What do you think? What do mature believers look like? What do they believe? How do they live? Why do you have this picture? Where did you get this picture?

Discipleship

How does one identify a Christian, a disciple of Jesus? Jesus spoke of four essential marks of his followers:

1. A disciple identifies with the person of Jesus, denying self, taking up the cross and following Jesus. (Luke 9:23)
2. A disciple is obedient to the word of Jesus, faithfully holding to Jesus' teaching and living it. (John 8:31,32)
3. A disciple expresses and demonstrates love for all other disciples. (John 13:35)
4. A disciple is fruitful in the work of Jesus, producing more disciples. (John 15:8-16)

As you work with new Christians you must model these essential marks and enable your friend(s) to model them also. But we need to explore some indicators of these four marks as they become more fully developed.

Eight Major Indicators of a Mature Faith
The recent Valuegenesis study analyzing the maturity level of young people in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a useful tool for our purposes. It identified eight major indicators of a mature faith. While these are expressed in very North American terms, they can be translated into a variety of cultural contexts.

1. Trusting in God's saving grace and believing firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus.
2. Experiencing a sense of personal well-being, security and peace.
3. Integrating faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one's religious life.
4. Seeking spiritual growth through study, reflection, prayer, and discussion with others.
5. Seeking to be part of a community of believers in which people give witness to their faith which supports and nourishes one another.
6. Holding life-affirming values, including commitment to racial and gender equality.
7. Advocating social and global change to bring about greater social justice.
8. Serving humanity consistently and passionately through acts of love and justice.

Some of these indicators are more obvious than others, some are more easily achieved than others. These indicators are not provided as a basis for immediate judgment, but as goals toward which mentors encourage their disciples to move.

How to Encourage Growth in New Christians
As you disciple new Christians and seek to move them toward a mature, self-reproducing faith, you may wish to help them focus on the following:

The lordship of Christ—Jesus Christ must truly be the Lord of the believers' lives. Growing in faith they must be captivated by the person of Jesus and surrender major areas of life to Jesus' control: their careers, marriage plans, families, possessions.

Bible study—Young believers need to learn to daily read and enjoy the Bible, to study it personally and with others in a group, and to memorize meaningful passages. With individual help, young believers soon learn to feed themselves. The process may take a few years.

Prayer and devotion to God—They need to learn to pray and have a meaningful quiet time of worship daily. They should also be taught to pray for others (a simple prayer list may help), how to confess sins and to live a life of thanksgiving.

Fellowship and the church—Believers grow in the context of fellowship with other believers. New believers need to belong. They need to learn that the church is their spiritual family (cf. the "one another" passages of the New Testament).

Christian character— Paul labored hard to "present everyone mature in Christ" (Col.1:28). Paul's goal of Christlikeness is the most essential aspect of discipleship training. This is a lifelong process that builds on the abiding essentials of faith, hope and love.

Relationships—Discipleship affects all interpersonal relationships (e.g. between family members, employers and employees, the church leaders and members). New believers need to be taught how to apply gospel principles to their relationship with people in the context of their own culture.

Witnessing—Missionaries should teach young believers to share their faith with members of their own family and with friends. This is the most fertile soil for ongoing, fruitful evangelism and church planting.

Social justice—Growing Christians need to learn that the Christian life is personal but never privatized. Christians must therefore be concerned about sinful social structures and minister also to the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed and marginalized.

(Adapted and expanded from Lewis, Jonathan, ed. [1993] Working Your Way to the Nations: A Guide to Effective Tentmaking. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.)

A Journey Together

Obviously this type of mature faith will take time to develop. As you look at these eight indicators, you may sense a need for growth yourself. As you "disciple" a new Christian, you should begin by confessing that you are still growing also. You may be only a step ahead of the new disciple. But you know where you both are going and how to get there.

Let's think about how to model and teach new Christians in four essential practices of a growing Christian life.

Prayer
Since you are the first model of Christianity for the new Christian, your prayer life becomes a model for his or her prayer life. By instruction and by praying together you introduce the person to different forms of prayer.

Conversation with God—Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Nothing is hidden from God. Everything can be discussed. Nothing will embarrass God, drive Him away, or make Him angry.

Worship—In a worship setting prayer is often less personal and more a matter of bringing the community collectively to the throne of God.

Meditation—Prayer is not simply bringing a "shopping list" to God, it is praise and thanksgiving as well as sitting quietly and listening to the voice of God, "when every other voice is hushed." (Ministry of Healing, page 58)

Many forms—Prayer can take on many forms: letter writing, singing, and playing instruments. David danced. Cultures differ in the ways people approach God meaningfully.

Bible Study
The Scriptures are the record of an ancient and ongoing "dialogue" between God and his people about what it means to be the people of God in a variety of times and conditions. As members of the family, we are invited to listen in on this dialogue and to participate.

Casebook vs. cookbook This "dialogue" suggests that the Bible is not a cookbook with specific "recipes" to produce the same results in any given socio-historical context. The Bible is more a casebook filled with case studies of how God and his people have related to each other. Principles can be drawn from these case studies for the present (1Cor.10:6,11)

Reading—Regular time spent in reading reliable, clear translations of the Bible acquaints us with this ongoing dialogue, and provokes us to analyze the case studies and apply the principles in our own lives.

Doing—Understanding the Bible is only the first part of Bible study. In Matthew 7:21-27, Jesus reminds us that intellectual knowledge without obedience is totally insufficient.

Fellowship
While there have been cases of isolated Christians surviving without the benefit of fellowship, it is clearly the exception and not the rule. The Scriptures, the whole history of God's covenant people, know nothing of a privatized faith, lived apart from and with no regard for the rest of the "family." This fellowship is both a giving and receiving activity and can take at least two different and complementary tacks.

Small groups—Fellowship really indicates relationship and this suggests a small group in which the participants encourage each other, support each other, and are accountable to each other. Ideally this group should number between 4 and 12 persons.

Worship and celebration—These are also aspects of fellowship and this is often made more intense and satisfying in the context of a larger group or congregation, in which large numbers of Christians blend their gifts and talents in praise to the Father.

Service
Nobody is simply saved. We are all saved from something and for something. Each person born into the kingdom of God is given one or more gifts (1 Cor.12:7) and these gifts are given for a purpose, for mission and service. It is imperative that each Christian discovers and activates his or her gifts.

Area of service—The arena for the operation of these gifts may be inside the church or outside, but never apart from the church. That is, they may be gifts that are appropriate for worship and service to other Christians (e.g. prophecy or pastoring), or they may be gifts that are needed for the extension of the kingdom of God (e.g. apostleship or missions).

Your role as encourager—As young Christians begin to become involved in prayer, Bible study, fellowship and service, their gifts will become apparent. It is your responsibility to affirm their gifts and encourage them to seek God's guidance in using them in the mission he has given them.

1. You think about your own Christian journey, ask yourself who discipled you and encouraged you to grow as a Christian. How was it done? What was most helpful? What do you wish someone had done for you or with you to assist you on your way to Christian maturity?

2. Find a mature Christian from a culture very different from yours. Ask this person to define "spiritual maturity" and tell you how it is achieved. Write out this response and compare/contrast it with your own.

3. If your faith maturity is deemed appropriate, ask your pastor for the opportunity to disciple a new member under his or her guidance.