If you were going to summarize the work God has called us to do here on earth, it might be described many ways. If you were forced to summarize in one word, your task would be more difficult, but again, several words might be selected: worship, evangelism, reproduction, love, etc. However, one word that I would suggest to you perhaps best summarizes what God has called us to do and be, that wraps everything else up, is the word “discipleship.”

This has been a popular buzz word for some time, and with good reason, for it is at the heart of Jesus’ last words to us before ascending into heaven, and it is at the heart of our mission during our time on earth. Discipleship, beginning with our passion to follow Christ and worship Him, through the process of growing into maturity, and leading into the lifelong mission of leading others to follow Christ and grow them to be mature, reproducing Christians, this is our ultimate calling.

I’ve been studying about this subject a great deal recently, turning every page of the Gospels to glean Christ’s purpose, His passion, His plan for how to establish and grow His kingdom through His disciples. It is indeed fascinating, and I encourage you to search for yourselves in this area. There are vast treasures in the Gospels that guide us in why we are here and what we are to be doing. This is the main thrust of what African leaders are hungry to hear, and what is largely missing in the church in Africa, AND I would suggest what is largely missing in the church in America also.

My challenge to you is to consider what role the high and pervasive calling to discipleship has in your life. Are you being discipled, and discipling others? Are you watching for opportunities to learn more, to grow more mature, to invest your life in others, that they may in turn pour themselves into still more. May we grapple with this urgent summons, to be disciplemakers, for our time is short, and the harvest is plentiful.

Pressing on in the passionate pursuit of disciplemaking, for His glory. Eric