Spheres and Stages of Discipleship
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Writing Assignment 2:
Spheres and Stages of Discipleship
Submitted to Dr. Anderson, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course
DSMN 500:
Discipleship Ministries
by
April 6, 2014
A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their church, they need a plan. The pastor can make his own plan, or find one that will fit the personality of the church. Putman, after some time, has come up with five stages and four spheres of discipleship.
Spiritually dead is the first of the five stages. This stage is basically a sinner who has not accepted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. This person is still living a life of sin, and does not want to give up this life. Spiritually dead individuals do not have the love and forgiveness of Christ living within them.
The second stage is being an infant. “Christ has untied the person’s immediate connections with the world and bound the person immediately to Himself.” This individual has just gone from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive, because they asked Jesus to forgive them and asked Him to be their personal savior – their “ransom”, if you will. “Too many people have the belief that once you become a Christian you turn on autopilot. Christian growth is supernatural, not automatic.” So in this stage of infancy, the new born Christian will usually require many hours of attention and teaching. Although a newborn is growing, at this point in their life they are going to want things their way,
Writing Assignment 2:
Spheres and Stages of Discipleship
Submitted to Dr. Anderson, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course
DSMN 500:
Discipleship Ministries
by
April 6, 2014
A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their church, they need a plan. The pastor can make his own plan, or find one that will fit the personality of the church. Putman, after some time, has come up with five stages and four spheres of discipleship.
Spiritually dead is the first of the five stages. This stage is basically a sinner who has not accepted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. This person is still living a life of sin, and does not want to give up this life. Spiritually dead individuals do not have the love and forgiveness of Christ living within them.
The second stage is being an infant. “Christ has untied the person’s immediate connections with the world and bound the person immediately to Himself.” This individual has just gone from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive, because they asked Jesus to forgive them and asked Him to be their personal savior – their “ransom”, if you will. “Too many people have the belief that once you become a Christian you turn on autopilot. Christian growth is supernatural, not automatic.” So in this stage of infancy, the new born Christian will usually require many hours of attention and teaching. Although a newborn is growing, at this point in their life they are going to want things their way,
Bibliography: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works. Vol. 4). Minneapolis: Fortress press, 2003. Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is...: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2013. Hull, Bill. The Disciple-Making Church: Leading a Body of Believers On the Journey of Faith. Updated ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010. Hull, Bill. The Disciple-Making Pastor: Leading Others On the Journey of Faith. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007. Patte, Daniel. The Challenge of Discipleship: a Critical Study of the Sermon On the Mount as Scripture. Harrisburg, PA: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 1999. Putman, Jim. Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Exponential Series). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013.