{"id":9116,"date":"2025-08-29T02:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T02:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rodliwebstrategies.com\/hf\/?p=9116"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:47:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T17:47:28","slug":"whos-discipling-whom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harvestfoursquare.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/29\/whos-discipling-whom\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s Discipling Whom?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cTo disciple\u201d means \u201cto teach (or) train\u201d (collinsdictionary.com)<\/a>. If you are being discipled, then you are one who is being taught or trained to become like someone or to live out their particular beliefs. Hopefully, that means becoming more like Jesus.<\/p>\n\n

Here\u2019s the kicker, though: We\u2019re all disciples of someone during most of our day. When I watch a Mariners game, I\u2019m being discipled by those announcers to root for the Mariners, no matter how often they break my heart. (The Cubs at least have three World Series wins under their belt.) When I\u2019m listening to a Starbucks commercial, I\u2019m being discipled by the ad to drink Starbucks coffee. However, the biggest disciplers in our culture right now aren\u2019t ESPN or commercials \u2013 though they have a lot of pull. The biggest disciplers in our culture aren\u2019t even your pastor or Bible study leader. They are your news and social media feeds.<\/p>\n\n

Who is discipling us is based primarily on who is getting a majority of our time and attention. And, according research (here\u2019s one study<\/a>), a majority of our time is being spent with digital media. I don\u2019t mean dog videos, (serious<\/a> or funny<\/a> ones) but news and social media feeds. More and more studies seem to be confirming that these two feeds are \u201cfueling anxiety, depression, loneliness and FOMO (fear or missing out).<\/a>\u201d When one spends 8-12 hours a day being discipled in some way by people and organizations that encourage fear, hatred, and revenge, then the three\u2013four hours a week being discipled by your pastor or Bible study leader just doesn\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n\n

I would like to suggest that the answer isn\u2019t to spend more time with your pastor. It\u2019s not even spending more time on YouTube watching other pastors. I would suggest that you use a two-prong approach. First, spend less time on social media and news feeds. That actually includes YouTube. Use your phone\u2019s built-in app, or just your own timer, but limit your news intake to a certain amount of time per day. (I recommend 30 minutes for just news, and maybe up to 60 minutes if you include social media.) Also, endeavor to balance your news intake with views from both sides of a situation. You might spend 15 minutes on Fox, then 15 minutes on CNN. Whatever the case, guard who is speaking into your world \u2013 discipling you \u2013 and for how long.<\/p>\n\n

The second prong is to spend more time with God. Read His Word. Pray and worship. Even reading the words of people who have gone before you in their spiritual growth. Of course, joining us at church on Sunday mornings is also an important place to be discipled. The point is to spend time with God and His people in order to be discipled \u2013 not just taught, but encouraged, poured into, helped, and, yes, even corrected \u2013 by God and His people.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m not saying that social media, news feeds, or commercials are bad or wrong (though cat videos are close). And I\u2019m certainly not suggesting that I have it all down yet. My Facebook feed gets way too much of my time. I\u2019m simply saying that when we allow them to disciple us, the end result can be detrimental to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019ll end with Paul\u2019s encouragement to the people of Philippi: Philippians 4:8-9 – \u201cFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014 think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me\u2014put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.\u201d (NIV). He who has ears to hear, let him hear.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo disciple\u201d means \u201cto teach (or) train\u201d (collinsdictionary.com). If you are being discipled, then you are one who is being taught or trained to become like someone or to live out their particular beliefs. Hopefully, that means becoming more like Jesus. Here\u2019s the kicker, though: We\u2019re all disciples of someone during most of our day. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epistles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho\u2019s Discipling Whom? - Harvest Foursquare Church, a Blackfoot, Idaho church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.harvestfoursquare.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/29\/whos-discipling-whom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who\u2019s Discipling Whom? - Harvest Foursquare Church, a Blackfoot, Idaho church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cTo disciple\u201d means \u201cto teach (or) train\u201d (collinsdictionary.com). 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