Who is a Disciple?

As there is a lot of discussion about disciplemaking in today’s church culture, there is probably no bigger discussion that happens than “Who is a Disciple?”. In simple terms, it is someone who is like Jesus. He walks with God, talks to God and has God’s purpose in his heart and mind. Many discipleship programs start with the fact that a person must first accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. The focus then is on baptism and the basic Christian disciplines: reading the Bible, prayer, personal worship, corporate worship, scripture memory and meditating on the Word of God. Few of them focus on finding the person’s spiritual giftedness or finding a place of ministry that correlates to that giftedness.

There was a consensus for many that if someone was a baptized Christian, walked with God in the basic spiritual disciplines and found a spiritual ministry that the person was a full disciple. I contend that many discipleship programs have been short sighted in not going back to the simple terms we discussed earlier, “Be like Jesus”. Jesus did one more thing, He shared the gospel with non-believers and He made disciples. I think that Jesus wants a disciple of His to be like Him. In fact, in one of His last instructions about making disciples, He stated, “Teaching them to observe” found in:

Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So a “Disciple of Jesus” is someone who observes all the teachings of Jesus including the instruction in Matthew 28. A true disciple makes disciples.

The ultimate goal of a peach tree is not to just produce peaches. It is to produce peaches that fall and begin other peach trees that produce peaches that produce other peach trees. The same is true for disciples. A true disciple produces disciples that produce disciples that produce disciples.

“Who is a Disciple?” Look to see the disciples you have produced. If you have not produced any then you are not a disciple.

Dr. Mark Yoakum is the Director of Church Ministries for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and believes the Great Commission is serious about going and making disciples.