In March of 2015, Dave Kirk and I visited the President of the STEP seminary in Haiti. When we met him at the seminary, he told us to call him, Wawa. He then briefly told us his story. Wawa grew up in Haiti. He went to seminary at Dallas Theological Seminary. A professor at Dallas encouraged Wawa by mentoring him outside of class. His professor would invite Wawa over for dinner, invite him along on errands, and have coffee with him. This professor poured his life into Wawa during Wawa's time at Dallas.
When Wawa went back to Haiti, he applied at STEP seminary, He became a professor of Old Testament Theology. Wawa followed his old Dallas professor's example: Wawa invited his students over to dinner, he took them on visitations, and took them along while performing errands. Wawa poured his life into his students. The dean of students noticed the spiritual progress of Wawa's students and decided to step aside and let Wawa become dean of students. Wawa encouraged other professors to follow his model of discipleship. The seminary noticed the difference. When the president of the seminary moved on, Wawa became president and continued on with this discipleship program. He changed the paradigm of the seminary to pursue students in this way.
Needless to say, Dave and I are excited by the man's vision. Making disciples has to be more than imparting doctrinal knowledge through classroom lectures and books. However, does Wawa's model of discipleship stand up under the scrutiny of scripture? To answer that question, let us look at the main teaching passage our church uses to cast the vision of the church, "The Great Commission."
Matthew 28:19-20
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The passage has been taught and studied in great detail by evangelicals; however, I want to focus on just one word. The greek word for "make disciples" is the verb μαθητεύσατε. In this verse, Jesus did not command us to "be disciples" or to "become disciples." Christ commanded us to "make disciples." This call to "make disciples" has to involve three tasks: "calling disciples," "training disciples," and "sending disciples." My focus for this blog will be how did Christ train His disciples to make disciples?
Matthew 4:18-22
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Notice Christ called men out of their daily occupation to be with him. A teacher having disciples was not new in the ancient world. However, what was unique to Jesus was his definition of "disciple." Jesus did not call the disciples into a school of thought so they could learn teachings about the Torah and He did not summon the disciples like the greek philosophers to learn a moral code or way of life. The disciples were called to know Christ and to make His life and sacrifice known. My theological dictionary has this observation about how Jesus viewed discipleship.
But one can go a step further and say that Jesus represents something new as compared not merely with the Rabbinate but also with the Greek master after the manner of Socrates. If allegiance to the rabbi has its ultimate source in the תּוֹרָה (torah) which he expounds, the basis of the allegiance to Socrates is to be found in the idea which he personally represents. In contrast to both, Jesus binds exclusively to Himself. The rabbi and the Greek philosopher are at one in representing a specific cause. Jesus offers himself. (p. 445, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament)
Obviously, getting to know Jesus Christ as a person takes time. Christ called them out of their occupations and their homes to spend time with Him. This is further clarified in Mark, where Jesus appoints the twelve apostles.
Mark 3:13-15
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
One of the reasons for the appointment of the twelve is that these men would spend time with Him. Christ wanted spend extra time with these men in order to pour His life into them. These disciples had more access to Jesus than anybody else. In the Gospels we see several examples of Jesus teaching the disciples to be disciples. Here are two examples.
First, in Matthew 13 we see Christ explaining the parables to his disciples.
Matthew 13:36-37
Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man."
Second, in Luke 11, we see Christ teaching the disciples how to pray.
Luke 11:1-4
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them,
“When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
We can see how Jesus imparted His life and teachings to His disciples: he spent time with them and answered their questions. He listened to their conversations and asked them questions, which in turn, caused the disciples to ask Him questions. All this training took place during their daily lives and their daily ministry to other people.
We need to take one more step. Beyond the ministry of Jesus, does the New Testament give any insights on how disciples impart Christ's life and teachings to other disciples? The answer is a resounding yes. The New Testament gives insights through the Pauline epistles on how Paul made disciples. Paul encouraged believers to "be imitators" of him (1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1, and Philippians 3:17). This command seem directed to the Church at large. Paul spent time with Philippians so they could see Christ working within the Apostle's life. Paul not only taught the Gospel, but he lived the Gospel before the members of the churches he was ministering to. He challenged the Philippians to look at his life and teaching and learned from them (Phil. 4:19) However, Paul took this training a step further. If we look deeper, we find Paul had select men who traveled and ministered with him and into whom he poured his life: Titus and Timothy.
Timothy travelled and lived with Paul for years on Paul's missionary journeys. Timothy not only knew what doctrine Paul taught, but Timothy closely watched Paul's life. He saw how Christ was being made manifest in Paul's life (2 Corinthians 4:7-12). In the following verse in 2nd Timothy, Paul reminded Timothy that by implementing the lessons he learned by observing Paul's life and teaching, he knew how to be a pastor.
2 Timothy 3:10
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,
John R. W. Stott
Paul is reminding Timothy not simply that he has 'fully known' (AV) or 'observe' (RSV) his doctrine and conduct, as if he were merely an impartial student or a detached observer, but that he has become a dedicated disciple of the apostle's. No doubt he had begun by taking pains to grasp the meaning of Paul's instruction. But then he went further. He made it his own, believed it, absorbed it, lived by it. Similarly, he doubtless began by watching the apostle's manner of life, but then he went on to imitate it. Because Paul knew himself as an apostle to be following Christ, he did not hesitate to invite others to follow himself: 'Be imitators of me,' he wrote, 'as I am of Christ' (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. 1 Thess. 1:6). He even made himself the standard by which truth could be disinguished from falsehood: 'Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us' (Phil 3:17). This, in both belief and practice, in 'teaching' and 'conduct' (10), Timothy became and remained Paul's faithful follower. He had 'followed step by step' (NEB).
(pp. 93-94, Guard the Gospel;: The message of 2 Timothy (The Bible speaks today)
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As we can see from the ministry of Jesus and Paul that discipleship is a time consuming endeavor. It is involves everybody in the church: leaders should be discipling young men, older women should be training younger women, and parents should be discipling their children. This model of discipleship for children is outlined by Moses in Deuteronomy and is applicable to our model of discipling.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
In conclusion, I want to quote an article on how Jonathan Edwards mentored young men. Notice how this article in describing Jonathan Edwards's method of mentoring, summarizes exactly the mentoring approach used by President Wawa, This approach, as I showed above, is modeled in the scriptures.
Jonathan Edwards on Mentoring
First, in contrast to the professionalization of ministry and the corporate model of the church, Edwards’ mentoring approach calls us to share our own selves. For example, Edwards invited Bellamy “not just into this spiritual world, but into his pecuniary and marital world too” (246). Bellamy learned by watching Edwards in his home and by hearing him share his life experiences through letters in which Edwards relied on Bellamy to help him conduct business. The two were closely linked because Edwards shared himself with Bellamy, something pastors should consider prioritizing today. (David Barshinger, http://exploringchurchhistory.com/jonathan-edwards-mentor)
This model of discipleship takes time and time is a precious resource. We idolize our time. We tend to want to use our time selflishly. We want to have time to spend in privacy with our families and we want to have time just to be be alone. However, Christ has called us to give up our lives and thus, also our time, to serve Him. We are to give up some of our private family time in order to share our lives with young men with whom we are mentoring. We are to give up some of our private time and share them with other believers. We are to model Christ to others and this takes time. We, who are leaders, must follow the discipleship model that the New Testament has laid out for us. Countless leaders in Church history have modeled this mentoring approach for us, let us follow their example. Finally, mentoring and discipleship should be done in some form by everybody. We, who are parents, must not only train our own children, but mentor other parents as well. Young Christians can mentor younger Christians and seek mentoring from older Christians. In this way, we who are members of His body must build up one another.
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on the plane. The book was about how the early Christians thought about God and the Church. I was in the chapter where the the author was talking about communion or "the Eucharist."
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