Here is a note from AIM’s executive director and founder, re-purposed from an old blog post he wrote in 2008. It’s even more relevant today:
A friend recently asked me, “What’s the best discipleship curriculum
you can recommend?”
“You are,” I answered.
He was befuddled. “No,
I mean like a book,” he clarified.
“You mean you want to use a book to disciple instead of
having them imitate you? Well, it didn’t work that way with Jesus. He
WAS the curriculum, just like you are.”
“Right, I understand, but let’s suppose you were to use a
book, what would it be?”
“Well, if you have to use a book, I recommend Luke. Specifically
chapters 4-10. That’s where Jesus shows us how to disciple others.”
“You mean where he taught them stuff?”
“No, he taught the masses, but he mostly discipled his
disciples by hanging out with them and then by sending them out. It’s
right there in the Bible. It’s the very
thing that we don’t do in most of our seminaries.”
“So, how long should I take to do this?”
“Well, I estimate about 15,000 hours. I look at it this way, if the
master invests
that amount of time over the course of three years and at the end his
best
pupil is just barely getting it, who am I to do any better?”
“When you put it that way, discipleship is pretty tough.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s why Jesus called it a narrow road.”
