This thought occurred to me yesterday as I was driving home from Atlanta. When Jesus began calling the first disciples into ministry, he used this phrase:
“Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”
For whatever reason, I started thinking about what Jesus didn’t say to those first disciples.
He didn’t say: “Come, follow me, and I will teach you spiritual insights!”
He didn’t say: “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to worship together!”
He didn’t say: “Come, follow me, and I will gather you together in a home group!”
He didn’t say: “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to pray!”
He didn’t say: “Come, follow me, and I will make you members of the church!”
I think we can all agree that Jesus was a fairly insightful guy, so I think it’s interesting of all the things he could have said, he chose to put the focus on ministry to reach other people.
And, of course, that got me thinking about how we “disciple” people in the Church today. Rather than putting the focus on ministry to reach people, we prioritize different things. Not that the other things are wrong. I just wonder if there’s something significant about the initial vision that Jesus shared with these first disciples.
In other words, maybe discipleship is really more about helping people serve God by serving others. Maybe it’s more about disciples making disciples. Maybe what we really need to do is unlearn how we do discipleship in the church.
How would the Church look different if we approached the discipleship process on “fishing for people?”
