Disciplemaking and Cutting Flowers

Disciplemaking. It’s a familiar term in the local church that represents an ancient mandate.

And even in its familiarity, it carries varied meanings. This lack of certainty leads to confusion about how it works in practice.

But perhaps we might consider disciplemaking like the practice of cutting flowers. Were someone to take a scythe - that long curved blade fitted at an angle - to a row of blooming flowers, would he cut them?

Surely he would; and as a matter of fact, he would cut the flowers far more quickly than if he had cut flower by flower.

The issue is that that although a scythe may harvest flowers quickly, its broad sweep can bruise or shatter a flower’s delicate form.

Understandably, a gardener would not engage in such a practice because he knows that the flower’s beauty is preserved not by speed, but by care - by cutting one flower at a time.

Only through deliberate, individual attention can the flower’s shape and splendor be maintained.

So it is with disciplemaking that when we seek to practice this endeavor, we must give great care to the souls of others, focusing on the individual as a person, not a project.

By this practice, we allow others to mature in the faith, “growing up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Disciplemaking happens best in close proximity in where a disciplemaker can walk alongside the one being discipled, better understanding their context and unique needs.

So may we lay down the scythe of hurried strategy and take up the scissors of personal care, tending to souls with the same intentionality and reverence a gardener shows a flower.

LJL