Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. Acts 16:1-3

Continuing with the subject of discipleship, let’s think about the process. 2 Timothy 2:2 gives an important instructional pattern for the process:

2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

The Discipler: Someone has to be in the lead. He or she has been taught and is prepared to teach others. This doesn’t require special seminary training or that one be an official officer in the church. It just means he or she is ahead of those being discipled at least a little. (The discipler will usually learn the most when teaching/leading.) One more important note to would-be disciplers: Your goal is to lead in a well-balanced approach. Those who have special agendas beyond that, are not ready to lead.

The Disciple(s): These must want to learn and be confident that the discipler is someone from whom they can safely learn. This is important since some who may want to teach are not ready. The choice of who to look to as a discipler is important. Ask your pastor for counsel on this matter.

The only requisite for those who are selected to be discipled is that they must be “faithful.” Those who cannot make a commitment to the bullet points in the previous post are not ready. Many discipleship groups have begun and fizzled out due to a lack of commitment. This makes the selection of who to disciple important.

The on-going process: You can see from the text that this is a never-ending process because the goal for discipler and disciples alike is for students to become teachers—and so on, and so on, and so on…