If you were to ask someone to disciple you, or vice versa, what does that mean to you?

Discipleship looks different for different people, depending on where they are in their spiritual journey and where they want to go spiritually.

When someone asks me to disciple her, I ask several questions:

1. What are you looking for in this relationship? What do you want me to do with you in our time together?

2. Where are you spiritually? A new believer? A stagnant believer? Or a strong believer who wants to be challenged and to go deeper? Is there a specific area in which you need help?

3. What is your goal for our time together? What do you want to see as a result of this discipleship relationship?

Before you can truly disciple someone, you must first know what that means. What did Jesus mean when He gave the command to “make disciples” in Matthew 28:18-20?

In his book Tally Ho the Fox, Herb Hodges defines the word disciple, as used in Matthew 28, as “a committed, lifelong learner and follower of Jesus Christ.” So, according to this definition, “making disciples” is developing men and women into committed, lifelong learners and followers of Jesus Christ.

Simply put, the goal of discipleship is to help that person grow to spiritual maturity.

How we do that may look different for each person. In the next few posts, I want to share with you three levels of discipleship and what I do with someone in each level.

I’d love to hear your comments. When you ask someone to disciple you, what are you looking for in that discipleship relationship? Or if you’ve been discipled, what were you looking for?