Topic 4. Discipleship in the 21st Century

Characteristics and Dynamics of Discipleship for all Ages & Generations in a 21st Century World

With the good gifts which are in us, we must obey God.To live the God-life, we must immerse ourselves in the Word of God as model and guide, as vision and measure, of the good and happy life.

We must read the scriptures day in and day out, till they ring in our ears, and fill our hearts, and become the very breath we breathe.

We must follow Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem,contending with the system,healing the people,doing good,excluding no one,being a voice for the voiceless,calling us all to follow him to the rising of the God-life in ourselves

We must put ourselvesunder the impulse of the Spirit and in the hands of the God who wills us well.

We must give ourselves to the task of bringing about God’s peaceable kingdom,wherever we are,in whatever we do.

There is no one in needwithin earshot of our hearts whom we may ignore—because in each of them is the living pleathat we do the will of God. It is by helping those who cannot help themselves that we do our part in the co-creation of the world.

It is the call to go down deep into the self in order to find there the God who urges us; to come out of ourselvesto do the work of God,to live in union with Godin the world around us.

It is the daily guarantee that, if we will only begin the journey and stay the road—listening to the voice of God and responding to it with all our gifts and goodness—

we will find that God stands waiting to sustain us, and support us, and fulfill us at every turn.God is calling us lovingly always, if we will only stop the noise within us long enough to hear.

we will find that God stands waiting to sustain us, and support us, and fulfill us at every turn.God is calling us lovingly always, if we will only stop the noise within us long enough to hear.