So how do we begin a discipleship relationship? One of the problems we have with discipleship is that we look at it as something we do. In our minds, discipleship is little different than laundry, taking out the trash, or keeping a doctor’s appointment. Just like all those things, discipleship becomes another task that we do when it is time to do it.

But as we look through the Bible, we see that Jesus never looked at discipleship as a task to be accomplished. Instead, He lived a lifestyle of discipleship.

Surely, there were times that Jesus set aside for His closest followers, and He used those times to intentionally disciple them. But Jesus was also a master at turning every interruption and every circumstance into a discipleship moment. That meant at any moment, any one who was within hearing distance of Jesus was a potential disciple.

Think about it. In John 4, we have the picture of the woman at the well. She went there to get a bucket of water and she left with a soul full of living water. She wanted to know what mountain to worship on, and left knowing it was more important to worship in spirit and truth. In short, she came to the well with one way of thinking and left with another–and that change of thinking changed her life. Jesus had never encountered her before and in one conversation she became His disciple.

The woman at the well wasn’t the only time Jesus did this. There was the rich young ruler who wanted eternal life. There was the blind man in John 9. There were the children who wanted to see Jesus. The examples are countless.

See, Jesus never set aside a time and place to disciple. Instead, He discipled where He was, with anyone and everyone He was with. For Jesus, discipleship wasn’t a task, it was a lifestyle. Every where He went was the place for disdcipleship. Everyone He met was a disciple. Every encounter was a discipleship moment.

Here is what this means to us. Yes, we need to be intentional about discipleship. Being intentional does mean setting aside a time and place in which we focus on how to apply God’s Word to our own life and that of another person. Jesus did that with His apostles. But it doesn’t mean that is the only time we are to disciple someone. To the contrary, we need to live a lifestyle of discipleship. That means everyone we encounter is a potential disciple.

What about those who don’t believe in God or Jesus? Yep, they’re potential disciples too. See, most of those Jesus discipled in the moment weren’t believers either. If everyone is a potential disciple (believers and nonbelievers) then the false tension that we create between evangelism and discipleship completely disappears.

This brings up a question: Is there a difference in how we disciple an unbeliever and a believer? We’ll look at that in part three.