Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Cor 11:1
Discipleship is a modeling enterprise, not a teaching one.
Transformational discipleship is not just teaching people a bunch of facts about Jesus, but it is showing and demonstrating how to follow Jesus. We as Americans have a mindset that we think that lots of good information will bring about transformation. Yet what is lacking is not information; what is lacking are lives worthy to be emulated in our local churches.
You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. True reproductive discipleship is powered by ones own life of discipleship.
You’ll never get people to evangelize unless you evangelize and show them how to do it. You’ll never get people to give money to God unless you have that habit in your life. You’ll never expect people to have a regular and powerful devotionals in their life unless you have one and make it a point to demonstrate it.
A student is never beyond their teacher. And the life of following Jesus is better caught than taught.
Jesus was a great teacher, but he was a better modeler.
Millions of people read the teachings of Jesus and are left unchanged and ineffective for kingdom work. Yet the twelve apostles he modeled and poured into still set the precedence as the most transformative world-changers in world history.
To do transformational discipleship, we need to radically shift the power base from teaching and dispensing knowledge to a life-on-life reproduction.
