Who is discipling you?

media, from social media, from friends, from work, from family, and sometimes even church or Christian friends. The point he was making was that if your Christian discipleship is only 1 hour a week while you're being influenced by other things hours and hours every day, then what is going to influence yourI was listening to this podcast the other day with Alisa Childers and a couple of guests Dave and Bobby. They were discussing how both Dave and Alisa had for a time fallen into some false beliefs about Christianity called progressive Christianity. Bobby is a pastor who helped lead Dave back to a biblical understanding of the faith. 

I got a couple of lessons out of this podcast that I'd like to share.

First, Bobby shared at one point the truth that we are all being discipled all the time, so the question is by what or by whom? What he meant was that we have all kinds of messages and influences coming at us all day long from  thinking more?

So Bobby second point was that what we need is intentional and authentic discipleship, which is more than just 1 hour a week but is really life on life throughout the week. This is in fact what he did with Dave and his wife, and it is how he helps not only explain the truth of the biblical gospel and help lead Dave back to those truths, but he also showed it through practically loving them. There doesn't have to be and shouldn't be a divide between truth and love, and that is what intentional, genuine, and relational discipleship looks like.

Of course this message resonated strongly with me as our new church mission statement is, intentionally connecting the disconnected to Jesus through authentic relationships. I was encouraged as I listened to revisit our mission statement both for the church and in my life personally. Am I intentionally engaging people in discipleship? Am I building authentic relationships with people?

The final challenge I had from this podcast was to be aware of who is discipling me and my family. Where am I spending my time? What shows am I watching? How much time in general am I spending in front of a screen? We have to be intentional in these areas as well. One of the ways that I'm trying to do this is to limit my time on devices, and set up boundaries for our family, primarily because I can see that I need them as much as anybody. Another way we can be intentional is to redeem our time by finding material such as Alisa's podcast and a number of other podcasts that I have that give good solid Christian and biblical thinking while still being entertaining.

Also there's more and more media becoming available such as the series The Chosen, that is presenting good christian and or family friendly entertainment options.

Here's a link to a list of media channels that I have found to be helpful.