L-R: Pastor Alex Mutagubya, Pastor Moses Mukisa, Pastor Lincoln Kasirye, Apostle Grace Lubega and Dr. Dennis Sempebwa.
During the Ministers Huddle organised at Worship Harvest – Naalya last weekend, Christian leaders including Pastor Moses Mukisa, Pastor Alex Mutagubya, Apostle Grace Lubega and Pastor Lincoln Kasirye were asked to define discipleship.
Dr. Dennis Sempebwa, the Ministers Huddle vision bearer, revealed during the event that to understand what discipleship is on a deeper level, Christians must also understand what discipleship is not.
Responses
How do you define discipleship?
Pastor Alex Mutagubya Answered:
Discipleship has always been my first mission since I became a church planter. Examining Matthew 28:19, when you read this text from the original language of the Bible, one of the things that first struck me is that the word ‘make’ is not there. And you realize that ‘discipleship’ is the main verb of that scripture. The rest of the instructions, ‘go’, ‘baptize’, ‘teach’ are participles – supporting discipling.
From where I come from, we have been taught from the start that discipleship was a class. From this scripture, I realized that what Jesus is taking about is a process. To Jesus, discipleship is not something you ‘make’ to have a finished product, it is a process we are engaged with. It is a journey.
The other thing is that, you cannot talk about a disciple and not talk about a master or a teacher – someone we are learning from. In the book of Ephesians 4:20, Paul talks to the Ephesians saying, ‘But ye have not so learned Christ’. In other-words, there is a process of leaning and continually being turned into the very image of Him that we are looking at – who has become us, so we can become Him.
Pastor Moses Mukisa Answered:
Dallas Willard once said, “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” – Living in your house, working your Job, married to your spouse. That is who a disciple is.
According to Mike Breen, a disciple is someone who is learning to have the character and the competency of Jesus. I look at discipleship as the multiplication of the character and competencies of Christ among people.
Pastor Lincoln Kasirye Answered:
Let me talk about four D’s that I learnt not so long ago; Decision, Deliverance, Discipleship and Dominion.
When God was creating man he said, ‘let them have dominion.’
Discipleship for us starts with a decision for Christ. And then hopefully going through deliverance processes, and then stepping into discipleship, and then back to dominion.
You should not leave it at decision, you’ve got to go for deliverance where stuff that doesn’t belong is cast out. But my concern as a pastor is that the Church is obsessed with deliverance. We have turned our Churches into deliverance centers instead of discipleship making centres. And so, people are finding out, who bewitched them, what demons are in them, and generational curses. We have become students of darkness, instead of agents of light. We have to change the conversation because, usually, if you cannot find the light switch, you end up studying the darkness.
I really believe the conversation in Uganda has to change. And the problem is, if we really delete the obsession with deliverance, some churches may need to shut down, because all we understand are demons, who sent them and what their names are, and how to cast them out.
We are here to rule and reign with Christ, that was the original plan, ‘let them have dominion’. Instead, we are saying, ‘let them have deliverance.’ And the missing link is discipleship.
Apostle Grace Lubega Answered:
Everything that has been spoken is true. What probably, I might add is the component of identity. We cannot discuss discipleship and ignore identity. What does it mean to be born again? I think for me discipleship is my identification. If I cannot talk about identity, inheritance (whose son are you to inherit what you actually inherit) – If our identity is not defined, then we start to find identity in the gifts that are in our lives. I am a prophet, but what am I before that. If I don’t curve that, prophesy will make me, not Christ. The marks of ministry have become our identity. And because of that, then, our identities are getting so hidden into our umbrella organisations.
