Stages & Spheres

Introduction

Introduction

Today, the world is a place of inclusivity and tolerance. The multiple opinions and “truths” being espoused are simply overwhelming. It is this environment that the church must be focused and intentional in the tasks it undertakes. Even inside the church there is sometimes multiple ideas for where, what and how the church should focus on. In scripture the church is told to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[1] This very clear directive is what is referred to as the great commission. Each believer, and hence each church, is to be about making disciples. Each church faces the challenge of getting people involved and combatting all the world throws at its participants. These issues are best fought by discipleship. Discipleship builds the believe in such a way that they can withstand the darts of the evil one and resist the ideas at war for their minds. No amount of programming apart from this discipleship will accomplish that. So, how does a church build a culture of discipleship? How does the shift from a “come and see” to a “go and tell” attitude occur? This paper will hope to highlight the stages and spheres of discipleship so as to better enable churches and believers to implement them in their lives.

[1] (ESV)

The Five Stages of Discipleship

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

We grow by the grace of God and can slip in and out of various stages at different times in our lives.[1] The spiritual growth continuum’s five stages of discipleship per Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington are

dead

infant

children

young adult

parent.

Each of these stages represents a time of spiritual development within an individual and how they currently relate to God. Each of these five stages can be found in scripture. When understood correctly, these stages can help the church to evaluate where people are at, where they need to go and how best to minister to them on the way.

[1] Jim Putman, DiscipleShift (Exponential Series) (p. 57). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid., p. 60

The first stage is that a person is spiritually dead.

Meaning that the person has no relationship with the Lord yet. The person spends no time in the Word, no prayer life to speak of and little to no interaction with the church on a spiritual level at least. This is prior to them accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and they are still living a secular lifestyle. In this stage, sinning against the Lord, is still characteristic of their lives. Jim Putman provides a chart that set up in the form of a clock, he tells us that at this stage “ describes those who are “dead in [their] transgressions and sins.” People in this stage have not yet accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.”[1] At this stage, all fruit is absent from their lives. Even if they claim to be Christian, which many do, the fruit reveals the falsehood of this statement. As Putnam states though, “ They are acting according to their dead human nature, and they cannot change until they have been made alive in Christ.”[2] The change occurs in stage two.

[1] Jim Putman, DiscipleShift (Exponential Series) (p. 61). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid., p. 61

The second stage is the stage of infancy.

Here the believer has made a real decision to follow Christ. However, they are still very immature in their thinking. They may not even understand what they need at this point. Hence the person is compared to that of a newborn baby. People in this stage are often referred to as babes in Christ since they are still new to Christ, or young in their knowledge of what Christ actually has done. The person in this stage, is likely still doing much that they did before in their secular, pre-Christ, life. Those who have attended church for a long time but have not truly surrendered to Christ are just as prone to that same type of behavior. They will be spending more time doing secular things and living secular lives than what they spend doing spiritual things or focusing on spiritual growth for the Lord. Putman says that “ describes people who are like newborn babies, craving spiritual milk so they can grow in their salvation.19 People at this stage are spiritually alive; they have made a decision to follow Jesus, but that’s about as far as they’ve gotten! They can be brand-new believers, but this may also include longtime “Christians” who have remained stagnant in their faith.”[1] Those who are in this infant stage, still lack knowledge of Christ, and often times can act out in frustration because of a lack of attention from those who are more knowledgeable.

[1] Jim Putman. DiscipleShift (Exponential Series) (p. 63). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

The third stage is the Child stage.

During this stage there is real growth occurring. The person will be beginning to develop relationships with other believers and with God. This stage can be made up of both, those that are new to the church and those who have been in church all their lives. If it is someone who has been in the church, they may suffer from the (CME) church mentality; that’s when someone comes to church only on Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter. The description that Putman and Harrington use is that “ A spiritual child can be a relatively new Christian, or it can be a person who has been a Christian for many years. There are spiritually immature people who have attended church services for sixty years.”[1] Time associated with a church may not be a good indicator of how mature someone has become in Christ. Too often, the maturity level does not match the length of time someone has been a church member. It is because of this that a person who is in the child stage of their walk with Christ, should have a seasoned mentor who can be there to assist and guide them in their understanding of scripture and the building of their relationship with the Lord. Here the words of the disciple will reveal a general self-centeredness.

[1] Ibid., p. 65

Stage four is where the disciple has progressed into a young adult in their relationship with the Lord.

The disciple is now becoming more and more God centered in their way of thinking. This will begin to make a real impact on how they live out their lifestyle. It is at this time they are understanding that they have been called to serve and start to give more of themselves for the services of God. At this stage, the self-centered “me” phase begins to become a much more complete “us” statement. Young adults in Christ may even began to be leaders within the church, leading church groups, and placed into administrative positions within the church. Putman and Harrington give us this definition of a person who is in the young adult stage “ Spiritual young adults are making a shift from being self-centered to being God- and other-centered. They are beginning to reorient their lives around God’s Word and his people and mission.”[1] Young adults have a great passion to serve the Lord and put their gifts to use. They have begun to truly desire to be in service of God for the advancement of the church.

[1] Jim Putman. DiscipleShift (Exponential Series) (p. 67). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Stage Five is when a person is considered to be a parent in their discipleship stages.

These persons are spiritual veterans of the church; they are the ones who are spiritually advanced enough to teach and guide others. Putman and Harrington state their reason for the naming to “ use the term “spiritual parent” rather than “spiritual adult” because we want to reinforce the concept of spiritual reproduction.”[1] The point is to remember that for discipleship to be complete, the disciple must be making disciples, hence, reproducing as parents. Those who are fall into this stage, are continually working on their relationship with God, they begin to build relationships for the purpose of discipleship, they stay constantly in God’s Word to remain connected to Christ in a way that allows them to have something to pass on.

[1] Ibid., p. 67

The Four Spheres of Discipleship

The four spheres of discipleship can be characterized as a

person’s relationship with God

relationship with the church or Gods family

a relationship at home

a relationship with the world

First and foremost a person must have a healthy relationship with the Lord before they can have a healthy relationship with anyone else. In their book Putman and Harrington describe the four spheres of discipleship as the being done with one’s head, heart and hands; “in each sphere, a disciple understands God’s commands and submits to his authority (head), is transformed by Jesus (heart), and joins Jesus on a kingdom mission (hands) in all of these areas of their lives. As a disciple abides in Christ, each sphere of his or her life is transformed.”[1] The idea of submitting to the Lordship of Christ is the driving force in the spheres of discipleship. As one abides in Christ, the fruit of discipleship will become evident in their lives.

[1] Jim Putman. DiscipleShift (Exponential Series) (p. 76). Zondervan. Kindle Edition

Where I am

With all the information on both, the five stages of discipleship and the four spheres of discipleship, I am currently in the parenting stage of discipleship. I am currently a senior pastor at a church in West Virginia. I have to admit that I did not go through the stages the way they are described in the book. I fought to find mentors and those that would disciple me. Our church was not designed with the intentionality to disciple people properly. This class, and the rest of those in my studies, will help us to become structured to build people in discipleship. I was called to ministry in 2005, one year after I was saved. My discipleship training was essentially to be told to read the Bible and pray. I struggled quite a bit in my growth. I promised myself that I would not allow that to be the story for those that come after me. I became the pastor at my current church in 2017 and have been changing their structure to more of a discipleship focus since then. It has not been easy, but I am committed to doing so.

The sphere that I need to surrender or submit to is that of my hands. I have a tendency to want to learn and learn but then fail to act as I should on that knowledge. I have the heart for it and the knowledge, but I allow myself to become too busy to follow through on the hand’s aspect of discipleship. I have done well at times but right now, that is where I am struggling. I sometimes make the excuse that I am a single pastor in a three-hundred-person church and do not have time but, I do have time. I just choose to spend it in the wrong places. Bonhoeffer reminds us that as Christians we must suffer upon our own cross just as Jesus suffered,

So, Jesus has to make it clear and unmistakable to his disciples that the need to suffer now applies to them, too. Just as Christ is only Christ as one who suffers and is rejected, so a disciple is a disciple only in suffering and being rejected, thereby participating in crucifixion. Discipleship as allegiance to the person of Jesus Christ places the follower under the law of Christ, that is, under the cross.[1]

We all have our own cross to bear for the Lord, at times we are all guilty of trying to make God fit into our schedule or our agenda. I need to surrender my schedule to God and allow Him to change my life to fit God’s mission and not my own.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, 4th ed. (MINNEAPOLIS, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 1-365.

Submitted to Christ

Being submitted to Christ is one of the hardest parts of being a true disciple. If the life of disciple is to be yielded as Christ was yielded, the ask is big. Jesus cried out to His Father in heaven and asked if the cup could be removed from Him (). The submission a disciple is called to exhibit is that of Christ in this exchange where because of His great love for His Father and His willingness to submit to Him in obedience, He did what was necessary and gave himself to the cross for the salvation of us all. While a disciple today will not be asked to save the entire world, they will be called to minister in our own mission fields as true disciples in order to save friends, family, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, strangers and people in our communities. For this to be possible, it will take complete commitment, obedience, and submission to our Lord. Jesus showed us the example in the way He submitted to His Father, even to the point of death ().

Christ’s mission was to accomplish the will of His father (). Jesus knew that apart from this submission, the plan of God would not be fulfilled. Jesus modeled the manner of lifestyle for all of His disciples that He would expect them to follow. He stated clearly his submission to God to the point of being able to do nothing without the Father (). Likewise, He tells us that we can do nothing without Him, Jesus (). Our submission to Him facilitates our reliance on Him and that is the means for our spiritual growth in Him. Christians must be truly connected to the vine to reach parenthood. A disciple is totally reliant of Christ for the power to and knowledge to fulfill the mission of God. Submission to Christ is also a picture of the disciples being submitted to one another (). We are to love one another as Christ Loved the church (). We are to edify the body with the fruit of the Spirit of God (). We are to edify one another and our total submission to Christ is the beginning of the possibility of this occurring.

One final thought on submission to Christ. Submission begins with a proper understanding of who we are dealing with. The world today would try to define or reduce God into an explainable thing. This removes the awe of Him and the reverence we should have. This makes submission seem almost foolish. However, when we understand exactly who the God of scripture and the Christ of the Gospel really are, we will echo the words of Paul Hiebert when he says, “We must submit our whole selves to the totality of someone remote, majestic, and mighty, beyond all experience and comprehension, someone who cannot be reduced to logical consistency, but transcends human reasoning. Our only possible attitude is one of submission—the recognition that this reality goes far beyond us in its sovereign majesty ().”[1] Submission to Christ is not difficult when we understand completely who He is.

[1] Hiebert, Paul G. Transforming Worldviews. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.