One of the goals of this blog is to discuss valuable subjects that can guide us along the way of life. I also document personal adventures, providing a good mix that has received incredible support, so thank you all!
Today's blog is brought to you by someone who has played a significant role in my spiritual development. One of the great gifts God provides is friendships. Scripture emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and today's guest is a testament to that. Joe McKaig, the lead pastor at Decatur Baptist Church, has been very influential in my life. Even after our family moved to First Baptist Church, Joe and I have kept in touch, and praise God! We are all one body under Christ. I asked Joe to talk about discipleship, its importance, and how influential it has been in his life.
So, I'll let Joe take it away...
"Being born into a conservative Christian family you would think I would have been exposed to discipleship early in life, but that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I heard about biblical discipleship. Church was a normal part of my childhood, but that’s about where it ended; although my family attended all the services (Sunday School, Sunday Morning Worship, Sunday Night Worship, Wednesday Prayer Meeting), I was never developed into a mature follower of Jesus Christ.
After college I took a job in Huntsville, Alabama working for a NASA contractor. One of the men I worked with received Christ as his Savior and invited me to attend his baptism service. Knowing my need to attend church, I readily accepted the invitation. My first impression of the church was that it was huge (around 200 people) and intimidating. Even so, I did begin to attend church and eventually joined.
It wasn’t long after joining that I was invited to participate in a discipleship relationship with one of the church’s leaders. I didn’t really understand what that meant, but being hungry to grow, I accepted the invitation. My new friend and I would meet for a couple of hours a week to study the Bible, pray and talk about my spiritual development. The more we studied and prayed the more I hungered for the Word of God, the people of God, and the ministry of God.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I can see that God was walking me through the spiritual maturation process that He lays out in 2 Peter 1:5-7.
2 Peter 1:5-7 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
Peter encourages his readers to give all diligence to add to their faith these seven things. They are in sequential order and progressive in nature. For example, it is a mistake to attempt to add knowledge to faith; we must add virtue to faith and then add knowledge to virtue. Knowledge without virtue makes a person proud because they are incapable of seeing their own faults (I Corinthians 8:1).
As I progressed through this process of spiritual maturation, God opened more and more doors for me to minister His Word. The most significant of those doors was the opportunity to walk other men through that same maturation process. He has also allowed me to serve as pastor in two churches.
Biblical discipleship changed the trajectory of my life. In my twenties, I was working for a NASA contractor as an engineer and climbing the corporate ladder. Through discipleship, God arrested me, grew me, and called me to the ministry. Today, I serve as the lead pastor of the church that introduced me to discipleship. Wow! What a gracious and mighty God we serve."
I think there is something we can all learn from Joe's story, the importance of discipleship, and trusting God's timing!
It's my hope that we're always growing and learning, along the way.
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