Page 36 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Study Section 4: Discipleship’s Participants

“Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

4.1 Connect

When you lead someone to Christ, and they truly accept Him as their personal Savior and
Lord, they most certainly need to be discipled in their faith. It becomes your duty to spend
some time helping them grow in their faith in Jesus. Of course, they need to learn how to
study the Bible and apply it to their lives. They need to learn how to pray. They must learn
how to share their new faith with their family and their friends. They need guidance.

As one who disciples, you need to have a plan ready for your new convert. The Bible is a large book, and
you would not want them to start reading Leviticus for their daily devotions. They need to get into the
milk of the word and fully understand what happened when they believed. They need to fall in love
with Jesus Christ! So, you must have a plan that will take them into God’s Word to accomplish these
goals. They need fellowship with other believers. They need to know what to do with their previous
friends who may not know the Lord. They need a lot of care and instruction!

Today, we want to look at the needs of a new believer in Christ and see how you as one who disciples
can set aside the time and create a plan of discipleship.

4.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to describe five characteristics of a person who desires to become
a disciple of Christ.

2. The student should be able to explain how Jesus and Paul discipled believers.

3. The student should be able to list and describe the important elements of a discipleship program.

4.3 So you want to be a disciple of Christ?
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What does it mean to become a disciple of Christ? By definition, a disciple is a follower, one
who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another. A Christian disciple is a person
who accepts and assists in the spreading of the good news of Jesus Christ. Christian
discipleship is the process by which disciples grow in the Lord Jesus Christ and are equipped
by the Holy Spirit, who resides in our hearts, to overcome the pressures and trials of this
present life and become more and more Christlike. This process requires believers to respond
to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to examine their thoughts, words and actions and compare them with the
Word of God. This requires that we be in the Word daily studying it, praying over it, and obeying it. In
addition, we should always be ready to give testimony of the reason for the hope that is within us (1
Peter 3:15) and to disciple others to walk in His way.

14 https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-discipleship.html

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