thoughts on discipleship

I am in the process of getting a lot of training in leadership and discipleship right now in my life...

One of the most interesting things i just read in a book called "The Master Plan of Evangelism" is this:

"If at this point (after 3 years of Jesus' ministry on earth) one were to measure the effectiveness of His evangelism by the number of His converts, Jesus doubtless would not be considered among the most productive mass evangelist of the church... why did Jesus deliberately concentrate his life upon comparatively so few people? Had he not come to save the world? The answer... Jesus was not trying to impress the crowd, but to usher in a Kingdom. This meant that He needed men who could lead the multitudes.... Though He did what he could to help the multitudes, he had to devote Himself primarily to a few men, rather than the masses, in order that the masses could at last be saved. This was the genius of His strategy." pg 31-33.

I love how relational the concept of discipleship is. Meeting with a few, walking with them in life, holding them accountable, pushing them to be more like Christ, seeing hearts changed and then sending them out to do the same. Just as Jesus did with his disciples. I also love how the multiplication of it works: if 9 people each disciple 3, that's 27 who will each take 3 more and that's 81 and so on. There could not be an investment more worth it than to spend your life working for what will last for eternity.

Becoming a "multiplying disciple"; that is my goal for where I want to see people headed as they come to YAC and as they grow in their faith and become more like Christ. For people to not only be discipled but to in turn disciple others, who will in turn disciple others, who will in turn disciple others. So that this ministry will have an eternal impact and out live us and even itself in the lives of people who become devoted followers of Jesus.

"To usher in his Kingdom" together.