We respond to a listener question about the difference between discipling and developing others in their unique gifting and calling and just trying to clone yourself to get more work done.
We talk about the need to be aware of how we are uniquely wired, and also how those we are investing in are uniquely wired, and the temptation to narcissistically “extend ourselves into the world” in a colonizing way and calling it “discipleship.”
We ended with 4 ways to make sure you’re really discipling people and not trying to clone yourself:
- Do your work. There’s no shortcut to actually doing your inner work.
- Be intentional to call people into discipleship who are unlike you.
- Help people go beyond imitating you into innovating and incarnating.
- Remember the goal of discipleship is “apostleship,” it’s to GO.
Links and resources:
- The previous podcast episode, where the listener asked the question in the comments
- An Introduction to the Enneagram | Atlanta, Aug 17-18
- Prayer School with Brian Zahnd | New York City, Sept 14-15
- Gravity Leadership Academy | cohorts are always starting – this is where we train in the practical, on-the-ground skills needed to navigate tensions like the one we discussed today.
- How to Disciple An Immature Apostle, the first article in a series we wrote on discipling various APEST giftings.
- From our blog: Discipleship is Not Replication, Development is Not Cloning
- Far From the Tree, by Andrew Solomon (the book that was quoted at the end of the episode)
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