It is not possible to be a true disciple of Jesus in the modern world." Do you agree?

Is this the same as discipleship as described in Mark's Gospel? If you examine the key aspects of discipleship: having faith in God, putting God before all else, putting others before yourself, being willing to suffer for God, learning about God's Kingdom, spreading the Gospel, following Jesus' teachings and serving others you can clearly see that all these aspects are all still relevant today.

However in today's hectic and increasingly materialistic world it is harder to fulfil the promises of discipleship.

It may be argued that many people today lack true faith because they do not attend church regularly but still consider themselves Christians.

Nevertheless Simon & Christopher Danes authors of "Mark a Gospel for Today" say there are over 1 billion Christians Worldwide who still follow the original teachings of Jesus and his apostles and with ever growing technology, evangelism is being used increasingly to spread the word of God, giving more people the chance to learn about God and his Kingdom and to become Christians.

Many people in their everyday lives put others before themselves and as a consequence suffer and go without themselves. Many people also do charitable work for Christian charities e.g. Christian Aid, Tear Fund and Cafod.

But does this make today's Christians "True" disciples? Certainly there are several Christians in the modern world that you would consider to be true disciples an example would be Mother Teresa and her missionaries of charity who have given up their whole lives to carry out the work of God. In this category you could include missionaries, priests and nuns etc.

However, most Christians do not follow their promises to these extremes and therefore I believe that all Christians are disciples but there are few whom you could call "true" followers of Jesus. Therefore I do consider that it is possible to be a true disciple in the modern world but there are few people who are worthy of this title.

Alycia Swain 10FM