of our efforts. Do our efforts produce disciples of Jesus Christ, and how will we know that if we never determine what a disciple should do and be?

I would encourage your church to spend some time discussing this and coming up with a clear image of what a disciple should look like. If you need some help with this, Randy Pope provides the expectations his church has for a disciple. Your definition will probably be a little different, but it might be a good place to begin your discussion. I think all our churches would benefit if we became more intentional about what we are doing, and making disciples is a good place to start.