The Purpose of Discipleship
This week’s Nate’s Noise is simple. I want to hear from you 2 things:
#1. How would you define Discipleship?
#2. What do you think the purpose, benefit, and end result of Discipleship would be for you?
There is no wrong answer, and there is a method to my madness of why I’m asking this.
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Nate's Noise 
I think “discipleship” is the organic process through which Christ replicates Himself – that is, He grows/sanctifies each member within the Church individually, and He grows/sanctifies the Church as a whole, into Himself (because the Father is pleased with the Son). I think of Ephesians 4-6 as describing “discipleship” (chapters 5 and 6 elucidating practical details of this phenomenon), and most fundamentally Ephesians 4:11-13:
11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
I think the growth/sanctification of “discipleship” might have two aspects: orthodoxy and orthopraxy (right doctrine and right behavior, or Faith and Works).
In addition to Ephesians 4-6, I would like to add Romans 12-15, Galatians 5, and Colossians 3 to the list of Scriptures that have a high concentration of orthopraxy details.
I listened to an mp3-sermon that relates: 2 Timothy 2:2 is a concise definition of discipleship. From 2 Timothy 2 we find these anecdotal examples of what it means to be a disciple:
– son/daughter (v. 1)
– soldier (v. 3-4)
– athlete (v. 5)
– farmer (v. 6)
– worker/sculptor (v. 15, 19)
– pure utensil (v. 20-21)
– servant (v. 24)
All of this is in the context of COMMUNITY (v. 2, 10, 14, 22-26)