There is only one Rabbi, and we need to look to Him, love Him, learn from Him and then point others to Him.
Discipleship, like many doctrines found in scripture, can become distorted, allowing false interpretations to spread. These specious versions often come in the form of programs and methodologies designed to manipulate people into committing to their church movement, transformation and evangelism. They work because they have enough truth in them to hook people, but in the end, they turn out to be very unhealthy and toxic.
Unfortunately, many large movements have arisen out of Christendom and spread across the globe using these concepts of discipleship. Though they can be successful at persuading people, they are inherently flawed and become unsustainable, produce spiritual bullies and sometimes end up severely damaging people emotionally and spiritually.
One of the reasons these unhealthy forms of discipleship end up failing and impacting people so negatively is they promote, in subtle ways, an earthly perspective. That is, they overemphasize the human role in discipleship, essentially holding to a unidimensional view of the discipleship process.
Part of the attraction for these types of discipleship models is that we, as humans, love the tangible and delight when we can measure progress and see how well we are doing. When it comes to things like sport, school, work and business, having clear performance markers can dramatically help to drive growth, innovation and success. However, when it comes to spiritual matters, especially discipleship and evangelism, results-driven metrics can cause, on one hand, self-reliance, pride, and judgment and on the other, guilt and the fear that you are not doing enough for God. Consequently, people can become burnt-out and experience a loss of joy in their relationship with God.
One of the most dangerous concepts taught by unhealthy discipleship advocates is the notion that every Christian essentially needs to have someone to disciple them and that they are required to have people who are their disciples. Along with this, there is a constant push for everyone to be accountable to others. Now, it isn’t necessarily wrong to have mentors or to mentor others as long as it is done with humility and respect for equality and freedom. It’s when Christians set themselves up in a hierarchy of power that coercion and abuse dominates. In the end, unhealthy discipleship practices do not make disciples of Jesus but students of faulty religious systems and flawed human beings.
So what is the healthy alternative? Christ-centred discipleship. Christ-centred discipleship is a multidimensional view that sees salvation, transformation, evangelism, conversion and church growth from God’s perspective and includes trusting Him to govern the results even when it seems like nothing is working. This leads to an acceptance that there are complex spiritual matters that cannot be fully grasped by the human mind or controlled because of their unseen nature. The results of any kingdom work that Christians do, then, go beyond any earthly metrics and can only truly be measured by God.
Along with emphasizing God’s work in salvation and spiritual development, those with a Christ-centred view of discipleship also understand that there is only one Rabbi and only one head of the church (Matthew 23:7-12 & Ephesians 1:22). They also see that their primary purpose in life is to commit themselves to Jesus, to learn from Him and to walk like Him (Philippians 1:21, 3:7-11, Hebrews 12:2, John 15:1-17, Galatians 2:20). Additionally, they see their main role in reaching out to others is to introduce them to Jesus and continually point them to Him for all they need in life and godliness (John 1:35-29, Acts 8:35, 2 Peter 1:3, 2 Peter 3:18).
So my role as a Christian is to pursue Jesus, trust Him, rejoice in Him, abide in Him, obey Him, to grow in my knowledge of Him and to become like Him. As I do this, He begins to move me and use me through the means of His word and His Spirit to achieve His kingdom purposes. Sometimes, this means that I am involved in major aspects of kingdom advancement, and other times I am engaged in seemingly minute and insignificant spiritual activities (Matthew 10:42, Mark 12:42-44). However, from a Christ-centred point of view, whether I am used by Christ in major ways or minor, I know my efforts are not in vain and I also realise that I am not alone in my efforts. Often I am just one of many people that Jesus is using to bring another to Him or to advance the Kingdom in some area. This then takes away any idea that I am competing with other Christians and that paves the way for cooperation (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
Trusting Jesus as the only Rabbi and that He is responsible for bringing people to Him, frees me from a performance mentality (John 6:44-45). It also frees me to celebrate even a small opportunity to speak about Him or nudge someone one step closer to Him. Additionally, it allows me to trust God, even when I do not see any fruit from my labour (1 Corinthians 15:58, Ezekiel 3:4-9). In the end, it allows me the opportunity to enjoy my relationship with Jesus and then to serve Him without feeling guilty that I am not doing enough.
Christ-centred discipleship is a perspective that there is only one Rabbi and only one head of the church and that our primary responsibility as Christians is to look to Him, love Him, learn from Him and then point others to Him.
