Our main assumption in the past two years has been that God wants us to experience newness in our faith in Him. Two years ago, our theme was “Entering into newness through Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalm 100:4). Our conviction is that a life of praise and thanksgiving will take one into experiencing newness with Love and Unity” (John 13:34-35).

We strongly believe that living in love and unity is integral for all believers and centralising it in our lives will lead to a newness of experiences of God. We thank God for those grounds already captured in our experiences and pray that they will be sustained.

We believe that focusing our lives on Discipleship and Apostleship will lead to newness for each one of us and the entire body of Christ. There are things we are longing to see and to be which will only come through a life of consistent discipleship and apostleship. We all can see a consistency in the manner of our themes. They are always two related or rather inseparable aspects of faith. One cannot separate Discipleship and Apostleship. They are to coexist in oscillation in our lives.

The Gospel Imperatives

There are four traditionally held Gospel Imperatives spoken about in the Bible. They are worth mentioning as we look at our theme of Discipleship and Apostleship. They are:

Come to Me – Read Matt. II: 28. This passage indicates that discipleship begins with the call of the Master for each person to come out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. It is a call from weariness and burdens to a life of rest which Christ gives. If one has not heard the call of God, he cannot claim to be a follower of Christ.

Follow Me – Read Luke 9:23 – “And he …”. By this, Jesus was speaking of leadership and companionship to those who would answer the call to come to Him. Whoever comes to Jesus must follow Him. It is not the other way around. Jesus is not Master. It is in that companionship, with Jesus leading the way, that the disciple must follow.

Abide (Remain) in Me – This is another command of the Gospel to those who are in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (KJV).

Go for Me – Read Matthew 28: 19; 20. make nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe…”

Of these four imperatives. The first three appear to focus more on discipleship. To come to Christ, follow Him and abide in Him are parts of BEING WITH HIM. All these have a command to SEND THEM OUT TO PREACH as stated in our theme.

Understanding Our Major Concepts

The two concepts have posed for us “the same riddle of the ages on the chicken and the egg.” These have told that the chicken comes from the egg. The whole point is that the two are close we will use the construct of our text to solve our problem.

We must be with the Master first before the Master will send us out to preach. Even in the various professions of life, no one is allowed to practice in significant fields of endeavour unless thorough learning has taken place. Who will enter a plane if he is told that the pilot of the plane has not been trained? Or who will allow a doctor who has not been trained to operate him/her? Each of such professionals must have spent a good time studying before being sent out to work.

What Is Discipleship?

Discipleship comes from the term “Disciple”. The Oxford Language Dictionary defines a “disciple” as “a personal follower of Christ during His life especially one of the twelve Apostles.” This definition is quite interesting because it helps us to note that the same ones called “Disciples” were also referred to as “Apostles”. That means those involved in discipleship were the same ones involved in apostleship.

The Harper’s Bible Dictionary says that the term “disciple” is a translation of the Greek movement; one whose allegiance is to the instruction and commitments of the teacher or movement” (p.222).

One of the ways Jesus was addressed throughout His ministry was “Teacher” or in its Jewish form, “Rabbi”. Nicodemus used the two expressions in John 3: 2…to Jesus by night and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God…”

Jesus taught the crowds and multitudes. Sometimes they went to Him to explain things which were difficult for them to understand. Sometimes, Jesus taught them in some form of rebuke. For instance, when they were bringing little children the children should be brought to Him. Many times, the disciples went in the opposite direction from the thoughts of Jesus and He had to teach them to act differently.

There are times when many followers of Jesus, both the closest associates (the twelve) and the not-too-close, were referred to as “disciples” of Jesus. Luke 6:17 says: “He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of His disciples was there…” In this case, many followers of Christ were referred to as His disciples. Also, Acts 6:I says: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing…”

The point here is that it is not only the 12 disciples that the Bible refers to frequently that are disciples. Disciples could mean all followers of Christ. However, by our understanding of discipleship, we can say that it is not all “followers” of Christ who are disciples. And we must keep in mind that the intention of Jesus in the Great Commission is to make disciples of all nations.

Not only did Jesus have disciples. Other persons or groups also had. Matt. 22:15-16 says: “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap Him in His words. They sent their disciples to Him…” In this case, Pharisees also had disciples.

Four Basics/Essentials of Discipleship

The word of God. We cannot know the truths we need to know about God without The Bible as our basic curriculum in discipleship.

The people of God. The relationship is integral to discipleship-making. Jesus’ method involved a relationship with the people. When Jesus called His discipleships to be with Him, it involved following Him hearing Him, talking to Him, questioning Him, moving along with Him and above all, obeying what He told them to do and taking corrections on what practical demonstration of what is observable. All these were part of the discipleship of

The Spirit of God- This stands as the ultimate agent of change and transformation. In discipleship, there possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit which convicts us of sin and draws us close to Christ (John 16:7-11; I John 2:20-27).

The Method of Jesus. 28: 18-20. Jesus has instructed that we should make disciples and every Christian group has a discipleship-making method or strategy for the mission of Christ. In NBC, we have several discipleship programs such as:

The Six Lessons for Believers; The Enquirer’s Class; Follow the Master; Serve the Master; Master Life; Experiencing God; Christ Indwelling You; Prayer Life etc.

Qualities of Discipleship (From Global Discipleship, Canada)

• A Disciple is patient, kind and gentle. Because God is patient, disciples are called to be patient (Ps. 86:15; Gal. 5:22).
• A Disciple lives a life submitted to God’s will. A disciple allows the will of Christ to override every other option that there may be.
• A Disciple lives a sacrificial life for Because Christ gave up everything for our sake, we are called to live sacrificially before God and our fellow men (Rom 12:1). We must be ready to lay down our rights for the sake of others.
• A Disciple works diligently for God. We are not saved by works but when we are saved, it is unto good works (James 2:18).
• A Disciple embraces the good in others. Many times, we are quick to judge others rather than serve as lifters of others who are sinking.