Coach Hayden Fry’s 1983 University of Iowa football team picture has become famous, not necessarily because of the games it won, but because of what became of its coaching staff. The assistants on Fry’s staff that year would go on to become some of the most successful and well-known head coaches in college football. Among them were Kansas State’s Bill Snyder; Kirk Ferentz at Iowa — and Bob Stoops at the University of Oklahoma! In a very real way Fry’s career should be judged not merely on the number of the wins and losses of the college football team he personally coached, but by all the men he trained and sent out to coach in his footsteps.
This is the mindset we need to adopt as Christians. Being a disciple of Christ is not just about each of us following Jesus personally, but also involves passing our commitment on to the next generations of disciples.
Over the last 12 weeks, we have studied how Jesus called us to follow Him as His disciples. He commanded us in Luke 9:23 to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. We have also heard from I Timothy 4:7-8 that we are to “discipline (ourselves) for the purpose of godliness.” We have looked at a number of the disciplines the scripture commands us to adopt as Jesus’ disciples, including daily Bible reading and prayer, spontaneous prayer throughout the day, scripture memory, fellowship & service in the church, witnessing in the world, and the disciplines of giving at least a tenth of our income, and fasting. This morning we are going to finish “The Disciplines of Disciples” series by looking at how we are commanded to reproduce what we have learned, into the lives of others, as we study “The Discipline of Discipling”, from II Timothy 2:2,
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Continue reading →
shawnethomas 