Getting Started with the Discipleship Cycle
The Discipleship Cycle is a simple tool to encourage people to become more like Jesus and engage with those around them. You can do this on your own or connect with friends.
D – Discipleship
N – eNgagement
A – Authenticity
If you’re serious about developing as a follower of Jesus Christ you will need to pay attention to all three – up, out, and in.
The discipleship cycle is a simple way to read the Bible more intentionally, either on your own or with two or three others. It’s often best to choose a passage and stick with it – try reading Luke 10, the chapter from which we take the name Seventy-two, and see how God speaks to you through these verses over the next six months.
Listening
Listening to God, listening to others, and listening to ourselves are all important ways into hearing God’s voice, but our most reliable starting place is listening to God’s voice through scripture. Start with any passage and then read until something tempts you to reach for the highlighter pen.
Looking
Jesus did only what he ‘saw’ his Father doing also. What is God up to in the lives of those around me? God’s word may prompt us to look:
- UP (Our relationship with God)
- OUT (Our relationship with others)
- IN (Our own authenticity)
We use DNA (Discipleship, eNgagement, Authenticity) as a shorthand for these.
Living
Living out faithfully whatever God is speaking into our lives, sometimes in a hostile environment, has been our Christian vocation since the 1st Century. Obeying God often involves a change of will; if Jesus needed to consciously pray ‘not my will but yours’, how much more do we? It is, however, in obeying that we discover the reality of God, rather than remaining in our comfort zones.
Learning
Learning is at the heart of the meaning of the word ‘disciple’. We need to gain more than intellectual understanding – we need a change of heart if we are to reveal the likeness of Jesus day to day. Discerning where to sow the seed of God’s word, nourishing its growth, and then learning from the result, including our mistakes, is the way our heart will be changed.