Jesus' great commission to every believer before He ascended to heaven was to make disciples who would follow His commands. It can be easy to misunderstand Jesus' command as one to make disciples who will follow us, but the command is to make disciples of Christ, thus teaching people to follow Jesus.
Much of our discipleship works this way: "I do; you watch." As effective and powerful as that model can be, it has its limitations. As someone who has been discipling believers for the past twelve years, I have had some Christians follow in my strengths, but also some who have followed in my weakness.
Discipleship has very little to do with modelling and more to do with redirecting. What does that mean? While Paul does say, "Be imitators of me..." (ESV, 1 Corinthians 11:1a), the final goal is to make people follow Jesus, not us. Sure people can follow us to a certain extent, but as sinners and imperfect followers ourselves, there is a threshold to what we can impart by our own strength. Ultimately, we are to impart Christ, His finished work and then teach people to build a personal and growing relationship with Jesus.
When we set ourselves as a foundation for our disciples, we set them on a sandy foundation. When we're shaken (and that will happen), they will feel shaken as well. But when we set Christ as the foundation as we disciple men and women who rely on Him instead of on us, we set them on a solid rock foundation.
In Matthew 28:20a, Jesus tells the disciples and consequently us, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (ESV). What we are to impart is Jesus and His teachings, not ours. Discipleship is not so much giving advice, but really witnessing to others Christ and allowing them to grow in Him as we step back and allow them to depend, communicate and learn from Christ.
Jesus said in John 15:7, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (ESV). Building solid believers who will withstand any storm calls that we teach them to abide in Christ who is the true vine. Yes, by all means, be a channel of wisdom and blessing to others, but know that that is not the end goal. The end goal is to directly connect people to Jesus.
There's only so much we can do when we make discipleship about us. There are some things that only Jesus can do in the lives of others and we allow that to happen only when we teach people whom we disciple to follow Jesus, His voice, His call in an intimate matter. Connect people to you and connect them to the church, but never miss out on connecting them straight to Jesus Christ.
