Deep Discipleship with J.T. English
In his book Deep Discipleship, J.T. English helps churches think about how to establish environments and relationships where people can be trained, grow, and be sent as disciples.
Key Ideas
- The church is the primary place to make disciples. We shouldn’t need to leave the church to learn how to serve the church.
- The disease isn’t that we’re too deep. It’s that we’re far too shallow. We need local churches who want to invite people into the depths and the richness of having a relationship with Jesus and the Triune God.
- Churches should make discipleship accessible, but also invite people, inch by inch, to the explore the inexhaustible depths of who God is.
- In seminaries, we are responsible for our own growth. In churches, we are responsible to help others grow, making churches the ideal context for discipleship to take place.
- It’s important to build community within a church, but that is not exclusively Christian or the same as discipleship.
- Churches need both community environments and learning environments.
- Pastors must not begin by asking what people want. They must begin by asking what people need in order to grow.
- Every believer needs to learn to participate in the biblical story (the Bible), grow in their knowledge of who God is and who we are (theology), and regularly participating in private and corporate intentional action (spiritual disciplines).
- We cannot love a God we do not know.
- Knowing God is intensely practical.
- Regardless of the size of your church, focus on discipling future possible pastors, elders, and leaders.
- COVID is an opportunity for us to release lesser things and increase our dependence on God.
- If the gospel is not leading to a gracious church culture, we are doing theology wrong.
- Reading history can help to encourage us as we see the challenges other people have faced and how they became better leaders as a result.
Quotes
“The fact that I had to leave my local church in order to lead in the local church! … It blew my mind.”
“The disease isn’t that we’re too deep. It’s that we’re far too shallow. We need local churches who want to invite people into the depths and the richness of having a relationship with Jesus and the Triune God.”
“Being in community is not synonymous with discipleship. It is a necessary ingredient, but you can be in community of people who aren’t following Jesus.”
“If I’m giving people things that are nice but not necessary, I’m failing as a pastor.”
“If theology is what you believe about God and there’s nothing more practical, and if you can give me something more practical, then I’ll quit my job and go do that.”
“If God is using this season to, in your heart and in your life, create a greater desire and need for him, then that’s a win.”
“If our doctrine isn’t creating us to be more gentle and lowly, meek and Christ-like, then we should probably throw our doctrine away.”
Episode Links
Books mentioned:
- Deep Discipleship by J.T. English
Transcript
Download a PDF transcript of this episode.
