Discipleship

A portion of my job description as Associate Pastor revolves around Christian Education programming, and by extension, our student ministry at Jenison Christian Church.  Discipleship is a key objective of our student ministry at Jenison Christian Church.  Discipleship is the process, within your community of believers, of becoming more like Jesus than you were the day before.

• It’s a pursuit, a journey, an adventure.  It’s not the mountaintop experience; it’s the hike on the way to the summit.
• It never takes place in a vacuum, socially or spiritually, but rather in the interaction between fellow travelers who have the same intended destination.
• It is the purpose for which Jesus gathered twelve men around him at the beginning of his three-year ministry – so that by spending time with Him, they would take on His attributes, His character qualities, His patterns of thinking, and His relationship with God.

Senior high students watch and discuss The Truth Project on Sunday nights so that they will be encouraged and empowered to think and act like Jesus Christ.  They volunteer for the Haiti Food Pack and the West Michigan Food Bank so that they can become like Jesus in service.  On Wednesday nights, junior high students read and talk through Crazy Love, by Francis Chan, so that they can become more obedient to the commands of Jesus, and thereby grow in faith and love and in looking like Him.  And we intentionally structure specific ministry times so that our students can be exposed to Godly adults and role models who will demonstrate the actions and thoughts and words of Christ in everyday situations.

Often, we think of progressing in the Christian faith as a series of bullet points to be memorized and recited at will.  But discipleship is about growing and changing so much more than the mind.  It’s about changing the body and the spirit and the soul and, yes, the mind too.  It’s about changing the inner core – the secret heart, the very being of an individual – into something that is more like Jesus than it was the day before.  What an incredible adventure we are on as we seek to help people become passionate followers of Jesus Christ!  Thank you for serving with us!