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It will ascertain the old ways of discipline believers in order to highlight the missing point for the modern pattern of discipleship. The main focus of this point of the study is to investigate the relational grounds of both approaches and contraction with each other with the intention of showing the missing link in the modern approach. It is worth pointing out that at the onset that discipleship has in the modern times been replaced with evangelism. We have left behind the core purpose and intention of Christ in making disciples.
All we do now is programs to preach and save souls, but leaving behind the process of making those souls abide, of which souls can only be abiding if the church had continued in the old ways of personal discipleship, those not done in the classrooms but in studying and imbibing the personal life of a teacher (disciples) in a personal relationship. The second objective of this study is to consider the implications of the first objective, what lessons can be learnt or missing point been identified to help retrace our steps back to the root of what needs to be done, and also to suggest a way forward to help remedy the current situation.
My own personal motivation for embarking on such a study stems from the time I discovered that the church these days does more of evangelism than discipleship. Most believers does not even see reasons to make disciples of men. Perhaps, they don’t yet understand how to make disciples of men, rather all they engage in is avian the soul of men by Just preaching and engaging in evangelistic activities. The concept of discipline which involves “taking up one’s cross” within the daily Christian experience remains a challenging and often distant concept for modern Christians within the affluent communities.
Discipleship has been left in the hands of individuals doing it all alone (lone rangers) following the direction of the Holy Spirit. The question there is, how many hear and obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit? How many are filled with the Holy Spirit, and how many are today sensitive to the leading f the Holy Spirit. My hope in this study is to begin to forge a way out of this difficult situation.
It is an attempt to offer an eye opening view on the way Jesus made disciples and instructed such disciples to make disciples of men His ways are still very relevant to our modern times which needn’t to be discarded because of the growing development of the mind technology. I am of the opinion that if we can go back to the primitive style of making disciples based on personal relationship or community relationship rather than individuals (lone angers) of those days, the world would be a better place and Gods name will en glorified, and Gods name will be glorified, as evangelism will not be a difficult task.
The purpose of the study is to explore the concepts and conditions for discipleship in the light of primitive and modern approaches. The study hypothesis is that while recognizing that they are modern styles to discipleship, some primitive methods can also be embedded, which can shed more lights in the concepts of understanding discipleship in the modern context.