The Pastors Discipleship Network

In today's Christian church, "discipleship" is more of a buzzword than in recent decades. Pastor, author, and speaker John Mark Comer has brought discipleship to the forefront within the Western Church through his books like The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus (not to mention the organization he leads by the same name). In many ways, his own writings distill timeless truths within our Christian tradition which have been put forward by others like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster a generation before, making them more readily accessible for younger audiences.

But what does discipleship really mean? What is spiritual formation? What does it look like in daily practice? While this question opens conversation to explore major practices handed down from the great cloud of witnesses who journeyed with Jesus before our time, it also likely includes minor practices informed by the places and people we do life with-- the context in which we live our daily lives. Both of these major and minor practices will be informed by Jesus’ general and specific call to each of us as followers of The Way (as Christians were first called). One is His general call to ‘follow me’ as a disciple, and the other a specific call He issues to each person; equipping us with the gifts, passions and experiences to purposefully fulfill it.

Dallas summed up many of our present challenges within the Western Church in his book The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship when he said, “The single most obvious trait of those who profess Christ but do not grow into Christ-likeness is their refusal to take the reasonable and time-tested measures for spiritual growth.” It’s this practical task of leaning into Jesus, and living into His desires and designs for our own lives, which a network of pastors from Greater Columbus takes sincerely and seriously each time they gather. The Pastors Discipleship Network (a sub

set of the larger Columbus Discipleship Network) gathers regularly to discuss what following Jesus looks like, according to the Scriptures, in our time and place.

If you’re a pastor within Greater Columbus, and you desire to discover more of this ‘life abundant’ Jesus has gifted us, consider joining the conversation as the PDN explores ‘Disciple-making in Small Groups’ on Thursday, August 14th in The Garden Room at COhatch Westerville. How do a disciple-making culture and a small group structure interact effectively? What is the next step for your church or ministry in implementing “reasonable and time-tested measures for spiritual growth”? Join us on August 14th from 1-3:00pm for fruitful engagement in this mighty pursuit. For more information and to RSVP, click the button below.

Pastors Discipleship Network