“Any last words?” We usually ask that question of someone when we think we may not see the person for some time or maybe for ever again. We want to know what directions, what gems of wisdom the person might have for us. We don’t want to miss out. Those words will likely take a priority for us; they will be etched in our minds for a long time. We will take them seriously and do our best to follow through on them.

Conversely the person knowing he/she is leaving will carefully weigh his/her last words, choosing to leave the most important direction, the most pressing request, what is weighing the most on his/her mind. These will be words to live by.

As the Lord Jesus was about to leave the world and return to His Father in heaven, He left some last works, some final instructions to His followers, His disciples. These were uppermost on His mind, the very directions that He did not want His disciples to forget. These were what He wanted them to work on while He was gone for the next several millenia. His beloved, the church, needed these instructions more than anything else in order to not just survive but actually thrive and grow. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

“Make disciples” is the marching order of the church and the lifeblood of the church. The church will only survive and grow when it makes disciples. Making disciples has been and will always be the “crying need” of the church in ever generation. The church often easily forgets this command and substitutes others or chases after various fads and trends. But the local church that wants to obey its Lord and love, wants to please Him, and wants to experience His joy and excitement will major on discipleship.

This module seeks to call the church back to its mission and its moorings. It begins by examining thirteen aspects of discipleship as taught by Jesus, the master discipler, and drawn from His ministry in the gospels to His disciples. Then the module will look at some discipling relationships in Acts and the epistles and draw some principles from these relationships. Finally the module will offer practical suggestions on ways to establish an on-going discipleship approach in the local church.