Words matter! It is easy to overlook, but the thin nearly transparent page in our Bibles which separate Malachi and Matthew encompasses roughly four hundred years. Malachi’s last word, the final expression of the Old Testament, is “curse.”

“Disciple” is a seemingly favorite word of Jesus when referring to His followers. Understandably so, as the word “Disciple” is an active inference of both the process towards spiritual maturity and the training of others. But what is the process toward spiritual maturity? The answer to this outwardly simple question is, at its core, the perpetual pursuit of all authentic disciples of Christ.

Both conceptually and practically, the doctrine of sanctification flows seamlessly into the doctrine of pneumatology. When Jesus introduced His first disciples to the Holy Spirit, He utilized the Greek term “paraclete” or helper. As disciple-making disciples, we emphatically acknowledge our inability and our need for help.

Scripture places most of its conceptualization of man within the context of family, depicting us more in the scope of a relational entity than isolated individuals. “Family” becomes the root metaphor within biblical anthropology, just as comprehending God as “Father” becomes the root metaphor within Biblical theism.

Sadly, within the compromised constructs of seeker-friendly, country-club movements, many churches have accidentally nurtured an atmosphere of counterfeit Christianity. Inside such relative environments, the “counterfeit Christian” can effortlessly place their faith into catchphrases, behavior modification, social performances, and the thin, flimsy veneer of a plastic Sunday morning religious mask.

A disciple cannot develop with confidence if they are worried God could abandon them, or they might lose the gift of salvation. Such insecurities are like cancer, which left untreated, can metastasize into every aspect of a Christian’s life; unresolved, these uncertainties will also spread to those they disciple in the future.

Where is the most obvious place to start in discussing the functional process of making disciples from non-disciples? It might sound oversimplified, but we start with “non-disciples.” If disciple-making is the process of discipling “non-disciples” to disciple others, then a practical theology of the church must address the practicalities of reaching non-disciples.

This present chapter seeks to answer the question of how a disciple-maker goes about selecting their disciples. Practical understanding of the church observes Jesus as the archetypal model for all inquiries related to the building of His kingdom. We must, therefore, examine how Jesus, the ultimate disciple-maker, went about choosing His disciples.

By definition, disciple-making disciples are equippers, and Jesus has provided us with some heavy equipment. There are many tools available, but the eight we will examine in this Chapter are power tools that can forever change a disciple’s life.

We are designed and built to be interdependent. The Church, according to Jesus, expects that we have somebody who is there for us. We have spiritual trainers who can encourage us, lift us up, and even tear us down when we are too prideful. If we do not have a person like this in our lives, we are not living the Christian life. The Christian life is a call to interdependent living.

In loving God, we are called in Christ to be His disciples. In loving others we are also called to help others follow after Christ. The discipler’s creed could be stated, “Be one, make one.” In Acts 2, the family of God was being gathered in the initial stages of the church. Family is a term I use for those I am closest to in my life and the people I care most about, especially my wife and children.

Christianity from the beginning of Jesus’ time shall be to the end of this age. Disciple-making is hard, and we have yet another subject to cover in this disciple-making ecclesiology. Ecclesia is the Greek word for church, and the study of the church is called ecclesiology. When we study the Scriptures, we find that the disciple-making disciple is at the center of this thing we call church.

For years, the church has coupled Word and Spirit together, experiencing how these two gifts from God function together in the body of Christ. Because we are now focusing on starting the process with a nonbeliever, we employ that same dynamic but speak instead of Gospel and Spirit as they come together with the life-changing power of redemption.

For the disciple of Christ, eschatology is an encouragement and reminder of what was and what will be. A student of history, archeology, and bibliology can faithfully stand witness to prophesies recorded hundreds of years before their happening, alongside prophecies regarding the second coming of Christ. We win!