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discipleship

Mark 8:34 - What Does It Mean to "Deny Yourself"?

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  • Bill Mounce

This article considers discipleship, and specifically the instruction of the Lord Jesus in Mark 8:34 for any disciple of his to deny himself and follow Christ.

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How Not to Fix the Discipleship Problem in a Church

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  • Chuck Lawless

There is a way of addressing church stagnation and lack of discipleship in the church. Here are nine wrong ways of addressing the issue.

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Leading a Church to Be Evangelistic

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  • Chuck Lawless

The church is called to engage in discipleship. How can you make your church evangelistic? This article explains five steps you need to take to get your church engaged in evangelism.

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Basics for Discipleship in Suffering

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  • Andrea Lee

This article provides sound biblical advice for providing discipleship to those are suffering.

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On Sports and the Christian Life: An Interview with David Prince (Part 1)

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  • David E. Prince

This article discusses what kind of connection sports have with Christian discipleship. It considers the biblical language related to sports, as well as the leadership lessons that can be learned from sports.

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Avoid Making Disciples of Yourself

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  • Alvin Reid

How do you make disciples who are zealous to truly follow Christ? It is through a balanced discipleship. This article offers three areas in which balance must be kept.

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How Preaching Makes Disciples

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  • David Schrock

This article addresses the question "How do we disciple?" by considering discipleship by preaching. All disciples are formed and strengthened by preaching.

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Bearing the Cross How readily we forget that Christianity means death

  • Basic
  • James Montgomery Boice

Cross bearing was a key term of Christ's in defining discipleship. This article shows that it must be the key terms for today’s church in discipling others.

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Six Lessons from Everyday Discipleship

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  • Josh McPherson

How can you be committed to everyday discipleship? This article shares six lessons to help you get started and persevere in this endeavour.

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Why Women Should Go beyond Titus 2

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  • Luma Simms

This article encourages women to consider all of Scripture, not merely Titus 2:3-5, when it comes to discipleship relationships. The author explains what gospel-centred, whole-Bible discipleship entails, and how this shapes women's ministry.

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Nine Myths of Discipleship

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  • Zachary Lee

If you are not committed to discipleship, did you know that the reason may be that you believe one of the nine myths of discipleship that this article unpacks?

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Four Ways to Love Those with Mental Illnesses

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  • Matt Manry

How can the church disciple those with mental illness? Discipleship to the mentally ill should at least embrace these four things.

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Three Ways to Serve Seminarians

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  • Chris Crane

Seminary is a time of discipleship. Therefore, seminarians need the church. How can the church serve the training of pastors? This article provides three ways the church can do this.

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Birthing New Disciples

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  • Alex Dean

Regeneration is the birth of a disciple. Therefore, discipleship should be rooted in the biblical doctrine of regeneration. This article discusses four aspects of regeneration that must shape the philosophy of discipleship.

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Pursuing Discipleship in All of Life

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  • Allen Nelson IV

The purpose of discipleship is to make disciples Christ-like. Therefore, discipleship is not just a program; it’s life. This means that discipleship should be formal, informal, spontaneous, and intentional.

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Killing the Lone Ranger

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  • Stuart McCormack

This article explains that individualism is a threat to discipleship, because discipleship happens in a community rooted in the gospel.

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Culture Changes You

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  • Nick Rynerson

Culture is everywhere and, like it or not, culture is changing you. If this is the case then how can Christians use the tools of culture for discipleship? This article defines what culture is and gives a way in which Christians can engage with pop culture.

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Mark – Introduction to the Gospel of Mark

  • Semi-Technical
  • Robert H. Stein

This chapter forms an introduction to the Gospel of Mark. Introductory matters addressed are its authorship, the audience, the date, the emergence of Mark in gospel studies, theological emphases (Christology, the Messianic secret, the disciples and discipleship), and an outline of the Gospel.

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Four Principles for Disciples Who Last

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  • Stuart McCormack

How do we become disciples who last? This article discusses four ways we can develop discipleship perseverance, in an effort to make mature disciples.

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Being Misunderstood for the Kingdom

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  • Jason Garwood

Life as a sinner with other sinners is challenging and messy. How shall we respond to one another when misunderstanding happens? This article points to Christ as the picture of what ministry and discipleship look like: they involve being misunderstood and being vulnerable.

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Four Lessons from St. Patrick for Making Disciples the Irish Way

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  • Winfield Bevins

Discipleship has characterized the church throughout history. This article looks at the life of Saint Patrick, and four lessons we can learn from him on making disciples: discipleship is an effort of teamwork, it must be holistic, community based, and hospitality can play a role.

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Three Essentials of Discipleship According to Herman Bavinck

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  • Zach Barnhart

When thinking about discipleship, no one should ignore the lessons gained from Herman Bavinck. He There are three essentials to discipleship in his view: God's revelation, union with Christ, and ordinary obedience.

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A Case for Public Discipleship

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  • Kevin Garcia

Is discipleship merely about knowledge transfer? This article argues that discipleship needs to be aware that our gospel begins not with the fall, but with creation and the cultural mandate. Thus, not only one's private life needs to be discipled, but also one's public live. Understanding the goodness of creation will foster engagement in the world.

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Four Dimensions of Exposing Faulty Worldviews

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  • Dave Jenkins

We all live with some type of worldview. How do we expose false worldviews and show people their need for Jesus Christ? The church has the gospel, discipleship, missions, and apologetics to do this.

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Four Lessons for Making Disciples from Jan Hus

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  • Brad Watson

The church has always pursued making disciples. What can we learn from those who went before us? This article draws four lessons from Jan Hus on discipleship.

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Loving Enough to Share Our Lives

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  • Tre Wiggins

Discipleship is a call to share not only the gospel but also your life. This article explains that only love can motivate us to share the gospel with those we disciple. After explaining this, the article draws three practical implications.

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Four Essentials For Cultivating Disciples

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  • Matthew B. Sims

This article offers four essentials for cultivating discipleship in the church: storytelling, the gathering of the church, the church in the world, and family worship.

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Hallowed Be Thy Name

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  • Jason Garwood

When we pray, "Hallowed be your Name," what are we praying for? We want to see God's glory revered in our lives and the lives of others. Thie article shows how this prayer shapes discipleship.

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Five Ways to Cultivate a Multiplying Culture

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  • Brad Watson

How do you cultivate a church environment where discipleship is rooted in a circle of disciples discipling others? In Acts 11 and Acts 13, the church in Antioch gives the essence of a multiplying culture. This article explains that there are five things essential to multiplying disciples.

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Deliver Us from Evil

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  • Sean Nolan

This article explains that the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Deliver us from evil," is linked with discipleship.

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Short-Term Trips, Long-Term Discipleship

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  • Austin Gohn

Long-term discipleship is the key to preparing believers for a short-term mission. This preparation should consist of gospel clarity, spiritual integrity, cultural agility, and team unity.

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Discipling the Discipled

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  • Nick Abraham

Is discipleship a once-off thing? Is there a time when discipling others should stop, and how do you help those who think they have been discipled enough? This article explains that discipleship is a lifelong process, and those discipled still need discpling. It shows four ways in which this can be done.

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Making Disciples at Home

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  • Michael Guyer

Parenting is part of discipleship. This article is a call to churches to partner with parents and equip parents to make disciples at home. The article discusses the different ways the church can be involved in this ministry of equipping parents.

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A Long Obedience in an Instagram Age

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  • Grayson Pope

How do you practice discipleship in an age of social media and smartphones, which result in people having a shorter attention span? There are four things you can do to build disciples in such an age.

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Let’s Get Real about Women’s Discipleship

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  • Rachelle Cox

If discipleship is about helping others follow Jesus, where should one start when looking to foster discipleship of women? This article offers three things to consider.

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Do You Take the Great Commission Personally?

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  • Grayson Pope

Can the Great Commission be taken personally? This article argues that discipleship has always been done by a group of Christians each reaching out to the people around them.

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"Spiritual Poverty" Is a Prerequisite to Discipleship

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  • Elliot Toman

Spiritual poverty is the key to discipleship. How? It is spiritual poverty that drives us to Christ and it is the same poverty that prompts us to direct others to Christ.

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Fixing Our Discipleship Deficiency

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  • Dan Tankersley

This article suggests that discipleship has always been the Lord Jesus' primary plan for the church, even though many churches lack this practice. The author considers how to build a disciple-making church.

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The Missing Component in Most Discipleship Strategies

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  • Grayston Pope

Is your discipleship strategy missing something? This article argues that many churches' discipleship strategies lack Jesus' plan for making disciples.

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Discipleship

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  • Stephen Smallman

This article offers ten key issues that must shape the church in thinking about discipleship.

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Being the Fullness of God in Christ by the Spirit: Ephesians 5:18 in Its Epistolary Setting

  • Technical
  • Timothy G. Gombis

What is the fullness of the Spirit referred to by Paul in Ephesians 5:18? Often this text is read in terms of the empowerment of individual believers for discipleship and ministry, and this leads to difficulties in relating the text to its immediate literary context.

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Core Foundational Beliefs of Discipleship

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  • Barry York

Making disciples is a command of Christ. Therefore, it must be intentional, with the aim of making followers of Christ who are instructed in Christ's way. These are the core beliefs of discipleship.

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Core Foundational Practices of Discipleship

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  • Barry York

Making disciples is a responsibility of the church. This article lays down the biblical ground for this call and the manner in which discipleship should be pursued by the church.

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Did the Lucan Jesus Desire Voluntary Poverty of His Followers?

  • Semi-Technical
  • Peter Liu

Often Jesus called his disciples and followers to leave everything. What is the content of this call? There are also passages in Luke and Acts that seem to require voluntary poverty. Other passages require a right attitude to the continuing possession of wealth. What was Jesus' teaching on possessions?

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Communication: Discipleship Involves Learning

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  • Mariano Di Gangi

This article teaches on the demands of discipleship: learning, loving, and living. Christ communicates with the disciple and the disciple experiences communion with Christ. The rest of the article discusses in detail these aspects of discipleship.

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Evangelistic Malpractice

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  • William MacDonald

This article identifies a number of unbiblical approaches to evangelistic ministry. These include the omission of the aspects of repentance from sin and the lordship of Christ, the hiding of the terms of discipleship, and the salesmanship techniques employed in bringing people to confess faith in Christ.

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The Image Conscious Disciple

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  • Jonathan K. Dodson

In this article, the author speaks of our discipleship in terms of being conscious that we bear the image of God as restored and renewed in Christ.

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Follower, Disciple, or Student?

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  • S. S. Braaksma

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? This article looks at the meaning of discipleship by looking at how Abram, Israel, and Jesus followed God.

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To Be a Christian Is to Follow Jesus

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  • S. S. Braaksma

What is the greatest threat facing Christians today? This article argues that consumerism is a threat to discipleship. It destroys the Christian virtue of sacrifice that is at the heart of doing good and living in communion. These two points are essential to regaining the meaning of following Jesus.

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On Learning Discipleship

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  • Tim Challies

Discipleship training is a process. Like physical training there are things that must characterize discipleship. This article discusses seven characteristics of discipleship training.

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Luke 14:25-33 – The Divine Prescription

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  • Calum MacInnes

What does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? From Luke 14:25-33 this article shows that discipleship involves loving, dying, and forsaking.

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Essential Things

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  • Wayne Pearce

Essential to the growth of the church is discipleship. This article shows that this is what is implied by the Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20.

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Mark 8:27-9:1 – The Divine Necessity

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  • William H. Smith

For the Lord Jesus, there was one necessity that controlled his life. This article, an exposition of Mark 8:27–Mark 9:1, shows what it meant for Christ to do the will of God, and what Christian discipleship today is all about.

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"Out of My Sight!", "Get behind Me!", or "Follow after Me!": There is No Choice in God's Kingdom

  • Semi-Technical
  • Dennis C. Stoutenburg

Matthew 16:23-24 is interpreted in mainly three different ways. The purpose of the author of this article is twofold. First, he wants to identify and to understand how, through linguistic and contextual analyses, each of these traditions originated. In the second place, he wants to emphasize that Jesus was concerned with discipleship in the kingdom of heaven.

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Following Jesus Together

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  • Allan Edward

What is a disciple? A disciple is a follower. Discipleship is geared at making people followers of Christ. This article explains the goal of discipleship and the responsibility to disciple.

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"Son of Man" Imagery – Some Implications for Theology and Discipleship

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  • Richard N. Longenecker

Longenecker focuses in this article on the designation in the Gospels of Jesus Christ as Son of Man. The author argues that a good understanding of this designation has important implications for Christian discipleship.

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Christian Discipleship

  • Basic

This article shows that being a disciple of Christ means denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following him. This is discipleship 101.

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The Duty of Discipleship Edifying the Church Inter-generationally

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  • William Boekestein

This article shows how to do discipleship through modelling, teaching, and training. Disciple-making is a call for every generation to pass the faith to the coming generation.

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The Meaning of Christian Discipleship

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  • Mariano Di Gangi

Discipleship is what the church is called to. This article explains what it means to be a disciple.

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Therefore, Go

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  • Chris Donato

The article provides a reminder to believers on the dangers and difficulties involved in the work of discipleship and evangelism. This includes the importance of understanding the depths of the grace of God towards sinners who may still continue to sin even after being converted, and indeed the believer's attitude towards sin.

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"Colossians-Style Discipleship"

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  • Nathan Ketchen

The book of Colossians teaches us a lot about discipleship. At the heart of discipleship is a life of thanksgiving for what Christ has done for us. Discipleship results from the awareness that Christ has redeemed us from a life of slavery. Discipleship involves suffering in joy while serving Christ.

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The Duty of Discipleship: Edifying the Church Inter-Generationally

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  • William Boekestein

Working from Titus 2, this article shows that discipleship in the church should be done through modeling, teaching and training.

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Essential Things

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  • Wayne Pearce

Looking at the basics of Christian faith, this article shows that recognizing the authority of Christ and His kingship is vital, and has implications for discipleship.

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The Heidelberg Catechism at 450 Years

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  • Jon D. Payne

This article looks at the history of the Heidelberg Catechism in terms of its context and structure. The author maintains that the catechism can still play a big role in the church through catechetical discipleship and training believers in sound doctrine.

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Discipleship and Planting Churches

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  • William VanDoodewaard

Discipleship is crucial for church growth. This article is a reflection on effective evangelism and how churches can do mission work.

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A Disciple's Disposition

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  • Jeremy Walker

This article discusses the meaning of discipleship, presenting the life of Paul as a example of the attitude of a disciple of Christ.

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Discipleship

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  • D. Macleod

This article is about discipleship, and different aspects of discipleship is discussed: spirituality, self-denial, teachings of Christ, example of Christ and cost of discipleship.

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The Task of Missions

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  • Ronald Van Overloop

This article is about the church's task in missions. The teaching task of the church, missions and church membership, and missions and discipleship is also discussed in this article.

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If You Catch 'em, You Clean 'em

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  • Roger S. Greenway

This article is about disciple-making in missions and the task of the church in discipleship training.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer – The Cost of Discipleship

  • Semi-Technical
  • Frederika G. Oosterhoff

This article is about the book of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The cost of discipleship. Bonhoeffer's view on costly grace, obedience, discipleship and following Jesus is discussed. Bonhoeffer also stresses the importance of the Old Testament and the importance of this earthly life.

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The Elder and Teacher

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  • John R. Sittema

This article makes a call for elders to be involved in the work of teaching in the local church. The kind of teaching that the author has in mind is discipleship.

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Global Society: Challenges for Christian Mission

  • Technical
  • Vinoth Ramachandra

Ramachandra sets the challenge of contemporary Christian discipleship and mission in the context of our changing political, economic and cultural context. He presents a vision of the gospel and the Church of Christ as the true universalism in the context of globalization.

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Evangelism: its Goal and Motive

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  • Arthur J. Fox

This article on the goal of evangelism and the motives for evangelism, is also about discipleship and evangelism.

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Salvation as Discipleship in the Gospel of Mark

  • Technical
  • Brenda B. Colijn

It has often been said that the Gospel of Mark has no real teaching on salvation. Theologians commonly identify the teaching on the person of Christ as Mark's central concern. Although Mark certainly does focus on Christ, for him his teaching on Christ is inseparable from what he teaches on salvation. In Mark's Gospel, understanding who Jesus is and what He did and is doing entails acknowledging his claim upon one's life. Therefor Mark's characteristic model of salvation is discipleship.

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The Mandate: Love Our Enemies Matt. 5:43-48

  • Semi-Technical
  • John Nolland

Nolland studies Matthew 5:43-48 and other key texts that highlights the command to love our enemies as a priority in Christian discipleship. He further sheds light on Jesus’ teaching by setting it in the wider context not only of Matthew’s gospel but also of the ancient world and the Old Testament. He demonstrates that, without being critical of the Old Testament, Jesus radically extends its teaching.

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Faithfulness to God is our first obligation in all that we are called to do in the service of the gospel. Iain H. Murray
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