Back To The Basics - Discipling Series

Back to the Basics - Discipling

ME

As I sat down at my computer this week with thoughts of Discipling on my mind I could not help but think about my own. My own journey and the discipling of received as I become a Christian and after.

When I was growing up my dad tried to be a good role model for me and my brother. He and we were heavily involved in church. As most of you know the church I was in when I was a child was the Lutheran Church. But we were pretty much there when the doors were open.

My dad was the Sunday school superintendent for all the time I could remember when I was a child. But it wasn’t only at church he brought it home as well. We said grace before every meal and he came to my brother and I’s bedroom every night to say our prayers with us and to teach us how to pray.

He made sure that when I was a little older that I went to my confirmation classes as we went through Luther’s Catechism and finally received my confirmation as a Lutheran and I was able to take my first communion. Honestly aside from my dad’s shortcomings as a husband to my mom and finally divorce, my dad tried to raise me and my brother right.

But I it never took with me. All the time of church, Sunday school, VBS, singing in the choir, helping out with church projects and such were just going through the motions for me. I never really wanted to be there. Matter of fact sometimes my brother and I would try to shut of mom and dad’s alarm clock on Sunday mornings so they would sleep too long and we couldn’t make it to church.

I was doing in life back then like I used to do in the choir when my mom made us sing. I would just stand there and mouth the words without singing a word. I was just going through the motions.

It wasn’t until after my mom and dad got a divorce and my mom remarried that I truly tried to seek a relationship with God. Part of that involved Maria and I searching for a church to attend but nothing fit her Nazarene church background and my Lutheran back ground. And that was really me wanting to find a church because Maria wanted to.

But my real turn to seeking a relationship with God came through my step dad Bob. As screwed up as his history has with women in his life he still did his best to live a good Christian life. And we had a lot of meaningful conversations about God, living for God, raising a family and a lot about baptism.

A lot about baptism because of my Lutheran background. In the Lutheran church I was baptized when I was 8 days old. And then of course confirmed that baptism at age 13. But that didn’t mean anything to me because at 8 days old of course I didn’t have a clue of what was happening to me. And that is what happened. It happened to me, I did not nor I could I make the choice to be a Christian at 8 days old.

And I honestly didn’t know that confirmation classes and confirmation at the time I was going through it was confirming my baptism. I just thought it all was so I could take communion. I didn’t know confirmation was confirming my baptism until my grandpa Engler passed away and the preacher talked about that in the message.

And this was long after all my conversations with my step dad Bob and long after I made the choice on my own to be baptized and give my life to Christ.

So I don’t go on with my own story forever, here is the point. Me being discipled came mostly through my step dad and conversations when we were working together building cabinets, or working in the yard, or around the dinner table. These conversations are what made me want to be a Christian and my step dad was the person who baptized me.

My desire to take it further came firstly through the church and being involved in something more than myself. But it mostly came from my own reading of God’s Word. I still remember the conviction as I read the Word and being amazed at what Jesus did and said in His ministry on earth.

In church I became involved with helping Maria as she taught and then me teaching in the children program, then being involved with the missions team, then teaching youth, then teaching adults and it continued until now and preaching and teach every week.