Short cuts don’t always work well. Acceleration does not necessarily get you where you ultimately want to go. Speed cooking a turkey will never have the taste of a basted, slow cooked one. The best and most memorable conversations are not timed or hurried ones. The most profound thoughts are not quickly tucked away. They are mulled over and ruminated upon. They tell me that accelerating the fermentation of wine does something to the taste that is a clear give away of a shortcut. Children that grow too quickly have bone and joint and muscle/ligament/tendon issues. Getting there quickly does not mean you get there well at all.
Christian discipleship is one of those “can’t hurry” things. I would call it a “musn’t hurry” thing. It requires life experience, trial and error, faith stretches, forced dependence, dealing with difficult people over a long period of time, patience and perseverance. As I travel around, I see a brand of Christianity that is troubling. It is the notion that one can be a successful Christian without being discipled. I don’t see that as a possibility. I do not know how it would even work. Without discipleship, one might get their spot in heaven reserved- their ticket punched, so to say. A confession of Christ as Lord is a start on the road. But, just as it is with all starts, it was never intended to leave the person in the starting blocks. A person who gets a “confess Christ as Lord” start but passes on discipleship will certainly not be a person who lives “successfully” as a Christian. By successful, I mean to learn how to benefit from suffering, demonstrate maturity in the face of challenge, live with a consistent and vigorous love even when loathed and convey a model worth emulating by other Christians or make Christianity attractive to those who aren’t Christian. Those are successes that require some due diligence processing and life experience.
Disciple simply means follower. Discipleship is simply good followership. And, unless I have gotten it completely wrong, one can only follow well if he or she is within eyeshot of the one being followed. Christians follow Jesus Christ. Hence, their lives would at least give an appearance that they are in his wake, reflecting his life and glory to some degree. The Bible tells us that Spirit filled believers have the character of Christ and live accordingly (Romans 8:5-11).
And, unless I have gotten it completely wrong, we never stop following Jesus Christ. So, discipleship is never done. We will never come to the place where we say, “Jesus stopped moving, so I can stop as well.” He certainly didn’t stop moving between Matthew 1 and Acts 1. Neither did he allow his disciples to stop growing. And, since we do not see heaven completely realized on earth, we can safely assume he is still moving history and his people in an intentional direction. That means that we must be moving as well.
So, I believe it is a perfectly legitimate, even healthy question to ask one another, “How are you presently being discipled?” Or, “What are the discipleship efforts in which you find yourself currently engaged?” Using the less churchy term of being a follower, “What are the evidences that you are following Jesus Christ better now than two years ago?” I have become a little less enthusiastic about asking folks about “How they got their start” and more excited about learning the ways in which God is making the path more clear and passable. How is your discipleship going? Who is helping you follow Christ more closely? What practices allow you to keep a better eye on Christ and a better awareness of temptation and sin?