The task of the church and all believers is to make disciples...in other words we are to make people look more like Jesus. The typical approach is information assimilation. If you give the people enough information from the pulpit and teach them enough through whatever type of education, then that will make disciples.
I'm challenged with this task because I'm not sure teaching does it. Discipleship deals heavily with transformation. It deals with the "new creation" of the person where the "old has gone and the new has come." This transformation doesn't always come about by information but rather by submission, and submission is not something you can teach as it is something you can model. It also takes willingness on the part of the person to submit to Christ. How then does the church model submission?
One of the ways I see this could happen is through what the church itself vests its time and resources in. The way to get your people to look more like Christ is to have the activities and ministries of the church look more like Christ. I suppose one challenge is not to have a ministry to help others learn to be like Jesus but rather to create a ministry where the ministry itself mimics Christ. The trap we fall into is creating a wheel where we become mice perpetually chasing the information to make us better disciples. After an undergrad and a graduate degree I still don't feel like I know enough. I've talked to others further down the line and more educated and they feel the same. While I don't want to underplay education or information as forms of discipleship I believe our task in making disciples is more than to just educate. Whatever we do should lead to and provide challenges and opportunities for transformation.
Another point to be made is that information can many times be taught one way and caught another, or vice versa. So we can talk ourselves till we're blue in the face about doctrine and such...and we may never come to agreement on everything. However, can we really disagree on loving people more? Can we disagree on giving our money and resources to those in need? Can we disagree that the elderly who are lonely need a friend or just someone to talk to, much like the orphan? Can we disagree that we've all got sin issues that Christ needs to deliver and set us free from? I'm not sure those are disagreeable points.
So then discipleship in the church could/should be the church itself being about the things it wants its people to be about. It's not only about equipping the saints, but it's about being an example for them giving them the opportunity and guidance toward greater submission to the lordship of Christ.
