The whole disciplemaking elephant

If you blindfold a group of people and ask each one to examine only one part of an elephant, you’ll get some fascinating descriptions.

A tree trunk.

A rope.

A wall.

A fan.

And none of them will be accurate.

And not one of them will actually be describing an elephant.

That’s exactly what happens with disciplemaking.

The core components of Jesus-shaped disciplemaking can’t be chopped into trunks, legs, tails, or ears and still remain whole. You can’t elevate one piece above the others and expect to end up with the animal Jesus intended.

Partial elephants aren’t elephants at all.

Disciplemaking friendships require kavanah—the Spirit’s power and presence joined with our passion—and havering—wrestling all the elements together into shared life. The elements we wrestle with are simple, but inseparable:

Study. Pray. Live. Love.

Taken on their own, each is good. Taken together, they become transformational. It’s the mix, practiced in shared life, that unleashes real formation.

So where are the Holy Spirit and the Word of God together fueling your disciplemaking—your inflow, overflow, and multiplication?

Study

We discover God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture (inflow), so together we can share who God is and what He has done (overflow).

Pray

We practice a life of prayerfulness as we own God’s heart for our lives (inflow), and we invite others into prayer for God’s heart in the world (overflow).

Love

We receive God’s extravagant love for us (inflow), and we overflow that same love into relationships—far beyond what we could generate on our own.

Live

We recognize that our lives have been reclaimed by God for His purposes (inflow), and we live as full-time missionaries in our families, friendships, workplaces, and communities (overflow).

Any single part of the elephant is not disciplemaking.

We can’t replace disciplemaking with a download, a program, or a crowd-based event. Jesus didn’t. He couldn’t. His followers didn’t—and couldn’t either. You can’t do this alone and call yourself a disciplemaker any more than you can call an elephant’s ear an elephant.

The delivery system of disciplemaking is family and friends, supported by the church.

Church activity does not equal disciplemaking. And it never replaces following Jesus in everyday life. The church either supports disciplemaking—or unintentionally distracts from it by emphasizing only part of the elephant.

So is disciplemaking:

• a missional friendship?

• a loving friendship?

• a praying friendship?

• a studying friendship?

No.

Disciplemaking is a missional, loving, praying, and studying friendship—all at once.

We can’t make it simpler.We can’t make it more complicated.And we can’t do it alone.

Jesus invites us to follow Him together—with the Spirit, in the Word, across every part of life.

So here’s the question worth sitting with:

How might your friendships grow from touching only part of the elephant to embracing the whole animal—until they become true disciplemaking friendships?