Our spiritual life is a journey: a journey of grace. It begins when we hear God’s call to come and follow Him, to put our faith in Jesus Christ. This was true in the life of Simon Peter. One day, he was cleaning his fishing nets with his brother, Andrew. Jesus looked at them and invited them to come and follow Him. Immediately, Peter and Andrew left everything and followed Jesus. That decision changed their lives.

As I began serving as the global director of Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International (SDMI) in August 2018, many people asked me, “When you speak about discipleship, what do you mean by ‘discipleship’? Do you mean ‘Sunday School’? Do you mean small groups? Or do you mean ‘one-on-one mentoring’?” I have wondered if they asked me that in order to see what “camp” I fell into so they could decide if I was worth listening to. Their questions, however, revealed that we had a problem.

The topic of discipleship immediately brings my childhood to mind. I was fortunate to be discipled by my parents. My parents’ lives modeled incarnational discipleship. The activities of the week and the family conversations around the table pointed each of us toward Christ. If there was a formal discipleship plan, we never saw it, but we knew the lessons by heart. It was who we were and what we did as Christians.

As I look back at my life, I can clearly see three patterns in the way my parents discipled us: presence, passion, perseverance.

Presence