Could any post titled "Top Things I Learned in Cru" NOT have discipleship as one of its main things? I'm continuing my short series focusing on one of the two things that probably makes Cru, well, Cru (the other being evangelism). Posts 1 , 2 , & 3 are here.
Discipleship, as Cru usually lives it out, flows from the Great Commission at the end of Matthew. If you look at the original Greek (because I speak Greek, well, not really) you'll see the main command in it is to "make disciples". You make disciples as you're going, baptizing, and teaching. (Side note: Many teach the Great Commission text as if "going" if the primary command, instead of what the Greek says, "as you are going").
Beyond being a central command of Jesus, Cru has been greatly influence by a little book called, The Master Plan of Evangelism , by Robert Coleman. I know, a book about discipleship that has evangelism in the title? (Yeah, it's possibly the worst-titled book for what it is ever.) But it's really about doing discipleship how Jesus did it: investing in a few for the sake of the many.
And Cru has taught me discipleship so well for years. As a student I was discipled for years by several people. And as a staff member I was able to disciple and train many, while I was still being trained.
Cru has helped teach me that if our future church is not committed to discipleship, then indeed we are not committed to obeying Jesus. Though I have come to disagree with some of the methods Cru does discipleship (they tend to exclusively see discipleship as one-on-one, where we have no evidence in the gospels that Jesus ever did one-on-one, but was usually one-on-twelve or one-on-three), I have nonetheless learned so, so much.
May my life, our future church, and all Christians be committed to making disciples!
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