The true church... discipleship... mission, etc.

Getting seriously burdened with discipleship stuff again lately. I just started reading Mike Breen's book Multiplying Missional Leaders. Chapter 2 is on discipleship, and I think I should just read it every day for about a year. It is spot on.

Also, Dave Fitch posted a couple of things the other day. For starters he quoted John Howard Yoder: "The true church is a community of those who have responded to the call of discipleship." Then Fitch said, "There is no discipleship without submission: submission to the cross, the Lordship of Christ, and 'one to another' as part of the other two." I think you could join the two and simply say...

The true church is a community of those who have responded to the call of discipleship... And there is no discipleship without submission to the cross, the Lordship of Christ, and to one another. (JHY, DF, DH)

Breen also pointed out Dallas Willard's definition of discipleship: "Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you."


Some other Breen quotes from ch. 2:

• Missional Leadership is the ability to mobilize the people of God to do his mission in the world together.
• The Missional Leader is someone who mobilizes God's people to join his redemptive work in the world.
• The truth about discipleship is that it's never hip and never in style because it's the call to come and die.
• Discipleship is not only the boot camp that trains them for the front lines but also the hospital where they recuperate when they get wounded and the off-duty time they need to rest.
• To be a disciple is to be a missionary, and to be a missionary requires that we be disciples.
• In the Kingdom of God, success is measured by one thing: Faithfulness through obedience.

Ok... that's probably enough for now.