Kickstarting Our Discipleship Gears in Tacloban

We just did our first Making Disciples Training here in Victory Tacloban yesterday. Fifteen leaders and upcoming leaders came and we had a great time talking about the very thing that is so important in the heart of Jesus: discipleship. Why do we think this is important?

Well, for starters, when Jesus was about to go to heaven, the last words he uttered were his commission for his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. It sometimes sounds trite to our modern ears because we hear that all the time but when you really think of it, the parting words of a person are usually the most important. Jesus told us to make disciples because it matters to him; and if it matters to him, it should matter to us too.

When I did the introduction yesterday amidst the shouts and cheers of all the participants, I saw something powerful and glorious about discipleship. Discipleship is us participating in the work of Christ in the church. It’s like a five-year old girl helping daddy clean the garage and feeling like she accomplished something terrific. Everyone knows her only contribution was to bring him snacks (and lots of questions expected of five-year olds) but the real joy is in the fact that he let her work alongside him so she can enjoy the feeling of accomplishment afterwards. To a certain extent, that’s how I look at discipleship. We share the gospel here, we do victory groups there and we feel a sense of accomplishment but the real work of changing a person and growing a church and making something out of nothing is really in the hands of God. We co-labor with him and share in the joy but ultimately the fruits we see around us are all his doing.

When I looked at the fifteen people we trained yesterday and how they eagerly received the impartation from Pastor Kix and me, I felt hope stirring in my heart. There was this sense of expectation and promise when I saw them praying for one another. They were just a bunch of people slowly rising up from the rubbles of Yolanda but they could very well be the beginnings of a bigger movement of God in this city. Zechariah 4:10 was ringing in my heart when I woke up this morning: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…”

So that’s where we are now, kickstarting our discipleship gears in Victory Tacloban and entering into the work that God Himself is doing here. If the Lord is rejoicing at the small beginnings yesterday, then we all have a reason to rejoice and thank God for all these.