The Twin Invitations of Healthy Discipleship

In my last post, I argued that Jesus is already discipling us.

Discipleship is less about needing to go to a discipleship school, read the right book, attend the right class, or find the perfect mentor; rather, it’s a whole-life reorientation around the Kingship of Jesus in our real lives as we learn to follow him in the context of kingdom family.

Of course, this happens in the context of real relationships — I’m not denying that. Jesus disciples us through other people.

But what does this process look like? How does Jesus disciple us through others?

I’d love to invite us to reflect today on the next part of the Gospel, in Mark 1:16-18. In this section, Jesus calibrates his discipleship invitation around two beautiful pillars.

Let’s take a moment to read:

Jesus’ first invitation to discipleship is simultaneously simple and immeasurably profound. His invitation is this: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”

1. “Follow Me”

The first invitation of healthy discipleship is an invitation to a relationship. It’s an invitation to simply be with God and others.

The disciples leave their families behind to join the new kingdom family that Jesus is building.

Jesus’ disciples would have left their nets to follow him into a real, dynamic relationship with their new rabbi. In John, the disciples follow Jesus to where he is staying in a house. Matthew tells us that the disciples spent a lot of time at Peter’s mom’s house eating meals.

The first invitation when we say “yes” to following Jesus is simply an invitation to be with him.

For many of us, especially if we grew up in more works-based or performance-oriented cultures, we can accidentally view discipleship as primarily about what we do — serving at a church, giving more money, or practicing spiritual disciplines.

But discipleship is first about being. It’s first about an invitation to abide with our rabbi — to stay where he is.

2. “and I will make you fishers of people”

The second pillar of healthy discipleship is an invitation to responsibility.

The disciples leave their vocations behind so that Jesus can redeem their vocations within the context of the kingdom of God.

I love the particular sentence Jesus uses to describe this process — “I will make you.”

To truly follow Jesus is to participate in — to consent to — a transformation process whereby Jesus forms us into who he made us to be for the sake of others.

We have a role to play in the kingdom of God — in partnering with God to bring heaven to earth — and healthy discipleship should challenge us to step more fully and authentically into that kingdom assignment.

Many times, we can equate discipleship to simply a course or a coffee shop meeting, but the end goal of discipleship is that we step fully and confidently into our kingdom assignment with clarity — that we become fishers of people. It’s not that we learn more, it’s that we become more of who God made us to be.

If we have learned a lot about the kingdom but have not put it into practice, I want to suggest that we have not truly been discipled. If what we do from 9 to 5 has felt disconnected from our spiritual life, I want to suggest that we have not truly been discipled. If we have primarily been comforted but never been challenged to stretch or grow, I want to suggest that we have never been truly discipled.

Calibrating these two pillars together is where real discipleship happens. Consider these words from Dallas Willard:

A Christianity that focuses only on being, our priesthood, and relationship will never accomplish all that God invites his followers to accomplish. Simultaneously, a Christianity that focuses on authority, the kingdom, and the responsibility to do more will create burnout and deeply unhealthy growth.

Jesus beautifully calibrates both.

In my last post, I talked about how Jesus disciples us primarily through kairos moments — fullness of time moments where the kingdom of God breaks into our present, and we are invited to repent and believe — to follow Jesus as King as his kingdom comes to earth in our real lives as we walk in obedience to him.

I offered that, ultimately, what a kairos moment invites us to (if we choose to repent and believe it) is a revelation about who God is, who we are, or what our role is in God’s new kingdom family.

Today, I want to offer a similar metric — in kairos moments, Jesus is inviting us either more deeply into relationship with himself or more fully into the responsibility of what he has called us to do. Or, many times, both!

As I have discipled others in the concept of kairos moments over the last decade, I’ve noticed that people usually fall into two camps — either they love hearing Jesus’ invitations to relationship with himself and love to say “yes” to more prayer and more being, but they never courageously step into what God is calling them to do with obedience.

Or, many seem to only be able to hear God telling them to do things, and they bypass entirely the great joy of being in relationship with God and Jesus’ glorious promise that he would be with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). They do a lot for God but spend very little time with him.

My heart in offering this framework is that as we follow Jesus in the context of community, we see the big picture of what he is inviting us into: to follow him and to become fishers of people, to be priests and kings, to live in glorious relationship with God and others and to walk out the fullness of our kingdom responsibility.

I’d love to invite us to pray today:

• Begin to take a few deep breaths. Perhaps as you breathe in, pray “Come,” and as you breathe out, pray “Holy Spirit.”

• Have you had a recent “kairos moment”? Kairos moments can be either positive or negative, big or small, but the key theme is that they are shimmering invitations in our real life for the kingdom of God to break in.

• As you reflect a little more deeply on this moment, what is God speaking to you about stepping more fully into relationship with God or others?

• As you reflect a little more deeply on this moment, what is God speaking to you about stepping more fully into the kingdom responsibility of what God has called you to do in this season?

Best,
Ryan

P.S. We made a prayer journal! If you haven’t yet, we’d love to invite you to come alive and live in love with Jesus through a 30-day journey of growing in confidence in hearing God’s voice. Check it out at restlessheartsrestingplaces.com/store.