Discipleship & The Equipping Ministries (2013)

“… He gave gifts to men…. And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ….” (Ephesians 4:7, 11-12)

This passage tells us that Jesus gave certain gifts to men and gave certain men as gifts to the Church. Something that is important for us to understand is this: In building His Church, Jesus blesses men – not methods. There may be some value in considering methodologies for how to make disciples; but in the end, Jesus blesses disciples through men rather than through methods. In Matthew 28:18-19, Jesus is quoted as saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples….” Since it takes the authority of Christ to make a disciple of Christ, authentic Equipping Ministries will, by nature of the case, share the life of Christ, i.e., they are Christ-centered, disciple-making relationships through which Christ is revealed and relationship with Christ is nurtured.