The Meaning of Discipleship

This article is an attempt to use academic tools to bring out the meaning of discipleship from the practitioners' perspective. The mandate of the Great Commission, making people disciples, is the process of making someone become like Christ. This contribution shows that as individuals learn fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational review of mission Vol. 106; no. 2; pp. 216 - 227
Main Author Onyinah, Opoku
Format Journal Article Magazine Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Geneva World Council of Churches 01.12.2017
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
accountability
Christian life
Christianity
Community
Death & dying
Disciple
Ecumenism
Great commission
Jesus Christ
Religious congregations
Religious missions
Transformed
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Summary:This article is an attempt to use academic tools to bring out the meaning of discipleship from the practitioners' perspective. The mandate of the Great Commission, making people disciples, is the process of making someone become like Christ. This contribution shows that as individuals learn from him and follow the pattern of Jesus' life, there will be marks of discipleship, such as commitment and being like him in deeds. The primary purpose of Jesus' coming to the world was to establish the kingdom of God through his death. The study demonstrates that the kingdom becomes evident in form and practice as people surrender to God's progressive rule. The strength and influence of the church is shown to be wholly dependent upon its commitment to authentic discipleship; that is, producing transformed lives and seeing those lives reproduced in others. The paper concludes that the transformed disciples must together take a journey of transforming communities into the kingdom of God.
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ISSN:0020-8582
1758-6631
DOI:10.1111/irom.12181