A friend of mine heard a sermon recently in which he told me the pastor seemed to be measuring discipleship by how many “worship services” one attended – after all, the early church worshipped daily – and by how much time one gave to “discipleship” activities.

I don’t think that pastor could have been more wrong:

• First, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts” (Acts 2.46) isn’t referring to “services;” the temple court was a large place, big enough for them to meet and hear the apostles’ teaching (see Acts 2.42).
• Second, discipleship isn’t only or even primarily about fixed activities that one gives time to, as important as, say, Bible study, daily time with God, church attendance, etc., are. In that case, we’d have to ask, how much time? (I wrote about this last year.) Discipleship is about following Jesus all the time.

Here’s a story our friend Debbie Friley in Florida sent a few days ago that illustrates a “whole life” approach to discipleship. She didn’t quit being a disciple when they transitioned from meeting to share their quiet time to getting on their bicycles.

Tuesday mornings my friend Julie comes over around 7:00. We have our Quiet Times, Cycle and then our “Salt & Light Discipleship” Servant Team meets weekly for extended prayer and planning. Today there were only two of us so we decided to take our prayer and planning on the road….or should I say on the Pinellas trail, cycling. We had not been on the trail for quite a while, because we had been taking other routes.  But today we had more time and the trail is where the Lord lead us…and you will see why. On our way back, we saw a gal curled up in a ball off to the side of the trail in front of a bench.

So of course we turned around and went back to see if she was ok. She told us that she was homeless and that someone had stolen everything from her, wallet, purse, phone etc. Now you never know in these situations what is really true or not, but one thing we knew for sure that God had lead us on the trail today for “such a time as this” and that He was stretching His hand to this gal Amanda, probably in her late 20’s.

So knowing she was homeless I started calling homeless shelters for her but most of them were full or it wasn’t a good fit for her situation. While I was fervently trying to find a place for Amanda to stay, Julie was sharing the gospel with her and I joined in after getting off the phone. She clearly was very confused about God, the Gospel and so many other things. Julie shared some wonderful truths and scriptures with her. Julie asked her if she gave her a Bible to read, would she read it. She declined.

But I will tell you that she heard the Truth & seeds were planted and we are praying that others will come along and share the gospel with Amanda too. I only had $3.00 and some change with me, but I was delighted to give it to her. She said she was really hungry and would love a meal, so we directed her to a restaurant nearby. I called them, gave them Amanda’s name and told them the situation and said that I wanted to pay for her meal. When she arrived she told them who she was and then enjoyed her meal.The restaurant kindly worked with me on this and called me when she left and I paid for her brunch over the phone with my credit card.

So before we left Amanda today, we told her just how much God loved her, we prayed together with her and asked God to continue pursuing her and to meet her needs.

So please join me in prayer for Amanda that she would not forget God’s kindness to her today and that soon and very soon she will meet her true Provider, the Lover of her soul! 

Debbie and her friend living out the story of the Good Samaritan is a way better illustration of discipleship than attending more worship services, don’t you think?

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4.21 – 24, NIV)

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13.34, 35, NIV)

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15.8, NIV)