“When does discipleship end?” This question has consumed my thinking since I first read it in an article years ago. The obvious answer is it never ends until we are with Jesus. It is a lifelong pursuit of following Jesus. We are responsible for becoming a disciple of Jesus. But Jesus in turn gives every believer the assignment of making disciples. This has been the pursuit of believers and churches for ages. In recent years classes, books, and programs have been written for the purpose of discipleship of new believers. While I think these are great ways to start discipleship it isn’t the end. The goal is a life that follows Jesus all the way through to the end.
At the Rock, we have had a program called Spiritual Personal Trainers, that is a one-on-one discipleship program. It pairs new believers up with a mature believer who takes them through five weeks of lessons and helps them get in the healthy habit of attending church. It also starts a relationship with someone in the church who can connect them to ongoing discipleship. The goal was never to finish the five weeks of lessons but to get new believers in the healthy habit of church attendance, rigid relationships, serving in ministry, and growing spiritually.
In recent years we met with the leadership and brainstormed what a new believer should know to get them started in their lifelong discipleship journey. After putting our thoughts together I rewrote the materials in a simple format to help lead people into an understanding of these foundational truths. The goal is still the same even though the content has been updated. With these updates, we have also changed our language to reach people with terms they can understand. While a Spiritual Personal Trainer needs some explanation a faith-filled friend is self-explanatory. We also changed the title from “Welcome to Your Destiny” to “I’m New…What Do I Do?” Again, we wanted to make it easy for people to identify what these materials are all about and engage in the discipleship process.
At the end of this blog post, you will find a link to download these materials so you can go through them and take others through them. It is good for those of us who have been in the faith for some time to be refreshed in these things. It is also better for us to have a tool to help others start their discipleship process. We will be starting a five-week teaching series on Wednesday, April 30th 2025 that covers each week’s theme and takes the whole church through this process. I would encourage you to come every Wednesday for the series and to read through the materials each day. Take your family through it or find a faith-filled friend who you can talk about it with. At the conclusion of the series, I am going to challenge the whole church to find someone who they can take through the materials. The lifestyle of every believer should be to follow the command of our Lord to go and make disciples.
My life was changed when I gave my heart to Jesus. My life was sustained when people who were mature and cared enough about me to help me become a follower of Jesus. They encouraged me and poured into my life at a young age. Now, thirty years later I still am following Jesus and living the life I was shown by those faith-filled friends. Let’s go on this journey together; winning souls and making disciples!
Please enjoy this complimentary copy of the book! I’m New… What do I Do?
