Category: Discipleship and Leadership

Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Discipleship. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003.

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle for today is for costly grace… Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacrament; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without a price, without costs.

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.

Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of which people go and sell with joy everything they have. It is the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all that he has; it is Christ’s sovereignty, for the sale of which you tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to leave his nets and follow him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock.

It is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son—”you were bought with a price”—and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God. Above all, it is grace because the life of God’s Son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us live. God did, indeed, give him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

More than a year ago we did our first post-Yolanda discipleship training here in Tacloban. There were only 15 of us but we were hopeful that the Lord will grow the seeds we were planting at that time.

This Saturday, we will have our fourth Victory Weekend with 25 participants. By the time this week is over, we would have baptized close to 100 people in less than two years, over 90% of them are locals. That is amazing. The first time I came here in early 2014, almost half of those who attended our services were foreigners. Every week we would pray for more locals to be plugged into the church. We conducted discipleship trainings, did One2One and formed victory groups even if it seemed like nothing was happening. Continue reading Building a Discipleship Culture

From the very start of discipleship, we must seek to build on the solid foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this crucial step, we are not building anything worthwhile at all. We can’t build people’s lives on church programs, events, and campaigns. We can’t build people’s faith on Christian activities and parachurch community services. The only sure ground upon which anything stands is in the person and work of Christ. Everything else is sinking sand.

This is the discipleship step we should not miss. If we miss this, we are actually not doing it right. We’re just doing weekly huddles and talk vaguely about the God of the Bible.

The spiritual growth of a believer is a gentle, imperceptible process. You can’t see it nor feel it but it is happening right in front of you. There will be times when you will see some signs of growth but for the most part, the growing and the maturing happens invisibly.

Discipleship group leaders, be patient. It is impossible to produce an army of committed Christians in just a few weeks. No matter how much you cast vision, clarify goals, and communicate the status of your spiritual scoreboard, maturity still happens over a period of a lifetime. That’s how God designed spiritual growth. Save yourself from frustration by accepting the fact that maturity is not microwaveable. The sooner you understand that, the less frustrating it will be for you to lead people in discipleship.

“As I commute from work everyday, I would slump on the bus, look outside the window and stare at nothing. I often ask myself, ‘Why is life so difficult?'”

It was not a cry of complaint; the guy didn’t look like he was in pain and he wasn’t trying to be melodramatic either. It was actually just a side comment about work and how everything is just difficult. We were talking about the book of Ecclesiastes and the dull repetition of everyday life.

His words stung. I looked away as I wiped the tear away from my eyes.

Continue reading That’s Why We Need Jesus