Mission Statement

I want to move now to the questions surrounding discipleship.
The Mission Statement says the church is to "Develop fully mature disciples of Jesus Christ." The questions surround what that looks like and how does one get there. I think there are a couple of different ways one can address the characteristics of a mature disciple. One would be a self-reflective question, "Does my life reflect a deeper love for Jesus today than yesterday?" For most of us that question is hard to answer on a daily basis. I know that I can look back and say that my life is different today from what what it was two years ago and for sure twenty years ago, because of a growing love of Jesus. However to say that today is different than Monday is more difficult.
Another way to address maturity in discipleship would be to gage our lives against the fruit of the spirit that Paul addresses in Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. These are characteristics that others should be able to see in our behavior as well as in our attitudes. If we aren't exhibiting these characteristics than we aren't maturing.
The problem that I have with leaving it at this point is knowing what our interior motivation is in acting like a mature disciple. Because the truth is that discipleship is really who one is when no one else is looking. To get at this disciples of Jesus need to be in significant spiritual relationships with other believers. From the very earliest days of the church, through the monastic movement, to John Wesley, to the contemporary small group movement the focus has been on covenant relationships that hold us accountable to live a life worthy of the name, "follower of Jesus."
These relationships can fall under a variety of classifications: Spiritual Director, accountability partner, covenant group, mentoring relationship, etc. There are some things that all of these have in common if they are going to work in growing us up toward discipleship. 1) The relationship is long term, it isn't a six week Bible study done with 20 other people. 2) There is a freedom to ask the hard questions and an expectation to give honest answers. 3) The relationship is one that regularly focuses upon the spiritual practices of faith and an encouragement to participate at deeper and deeper levels. 4) There is in the relationship times when confession is shared verbally and the words of forgiveness are spoken out load by another person. All of these things have over the centuries shown the likely hood of forming people into the likeness of Christ.
If we are expecting people to grow in discipleship than we should expect that they will be in significant long term spiritual relationships. Those relationships are going to look very different for different people because of their stage in life, family commitments, and travel commitments. However those are not impossible to overcome and with today's technology there is no reason why everyone who wants to could not carve out at least an hour every other week to engage in significant spiritual conversation, prayer, and accountability.
Just some ideas about discipleship, what I have found personally helpful and have seen historically to be the best practices of those who desire to follow Jesus.