Discipleship Coursework A disciple is someone who spreads and teaches the word of God. You would do it for the love of God and

The should also share in his preaching and healings ministries as they should be able to do the works of God through them and so that the message is still delivered after Jesus has passed and so his work can be finished.

They also must take the Gospel to the World to show people how to live and what is right. This would be so people throughout the world unite and so that suffering can come to an end.

Costs of discipleship include the sacrifice of everything including family, possessions and wealth (such as James and John had to sacrifice their professions and lose their father for Jesus and the faith).

They must also give up themselves and follow Jesus through and through, whether he brings them through good times or bad times such as persecution of the faith.

Rewards of discipleship include eternal life in the Kingdom of God which would be the ultimate reward for following the Lord our God, his son Jesus Christ, the Christian faith itself and the Holy Spirit.

Following Jesus applies to Christians today because even 2000 years on his teachings and how he acted shows how good of a role model he is and that we should strive to act like him because of his unselfishness, his insightfulness and his commitment to God.

Setting an example and learning from mistakes applies to Christians today because even though we should for the examples of Jesus and prophets such as Moses and Abraham we are human and we all make mistakes, but we should always learn from the bad things we do to improve our judgement. We should set examples like Jesus did to make the world a better place.

Sharing in his (Jesus) preaching and healing ministry applies to Christians today because even if we know God's/Jesus' word we should still share in his ministry along with other Christians and get hands-on learning experience from a church atmosphere.

Taking the gospel to the world applies to Christians today because we should strive to spread the message of God, examples of people who stop at nothing to spread God's message are Nicky Cruz (1960s New York), Jackie Pullinger (Hong Kong) and the most famous, Mother Theresa (India).

The nature and costs of discipleship include having to be willing to leave your family, die, spread the word and many more physical and emotional problems for the faith. "You have to be willing to leave yourself behind, take up the cross and come with me..." the words of Jesus.

In my opinion there is only one reward of discipleship, however this reward is very big, eternal life in the Kingdom of God. This would be a very good selling point if the person is a believer, but you would run into problems if the you wanted to become a disciple was cynical.

Some people would argue that a child cannot be a disciple. Some would say that a child can be a disciple today as a child can spread the world of God as easy as any adult. A child could also be considered more pure and in could be considered a better vessel for the word of God to be told.

However you could argue the fact that a child might not be able to sacrifice all they have such as parents, home, food/water etc. as they are younger and more vulnerable and might not be able to survive without the help of an adult. However self sacrifice is a very extreme case of a disciple and it would be easy for a child to preach the word of God within the community.

In my opinion I believe that yes, children can become disciples, Jesus taught us in the in Chapter 10 verse 13-37 (Jesus blesses little children) that children are the future of the world and goes on to imply that children indeed could become disciples.

By Dan Egarr 11D1