| About Us |
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Many of the ideas presented on this website are the result of my own parenting failures and consequential opportunities for learning. My personal brokenness has been profound. As the Lord brought the realization about how Jesus made disciples, He also gave me a burden ten years ago to share this truth with the Christian community. But not until recently had the Lord revealed how to communicate the idea in a clear manner. I have felt like Nehemiah, crying, repenting and praying over the broken walls in my own family life and the lives of other sincere Christian families. The Lord has been gracious to our family as we have learned to follow Jesus more closely than before. In the summer of 2008 the Lord made clear the vision that we are to cast through the founding of Disciple Like Jesus. - Alan Melton Purpose The purpose of Disciple Like Jesus is to glorify God through lifting up the example of Jesus Christ in the way that He made disciples. We want to awaken parents, grandparents and pastors to the reality that most children from the church are not being discipled, and to encourage them that they can make disciples like Jesus did! We want to contrast what parents are doing as opposed to the practice of discipleship according to Jesus. Parents are the key, and fathers in particular as commanded in Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. As parents take up the task of making disciples, the church will be obedient to the prophecy of Christ in Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." Mission Disciple Like Jesus is a ministry for parents and grandparents. Our mission is to:
Vision By 2019 Disciple Like Jesus ministry will have created an awareness in the church of all parents' responsibility to disciple their children in the same way that Jesus made disciples. We will speak loudly and clearly that the church is not doing its job. Pastors will be equipping parents to obey The Great Commission on a daily basis. We will cast vision to the Christian community. We will provide tools and resources such as books, E-books, and small group materials to facilitate discipleship. We will provide website resource access to DLJ leadership, other families who are involved in discipleship, and local advocates. A global map of churches and families who are making disciples of children will be employed to identify progress, areas that need to be represented and to connect families. We will develop a diverse leadership team in order to reach out to these groups. Regional DLJ and Denominational leaders will be equipping and encouraging pastors and parents to follow Jesus in His discipleship methods. Working Definition of "Disciple"
To disciple someone, as Christ has taught us and commanded us, is to reproduce another in one's own likeness: their way of thinking, their deeds, their passion, their commitment, and their obedience. To "disciple like Jesus" is to follow in His footsteps; to be a shepherd to sheep. In a sense to father, to nurture, and to duplicate Christ's efforts in reproducing those who will glorify God as they live their life as an example for others. Evangelism We believe that the primary purpose of life is to glorify God and to attain eternal life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our Lord. This begins within our own families and then we must reach out to a suffering humanity. But this is only the first step in making disciples. We must follow Jesus in the way that He made disciples. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. The Institution of the Family We believe that the institution of the family is sacred; marriage is a covenant designed by God to model the love of Christ for His people. When God joins a man with his wife, this is the biblical foundation upon which children are brought into the world. Families are the building block for making disciples of Jesus Christ. Matthew 19:4-6 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." The Value of Children We believe that children are a heritage from the Lord and a blessing from His hand. It is the parents' responsibility to raise, shape and prepare them for service to God and man. Parent's will be held accountable by God for the discipleship of their children. Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. |
