Why You Should Choose Who to Disciple

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HISGROUP DISCIPLESHIP. It should help pastors live longer and healthier lives. In the Gospel, Jesus showed us that he hand picked his disciples, choosing only "those he wanted,"says the bible. The rest just belonged to the crowd who never committed to him and for whom he wasn't responsible. That should be the model for the church. Unlike today when many pastors have no choice but to deal with church boards and members assigned to them.

And by the way, Jesus had no "church members." He had disciples. The rest were, as I've said, part of the crowd. And John 6 shows us that the disciples were divided into two: the 12 and the other disciples. The 12 was further subdivided into the hard core and the non-hard core. And we all know that the hard core comprised of Peter, John, and James. I think Andrew was sometimes hard core.

I'm alarmed at the number of pastors today who have high blood pressure or heart disease and die of it. If not ailment then they die of other deadly diseases known to originate from too much stress. And it's all about ministry stress. Often I see them take pride in being terribly sick due to ministry, thinking it glorifies God. I ask myself, why do ministers today often die of stress? Moses was stressed out too but he never had health problems. So didn't Jesus.

You have to choose who to disciple. You cannot keep all your membership and try to make disciples of them. You have to release many of them to other churches and get only those you can and want to handle. Then put the rest with the crowd. Select carefully those you want to be with as you serve God. Invest in them and build them up. That way, you do a significant ministry raising up select true men and women of God who would win wars, not play church.

The "crowd" in the church ministry God gave me are attenders. They also join our WORD sessions but they "hear" only if they have ears to hear. With my disciples, I spend extra time discussing meanings and sharing deeper insights. They stay behind when the others have left, and they ask me questions. You have to choose who you'd sharpen with because not all desire to be bladed weapons for war. Some are content being ladles. The rest are good only for ignoble uses.

Imagine keeping in your house 70 to 90 percent utensils for ignoble uses and investing your time and energy on them. No wonder pastors get very sick and die of terrible sickness. Worse, they miss out on the 10 to 30 percent who are tough metal with potentials for being sharpened into deadly and accurate weapons. They prefer the majority because they want numbers. Numbers give you glamour.

If you have Jesus' accurate judgment, you'd choose who to disciple and put the rest with the crowd.