Come & Go
One of the first things Jesus tells His disciples when we started His ministry was, “Come…” (John 1:39). One of the last things Jesus tells His disciples when He ascended into Heaven was, “Go…” (Matthew 28:19). The ministry of Jesus was this dualistic approach of personal invitation and concentrated challenge. He was constantly inviting people to eat with Him, walk with Him, and follow Him. Because Jesus is the essence of love, He cannot help but call people to Him. However, He also gave hard challenges in the midst of the invitation. Here are some examples:
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'” -Matthew 16:24-25
“Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’”-Mark 10:21
“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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” -Matthew 28:19-20
If Jesus used invitation and challenge in discipling those around him, it’s safe to say that it would be a great method for us to make disciples as well. However, one without the other or lack of either one will result in a culture that lacks true apprenticeship under Jesus. Below is a diagram that can help you see the importance of high invitation and high challenge.
Invitation & Challenge
As you can see, in the boring quadrant, apathetic culture thrives. This person has trouble reminding the people they’re discipling that Jesus’ invitation of apprenticeship is available to all. But that’s not all. They refuse to challenge them to grow in their faith. This leads to apathy. This quadrant does not make disciples of Jesus at all.
In the consumer quadrant, the apprentice is sitting back in “armchair Christianity”. Many people are highly invitational in our evangelistic approach. When discipling other people, this person always shares the love of Jesus, communicates that His invitation of salvation is free, and that it’s inclusive of everyone. However, they feel weird about challenging others when they sin and don’t want to ruffle any feathers.
The stressful quadrant is an interesting one. This is the opposite of the consumer quadrant, where this individual has no problem with challenging others and keeping them accountable in their sin patterns. However, this backfires when they don’t talk about the easy yoke of Jesus. His burden is supposed to be light. This leads to a discouraged culture in the people they are discipling because they feel like they constantly have to perform out of their own will power and not through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The final quadrant is the discipling quadrant. This is the goal in discipling others. We want to be highly invitational and share how apprenticing under Jesus is what He called “the easy yoke” in Matthew 11:28-30. Following Jesus is simple and He constantly invites us to abide in Him. However, this does not mean that it isn’t challenging. We should always ask the Lord to reveal things in us to flee from sin and starve our fleshly desires. This is the hard part of discipleship, but we should not avoid it. Rather, we should embrace it. Training others to be a disciple of Jesus means that we are highly invitational and also highly challenging. One without the other leads to soft consumerism or hard legalism.
I hope that this quadrant helps you see what you are lacking when you discipling others and which direction you need to go. Which quadrant do you feel you lean towards? How can you fix it?
Reflection Question
Which quadrant do you feel you are leaning towards? How can you get back on track in the discipling quadrant?
Matt Garcia
Matt is the creator of this website and curates resources on spiritual formation. He is a husband of Jesika and a father of 4 children. He also helps lead a house church. Follow him on Instagram to see what he's up to.