'Obedience-Based' Discipleship

The majority of us from the West have grown up with a Greek mindset, placing high value on how much a person knows. This same mindset has trickled into Christendom, forming a 'knowledge-based' discipleship. In other words, a form of discipleship that is all about getting people to 'know' the Bible. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't necessarily a good thing either. Knowledge-based discipleship has the potential to make us a people content with only knowing truth, not actually obeying it.

It seems as Western Christians we have become the best 'agreers' of truth in the world. On Sunday morning we will be the first to put a stamp on it, the first to say amen to it, and the first to form groups around it. But we struggle to obey it! It's no wonder in John 14 and 15 Jesus emphasizes love and obedience as one in the same.
A helpful way to move beyond knowledge-based discipleship into a more 'obedience-based' discipleship is by simply placing more of a value on obedience. Make sure when your community reads the Bible together to always ask how you can practically obey it? One way we do this in our house church is by always raising the question, "How WILL each of us obey this practically in the next 48 hours?" We give each other a few minutes to think about it and then go around the circle and share. We have found that when we think more in terms of 48 hours it really makes us take it more seriously. We also find that when we commit to obedience in front of the group it holds us to a deeper accountability, allowing us to talk openly about this to each other over the next week.
The following is a clip from a Keith Green concert before he died at the age of 28 in tragic plane crash.. Keith was one of the most radical lovers of Jesus from the 70's who was passionate about not only believing in God, but also following him too...