Marks of a Disciple

Discipleship is grounded in the teachings, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ alive and present. Disciples are in relationship with Christ, learn about Christ, and follow Christ’s leading. 

Discipleship is anchored in the study of the Bible. It is in the Bible that people learn the story—the truth that shapes the life of faith. Disciples explore the scripture texts where they can “hear” God speaking truth to their lives.

Discipleship is learning the Christian faith; its history, traditions, beliefs, and values that are critical to its shaping and transforming power. Disciples explore the long and rich life of the people of God, asking challenging questions and creating sturdier beliefs.

Discipleship is the “knowledge of faith” becoming a way of life. It is not enough to know the content of scripture or to understand the richness of Christian beliefs. Disciples need to participate in faith as a way of life—“ living into” faith that is simultaneously centered in God yet genuinely their own, balancing tradition and experience, text and context.

Disciples worship God as people whose hearts are filled with love for the source of life—for the God on whom we depend. Disciples worship God through different types of prayer: praising God in adoration, seeking God’s forgiveness through confession, thanking God for blessings, and petitioning God for our own needs and those of others.

Disciples are witnesses to what God has done for us in and through Jesus Christ by giving testimony, proclaiming, or announcing a message. Disciples as witnesses tell each other the truth about their lives, about their certainties, and about their doubts, fears, and joys.

Jesus’s neighbor ethic is built on the Great Commandment that unites love of God and love of neighbor. Jesus expands this teaching to the point of embracing love for one’s enemies. Jesus tackles the question of who is our neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25–37). Neighbors are people we know, strangers (whether near or far), and enemies (critics and opponents). By moving out of our comfort zone to include these widening circles of neighbors, strangers, and enemies, we enter into discipleship’s view of “neighbor-hood” as a state of being in which all are drawn together in the household of God.

Disciples forgive people who harm them and seek forgiveness when they harm others. Learning to be a forgiver begins with first recognizing that I am a sinner and that my actions hurt other people. I must start with seeking forgiveness. When I am forgiven, then I know love and I can learn to practice forgiving others. Forgiving others for their sins against me requires great love.

Disciples live as prophets declaring what is wrong with our communities and our world, calling people back to right relationship through justice and mercy. To be a prophet is to see what is wrong, broken, missing, or unjust in our society and to speak a word of truth that shines light on the situation. Prophets see the world as God sees the world, and they share their vision with others. To be a prophet can be an uncomfortable part of the call to discipleship. But it is also what I cannot not do as a follower of Christ. What is unjust in our time and place? How are we complicit in systems that contribute to the oppression of others? Where do we need to help call people back to God’s ways of mercy, forgiveness, justice, and peace?

Disciples live as stewards caring for God’s creation and the resources of the household. The call to stewardship means receiving gifts gratefully, nurturing their growth, and sharing them with others. The call to stewardship is the call to take care—of people, places, talents, and skills we have been given to share. Like the stewards in Jesus’s parable, we have been entrusted with God’s gifts in the expectation that we will allow them to thrive and multiply to the benefit of all. We are called to be stewards with our whole lives: stewards of our work and of our world around us.

Disciples live their strengths and gifts of the Spirit as integral to discipleship. To follow Christ involves a call to witness and to serve others. Disciples use their spiritual gifts in service to the church and the world.”