Discipleship

     The word "disciple" is found 256 times in the King James Version of the Bible, while the word "discipleship" does not exist in the KJV.

     Most, if not all of the teachers from my youth who contributed to my growth in Christ have since passed away.  I am sixty years old. My walk with Christ began before I confessed Christ formally in my church and was baptized around age seven. 

     I was blessed to have a salvation experience which grew out of my Christian family, so early (around age seven) that I cannot remember not having faith in Jesus.  There is nothing like what people today refer to as a "back-story," revealing a clear divide between a former nefarious life of sin and a new, redeemed life of walking in Christ. 
     This is not to say that I was born a good boy. I was not. For, I know that I was born wicked, steeped in sin, not unlike David in Psalm 51, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." 

Like Timothy, I was raised in a Christian family and cannot remember a time that I did not believe in Christ.   

     These teachers included, but were not limited to my Sunday School teachers, Bible training teachers, Christian Scouting leaders, RA leaders, Youth Directors, Overtly Christian public school teachers.  In the North Carolina society of my youth Christian adults spoke freely to those younger baby believers, planting seeds of wisdom in the faith.  In my life today, I regularly discover seeds planted with subtle, loving, care decades ago beyond my awareness, and I am grateful to that particular teacher.  But nobody called it "discipleship," or "discipling."  Such teaching was not so explicit, set off into discrete blocks of time in any formal sense.     

     These early teachers in my life later came to be called "mentors," beginning in the 80s and 90s, and that terminology lately morphed into "disciplers," or what-have-you. 

     Being an educator, I love books on discipleship. However, I believe these texts, in their fascination with making every step of the whole process explicit, miss some of the most important teachings. 
    1. There is no ending date to a discipleship relationship.  
    2. Early on in the relationship, the teacher does well to find an activity to do together wherein the student teaches something to the teacher.  One of my evangelism teachers here at the local seminary related in lecture how he went on a whitewater canoeing trip with a new student, who was a teacher of that. It was a great experience, and gave the student confidence.  

    3. 

Francis Chan on Transubstantiation: 
https://relevantradio.com/2020/01/francis-chan-evangelical-pastor-preaches-on-the-real-presence/