Three Critical Doctrines
When I was starting out in discipleship training, I led a friend to Christ. He was an eager new student who wanted to grow in Christ. I myself, eager to have my friend avoid all the mistakes I made, took him to a Christian bookstore and “dumped the truck.” I showed him a library of books that I told he would have to buy and utilize for him to succeed.
Needless to say, I scared him away.
I think that he was truly converted. Not long after he prayed to receive Christ, he moved to Florida. I received a couple of communications showing he was going to church at a Bible believing church there, then nothing. All the same, I felt terrible that I had given this young man (we were both young men then!) so much; and it was too much. I began to wrestle with this question of how much do we need to transfer to a new disciple to just get him or her started. I understood and still understand that changing the way we think is vitally important. We can “get saved,” but even if the heart has changed, we still think like sinners. So its important to get a new convert to think about life in a biblical way. So this work of retraining a new convert is an important aspect of the disciple making process.
Christian belief truly encompasses a vast system of thought that have taken large volumes, even collections of volumes to elucidate. As a philosophical and religious system it is truly a lifework to fully grasp and master. The Bible is, itself, a very deep volume. How does one start building a functional system of thought for a new disciple without making instruction an overwhelming task?
As a leader of churches, as a Pastor, a counselor, and disciple maker, I settled on three key doctrines for primary focus as I enter into training believers. Its not that others are not important! But I have found these to be of primary value as starting points: The Sovereignty of God; the Omniscience of God; the Goodness of God.
As disciples begin to situate themselves in life, its important to frame all of life within Biblical truth—verses and theology— that help the disciple to see that God is good (al the time) in the circumstances of life, that God knows what he is doing (omniscience), and that God has a plan that he is going to accomplish according to his will (sovereignty). These doctrines alone can consume many days, months and years to contemplate. They will provide abundant opportunities for meditation and teaching for the new disciple, and even the grizzled, experienced disciplemaker.
This does not mean other doctrines are to be neglected. But a considered reflection on the value of these three in particular will show the practicality and value for the new disciple in virtually every day life. I shall explore each of these in turn.
