Co-Creation

Empowering Others

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." ~ Henry B. Adams

Teacher (Rabbi) was the name that the disciples most often used for Jesus. To understand the relationship that the disciples had with Jesus we must erase from our minds the concept of a lecturer in front of a class or a pastor delivering a message from a pulpit. How Jesus taught His disciples can best be described as discipleship or apprenticeship. Jesus' disciples observed Him doing life firsthand. They walked through life with Him day to day. The idea is that the disciple observes the teacher, then he imitates the teacher under his supervision and then he goes off on his own and hopefully surpasses his master.

This is the exponentially multiplying avalanche that Jesus set off when he commanded His disciples to go and make disciples. He was telling them to go do as I have done with you. It's not about teaching as many people as possible. It's about discipling a few deeply to the point where they have the capacity to disciple a few others, and so on. It seems slower but it isn't. The math is undeniable. Let's say by some miracle I could reach 1 million people over 20 years who give their lives to Christ. Sounds like a lot (Billy Graham reportedly reached over 2 million). But if I were to disciple 5 people to the point where in about 1 year they could each disciple 5 people of their own and so on (assuming that we each only had these 5 people who we walked with and no other converts in our entire lifetime) after 20 years, there would be approximately 476 trillion disciples of Christ (that's more people than exist on the planet)! Discipling is about going deep with a few instead of shallow with a multitude. Jesus poured into only 12 men and He was God. Think about it.

The power of discipleship is that it is not just passing on information. Discipling others empowers them to actually follow Christ in practice. When we allow others access to our lives, we do more than just share what we know; we impart the Christ incarnated in us. When we share our lives in a heart-to-heart relationship, we impart transformational power back and forth as the grace of God at work in my life flows to you and the grace of God at work in your life flows to me. I like to call this discipling from alongside. There really is only one Teacher - Christ. What we are really doing is being discipled by Christ, together. You follow me in areas where I am following Christ and I follow you in areas where you are following Christ. In Romans 1:11-12, Paul says to the believers in Rome, "For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours."

Besides Jesus' relationship with His disciples, Paul's relationship with Timothy is the other model we see for discipleship in the bible. In 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Paul tells Timothy, "But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is. You know my faith, my patience, my love, and my endurance. You know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra—but the Lord rescued me from all of it." Timothy wasn't just a member of Paul's congregation, he was like a son to Paul. All good fathers do all they can to ensure that their sons surpass them. Even Jesus said that we would do greater things than Him. This is the heart of a teacher.

When we do not have this father's heart we may be insecure about our significance and be tempted to use our power to create environments where no one can be bigger than us. The irony is that keeping everyone under us actually limits our sphere of influence.

Journal With Holy Spirit: How do you feel about giving people access to your life? What feelings come up for you when you consider people who may be junior to you or younger than you, surpassing you?