NPMM: Week 3 - Discipleship
My journey in discovering the “D” words…
…disciple, discipleship and discipling
by Joanne Chew
Dr Joanne Chew was a member of OCF Adelaide from 1999-2004. During her time in OCF, she served for many years on the local committee, and was the chairperson of the OCF Convention 2002 in Adelaide. She is now working as a doctor in Adelaide, and serves as a life group leader in church with her husband Dr Andrew Kiu.
Allow me to share with you my story briefly. I became a Christian in December 1996, at the age of 16. Before that I have been going to Sunday School for many years and subsequently attended my church youth group. In the early few years of my Christian life, I basically learnt how to journey with Christ on my own, not knowing if anything should change at all from my life ‘before Christ’. Sure, I received teachings; through talks, sermons and bible studies but it took me a few years to fully understand my salvation, what it means to be a ‘new creation’, and what prayer and quiet time is all about. At that stage I did not even understand the full extent of what being a disciple meant. I had not been discipled and did not realize there was such a thing called ‘making disciples / discipling’ even though I had been exposed to the Great Commission.
Anyway, in 1999, I came to Australia for my studies and also started joining OCF. So there I was, my first year here, enjoying, absorbing and learning what I can…until the following year, my second year. There was a group of non-Christians who had started coming to OCF and within 6 months, one of them accepted Christ (praise God!). She comes from a non-Christian family - Buddhist, with NO Christians at all in her family. Before she came to Australia, her duty was to pray and burn joss sticks to her ancestors every morning as she is the eldest child. She also accompanies her grandma to pray and to go to the temple every week. When she became a Christian here, she only had 6 more months left before going back to her home and family, only this time as a Christian. She was here just for a year in total, but a year was what the Lord felt was sufficient; a year that was life changing for her as well as for me.
Remember, at that time, I was only 19+ years old, and 3+years of being a Christian. So there I was, excited for her but also very fearful…because I could just imagine the hostile environment that she would be going back to as a baby Christian, with no Christians friends, no ‘OCF’ and no church support. There were many questions in my head, ‘what if, what if…’ And it was at that point that I sensed the urgency and the need for her to be grounded in her walk with God as well as to be taught in God’s word and truth in order that even if / when things becomes stormy and difficult back home, her foundation in the Lord will be firm.
Someone once said to me - give them a fish & you will feed them for a day, teach them how to fish and you will feed them for a lifetime…And that thought pounded in my heart and mind..”someone has to teach her how to fish…” So with no experience, no prior ‘training’, not having been discipled ever in my life at that stage, and still a young-ish Christian myself, I decided to disciple her…I figured what little I could give, teach and share with her was better than nothing at all. And thus our journey together started as we committed ourselves to meeting up every week, reading and learning His word as well as praying and sharing our lives together. It was in that few months that the Lord built her up and also in that short period that He showed me the value and effectiveness of discipling…what I had taken 3+years to discover, she had learnt and grown in those few months!!
It was then that I realized that nothing is more effective in helping another brother or sister to follow Christ than to disciple him or her, to help them walk closer than ever before with Christ, and subsequently reach those around them. Not only that, I have also found this relationship to be two-way. As much as she has ‘learnt’ from this journey, so have I as I have been greatly blessed and ‘sharpened’ in my walk.
Two verses I will leave with you…
Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Reflection
Perhaps take a moment to reflect, asking yourself this question…”Where am I in the spectrum of discipleship?”
If you do not understand what it means to be a disciple, then you may not understand the value of being discipled…if you do not understand the value of being discipled, then you may not understand the importance or need to disciple others…
Challenge
Are you passionate about being a disciple, falling in love with and committed to Him?
If you are, may I challenge you to consider being discipled and especially to disciple others. If you are not, then I urge you to prayerfully reconsider your relationship with Him and His Lordship over your life.
It is in Christ’s heart that his disciples “GO & Make Disciples of all nations…”…Is it in our hearts too as His disciples…even if it means giving and sacrificing our time and energy, one (or more) life at a time?
If you are not discipling anyone, will you consider discipling someone? Will you consider becoming a disciple-maker?
If you are already discipling…WELL DONE, but don’t stop there! May I challenge you to teach and train your disciple to be a disciple-maker and to disciple others. May I also challenge you to perhaps consider discipling one more and to encourage other Christians around you about discipleship and becoming disciple-makers.
Will leave with you a closing thought…
Those who teach by their doctrine must teach by their life, or else they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other.
-Matthew Henry-
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