Goals of every discipleship relationship:
Help the disciple grow in knowledge
Challenge the disciple to find areas to minister and serve
Help integrate the disciple into the Agape community (introducing him/her to people, inviting him/her to hang out, etc.)
Help the disciple get plugged into a local church
Offer the disciple accountability or help him/her find peers for accountability
Characteristics of good discipleship (according to Pat Hastings):
1. Good discipleship takes high commitment from everyone involved.
2. Good discipleship is more than meeting once a week.
3. Good discipleship takes time to see results.
4.
Good discipleship takes repetition. If it’s something important, it’s
probably not enough to go over it just once, or even just a few times.
5. Good discipleship takes planning. You can’t just meet once a week and see what happens.
6. Good discipleship takes vision. Who do you want to see your disciple become?
7. Good discipleship involves more than just acquiring knowledge.
8.
Good discipleship involves challenges. If you are discipling someone,
then you need to be guiding that person in how they can be serving and
doing ministry.
9. Good discipleship can involve tension. Don’t be afraid of it. (Though that doesn’t mean look for it!)
10. Good discipleship always revolves around the gospel, because discipleship is about making disciples of Jesus.
Topics to cover in discipleship:
The
"Discipleship Essentials" is a list of topics we hope every student
involved with our ministry would understand and be able to teach others
by the time he/she graduates.
Here is the list:
Gospel
Understand
the Gospel (four spiritual laws, assurance of salvation, justification
by faith, basis for forgiveness, confession of sin)
Know how and why to share the Gospel
Understand how to get into a Gospel conversation
Understand your testimony and how to use it
Have practice in communicating the Gospel
Important Doctrines
Validity of the Bible
Understand the role of the Holy Spirit
Importance of community in the Christian life (including local church involvement)
The Trinity
True saving faith/faith and works
The Lordship of Christ
Spiritual Disciplines
Understand and regularly engage in prayer
Solid grasp of why it is important to spend time with God each day
Understand how to study the Bible and importance of doing so
Various Issues
Has accountability in life and knows why it is important
Grasps God's perspective on purity/overcoming temptation
Biblical understanding of conflict resolution
Stewardship: time, money, gifting
God's will/decision-making
A
plethora of other topics are also good fodder for discipleship,
including any questions the disciple may have or areas he/she might
struggle.