Topic > The concept of discipleship and its relevance to the modern Christian faith

IndexDiscipleshipThe goals and primary purpose of discipleshipConclusionDiscipleshipIn contemporary churches today, discipleship programs have taken many forms and have taken on many interpretations due to the different points of view of the different churches. Each church manages discipleship programs based on the relevance they consider them to be and the goals they want them to achieve. In contemporary churches today, the term discipleship has taken on different names such as life group, cell group, Bible study group, believer group, Christ leadership group, and many others. This thesis will begin by examining the root of discipleship, discipleship, and its primary purpose. This study will further examine ways of making disciples, the challenges and solutions in discipleship, and its relevance to contemporary Christian faith. One of the main goals of this article is to revive and renew churches' commitment to growing genuine discipleship and changing the lukewarmness in our discipleship system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Then the church today can return to the original intent of discipleship taught by Jesus Christ. Who is a disciple. A disciple literally means a learner, student, follower or apprentice, who submits to another person with superior knowledge in a particular field, with the intention of gaining knowledge and skills to become like the teacher and, sometimes, to teach and disciple others. The term disciple comes from the Greek word -paideia, meaning to instruct, and its Hebrew origin is muwcar (moo-sawr') meaning to properly guide, chastise, figuratively rebuke, warn or instruct and also restrain someone or a group of people to achieve a particular goal. The word disciple can be found up to 259 times in the Bible. The followers of John the Baptist and Jesus were all called disciples. (1) Throughout history, many forms of intensive discipleship have taken place such as Elijah and Elisha, Plato and Socrates, Paul and Timothy, Moses and Joshua and by studying Greco-Roman history, one can see the ancient philosophers with their different disciples who have intensely soaked their wisdom and lifestyle. From these origins and definitions it can be deduced that a disciple's priority is to learn, become, practice and teach. John the Baptist and Jesus took time to teach their disciples and today Jesus' disciples are called apostles and Christians are part of them. The term discipleship is not in the Bible, but it literally means a process and state of disciplining someone. It simply means the act and process of creating a discipline. It also means conditions for making someone a disciple. All of Jesus' calls in the New Testament are an example of discipleship, for example, Jesus said "follow me and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19), "imitate me as I imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1 ), said the apostle Paul. This process of following, imitating and learning is called discipleship. (2) From the term discipleship, in the theme we see a leader, a follower, a process, a state of creation and learning. Anyone who follows another person's beliefs and submits to their authority to learn and become what they believe is going through discipleship. Therefore, anyone who professes the Christian faith as a follower of Jesus Christ and submits to Him as Lord and personal savior through the Christian body is a disciple of Jesus Christ according to the Christian faith. As a result the person took a life oath and decided to be educated, learn,grow and transform into the body of Christ, becoming His image and likeness in fullness. Therefore, this is a life journey of total submission, learning and meeting with other believers, and using Christian materials to receive guidance on spiritual training and discipline in spirit and body, until Christ's purpose is seen and fulfilled in us. The Objectives and Primary Purpose of Discipleship Jesus Christ, from time to time, sent His disciples to teach and do the things He taught them, He told the disciples that He does what their father had taught Him, and He normally reminded them to also do what he had taught them to do. The main goal of a disciple is to be like the master, Jesus focused his goals on making his disciples like him and even after his resurrection, he spent forty days alone with them before ascension, this makes it clear how important the discipleship for Christianity. Likewise the church should engage in discipleship with the hope of molding the minds and attitudes of the church into the form of Christ, with the goal of having committed followers of Jesus Christ conformed to His will (.4) The Discipleship Team it can be formed and done in different ways, such as in people's homes, in schools, in cells, in life groups, during picnics, film screenings, church communities, life groups and in many other forms. Members always gather to learn about each other's names, homes, jobs, activities, hobbies, families, best food, favorite sports, and many more. Members share things in common, eat and commune together as Jesus did with his disciples, (Luke 22:19), share the word of God, intensely asking questions in their different areas of concern, share their opinions and come to knowledge common understanding of the true word of God. They share their needs as the first apostles did and pray for each other. There is always a leader who must have reached a good level of spiritual maturity in the word of God and who is mature enough not to compromise the truth. The leader always ensures that everything done in the discipleship class is within the word of God. Serious prayers are regularly practiced in the discipleship classes and spiritual gifts are always recognized by their manifestations. Genuine love, unity and respect are a normal bond in discipleship. One of the challenges facing the contemporary Christian faith in this modern discipleship system is the inability to manage one's busy work schedule with that of discipleship meetings. People struggle with their private lives and are unwilling to confine themselves to others. People are security conscious and do not trust others, they do not leave their homes open to communion for fear of insecurity. Many find it difficult to share food at home with others due to the poison. Some are carried away by activities because they rarely share God's word or take time for prayers. Most people don't care about the needs of others at all, and sometimes ceremonies here and there are very distracting to the church. Lack of dedication, purpose, zeal, clarity, lack of a good information management system, lack of tolerance, inability to know the next right step to take to discipline each other, inability to prioritize rightly with focus and sacrifice on the cross . Ineffective spiritual formation practices. Rivalry and the wrong use of diplomacy that distracts from the truth of the Gospel do not have the capacity to transform (7) It takes true and in-depth discipline for contemporary Christians to return to the fundamental roots of,.