Why does discipleship fail so often today?  Because we’ve lost the very core.  When “everyone” is a “disciple” it seems that no one is a disciple.

This is a passionate call to rise up and change the world today by being a follower of our Savior and Rabbi Jesus.  The Hebrew word for disciple is TALMID.  Talmidim (plural) followed a Rabbi.  Today, we are called to be talmidim and Jesus is our Rabbi.  If we are going to be just like our Rabbi, we must know our Rabbi.  Today, discipleship has often been reduced to showing up at a worship service and Bible class.

Will you get to know your Rabbi?  To know Him, we must begin by knowing what He’s already done. And then we can begin to discover what He’s doing now.

The ancient rabbis said that talmidim should follow their rabbi so closely that they become “covered in his dust.”  This is a call to know and follow Jesus. Follow Him.  Talk to Him.  Watch Him. Know Him.  Be like Him.  Cover yourself in His dust because you’ve followed Him so closely and want more badly than anything else in the world to be like Him.

And then…once we become talmidim ourselves, we can really begin to rescue a watered down, 21st century idea of discipleship by making more talmidim.   But we can’t make what we have not already become.  Do you want to make disciples?  Then first you have to be a disciple.  Become talmidim.   Go make talmidim.  It’s the Rabbi’s way.

The Talmidim Process

This week we launched a discipleship process at Tusculum for adults who want to seek more fully to be like Jesus!  We will be following Jesus through the Gospel of Luke and journaling the ways in which we echo the Story and “hagah” (hunger) over each Word.  This week we are digging deeply into Luke 1 & 2 with daily readings as follows:

Reading Schedule

Thursday: Luke 1:1-25

Friday:  Luke 1:26-56

Saturday: Luke 1:57-80

Sunday: Discussions with Life Group

Monday: Luke 2:1-20

Tuesday: Luke 2:21-52

I also assigned chapter 1 (The Story of Jesus’ Birth) from the book Seeing Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey.  For those of you who asked about ordering this book you can do so here.

Audio of Week 1:  Introduction

If you would like to listen to the audio of our first class you can click here to download the .mp3 file.

Share Your Journey

All who are joining this process are also encouraged to post any parts of your journal, your reactions to our class, or anything you’d like to share here on this blog.  This will help us share the journey throughout the week!   We are looking forward to striving with all that we have to be like Jesus!