Putting on Christ, however, is more than just making sure you proudly display an LFBI or Postscript logo on your clothing. Putting on Christ goes deeper; it is manifest in the sum total of our actions and overall countenance. Paul, in the book of Romans 13, clearly associates putting on Christ with the actions of the flesh. (Rom 13:14 - “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”) In this way, our “identity” in Christ is evidenced through outward manifestations.

Through this trip, God showed me how connected our Living Faith Fellowship churches are!  Ministry runs on the rails of relationships.  Our personal church history matters.  I encourage you to take time out of your busy schedules to visit some of our  sister churches of Living Faith Fellowship!

From the one mention of Judas speaking, we see that Thaddaeus had a desire to see others have the same opportunity that he had. He wanted people to know Jesus Christ because he had a heart for those who were without a relationship with the Savior.

The zeal that Simon, called Zelotes, had was useful. We aren’t told what exactly he was zealous for, but we can assume that it was for the things that Jesus taught and commanded, otherwise he wouldn’t have been of much use to Jesus. What about us? What should we be zealous about?

We have no reason to glorify ourselves and every reason to glorify God.

We can protect ourselves and others from disillusionment and faithlessness by drawing near to one another as we wait on the Lord.

His physical posture is changed from sitting in the receipt of custom, to standing and following Jesus. His identity is changed from Levi, “joined” to this world and sin, to Matthew, a “gift of God.” His mindset is changed from self-indulgent to self-denying. And his purpose is changed from living for himself to living for God.

Philip’s life is quite relatable to a modern-day disciple of Christ. He was a believer and earnestly wanted to follow Jesus. But he wasn’t perfect. He lacked faith at moments and failed to understand spiritual truths at other times. He was corrected, and chose to submit, rather than walk away.

When John was in a room, he had no personal objectives or agenda. His purpose was whatever Jesus was pursuing. And when no clear purpose was presented, John’s priority was what Jesus wanted. And when we see in scripture the group simply fellowshipping together, John’s place was as close to Christ as he could be.

We have no reason to glorify ourselves and every reason to glorify God.

The discipler is the elder brother/sister that the disciple can personally know, follow, and emulate.

In that moment it required that they believe in something and someone that they had not yet had the chance to fully understand. But their faith allowed for that process to come to fruition. And that process is something that we all know and believe in, which is biblical discipleship.

Christlike disciplers embody this same heart. They possess an intense Christlike burden for the disciple. They are willing to go the distance and then some, to minister to the disciple that they might be conformed more into the image of Christ.

Zeal in the life of a disciple recognizes that what God has said must be true, and it creates a passion in the disciples’ life to see it become reality.

To safeguard against this, it is worth our time and effort to ensure that our approach to making disciples in the local church is biblically, not academically, sound.

Mentorship isn’t temporary, and it isn’t some lesser investment before getting to “real discipleship”. It is discipleship.

If the mission of the church is to make disciples, the discipleship team within the church cannot afford failed stewardship in overseeing the discipleship ministry. It would most certainly cripple the church for years to come.

As a newbie to Mission Focus, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reality is that it was exactly what I needed as a pastor to bring the totality of the Mission into clear Focus. I was able to witness firsthand the culmination of evangelism, discipleship, ministry training, and church planting. I heard personal testimonies of people who were won to Christ through evangelistic Bible studies. People were open and excited about being involved in discipleship. We celebrated those graduating from LFBI. Andew Ong was ordained into the pastoral ministry. Missionaries from all over the world were prayed over and supported. And many surrendered their lives completely to the Mission. 

Jesus is always leading his disciples to listen, learn, and live his word, and he is always leading the multitudes to a point of decision. Are they going to choose to count the cost to become a disciple or not?

While the Cost of Discipleship process at MBT has improved our overall discipleship quality, it’s not fail proof by any means. With enough ministry experience, we all learn that some people hear what they want to hear, not what is actually being taught. In COD, we try to paint a very clear biblical picture of discipleship and what people should expect. Despite doing that as clearly as we know how, some will move forward into a formal discipleship relationship to only struggle with the biblical expectations of discipleship.