D17 Review

For the last 17 weeks, we've been discussing the "D17" - Seventeen Truths of Discipleship. There are more than 17 truths, and one could generate a completely legitimate list that differs from this one. Rather than trying to be the definitive list on discipleship, we would rather just focus on how a list like this can stimulate us to think about discipleship differently and seriously.

Discipling is the thing Jesus told the Church to do as the Church. His commission to us is not, "Get to heaven" or "Keep your nose clean" or "Pursue the American Dream with a Christian twist," but "be about the business of discipling all people groups" (my paraphrase). Therefore, we absolutely must have strong and clear convictions about the thing Jesus commissioned us to do.

Below is the list of 17 all together in one place. I encourage you to copy or print this list, keep it in front you, and spend some serious time reading, contemplating, processing, and reacting to it. What ideas about discipleship challenge you? What life changes are needed to be more serious about discipling others?

The impact of a list like this should be lifelong changes in convictions and habits. This will only happen by intentionality on your part. That's it ... no good intentions, no haranguing on my part, no feelings of being convicted will change a thing. Only your decision and action to be intentional. This is what Christ gave for His Church to do. Do I take that from Him slightly or seriously? Will we take this seriously as a family? Will we take this seriously as a church?

1. Discipleship is the process of moving from unbelief to belief in every area of your life in light of the Gospel (Mk 9:21-24)
2. Discipleship must be Spirit-led, because only He can reveal spiritual truth (Jn 16:8-11; 1 Cor 2:9-16)
3. Discipleship must be Gospel-saturated (1 Cor 15:1-11)
4. Discipleship must be community-based (Phm 1-3; 1 Thess 1:1; Lk 10:1)
5. Discipleship must be individually-tailored, based in one’s identity in Christ (Jn 21:21-22)
6. Discipleship must be holistic (Mk 12:28-31; Mt 23:23; Jms 1:27; 2:15-16)
7. Discipleship needs to be frequent and long-term (Jn 15:26-27)
8. Discipleship has to be modeled and experienced (Jn 13:12-17)
9. Jesus’ kind of discipleship is mostly unscheduled but very intentional (both organized and organic) (Mk 8:27)
10. Every moment is a discipleship opportunity (Mk 8:14-21)
11. Discipleship is going to be others-focused, especially the least of these (Mt 25:40; Lk 7:18-22)
12. We would never raise kids the way that most churches try to raise disciples (1 Tim 3:4-5)
13. Discipleship begins before conversion (Jn 6; 20:24-28)
14. Discipleship is obedience-driven (Mt 28:20; Jn 8:31-32; 15:10)
15. Discipleship is costly (Lk 9:57-62; 14:26-35; Mt 10:37-39)
16. Discipleship is not about works performed, but about becoming like the Redeemer (Mt 7:22-23; Rom 8:29; 1 Jn 3:1-3)
17. Discipleship requires humility (Jn 13:12-17; Mk 10:42-45)

See this blog for discussions on each of these. So much more can be written, but enough writing for now. There is enough here in just this one list to occupy us for the rest of our lives.