Discipleship as Friendship

By Jody Sauder
“Rosaria was a tenured professor at Syracuse University, until God used her desire to write a book on the religious right, and the friendship of a biblically orthodox pastor, to draw her to Christ.” I absolutely love this God-glorifying story! It is a real life example and testimony of Discipleship as Friendship. A faithful pastor and his wife invited Ms. Butterfield to their home for a meal. They engaged in life-on-life conversation and truly cared for Rosaria. They cared for her in simple ways, things like taking her bread when they hadn’t heard from her in awhile, asking questions about her life and simply sharing their life with her. God ultimately used the practice of Christian hospitality, turned discipleship, turned friendship to draw Ms. Butterfield to Himself. (http://www.worldmag.com/2013/03/journey_of_grace.)
It’s easy to want to dive into the methods of how we should disciple versus backing up and thinking about what discipleship means and what it is. Disci…
“Rosaria was a tenured professor at Syracuse University, until God used her desire to write a book on the religious right, and the friendship of a biblically orthodox pastor, to draw her to Christ.” I absolutely love this God-glorifying story! It is a real life example and testimony of Discipleship as Friendship. A faithful pastor and his wife invited Ms. Butterfield to their home for a meal. They engaged in life-on-life conversation and truly cared for Rosaria. They cared for her in simple ways, things like taking her bread when they hadn’t heard from her in awhile, asking questions about her life and simply sharing their life with her. God ultimately used the practice of Christian hospitality, turned discipleship, turned friendship to draw Ms. Butterfield to Himself. (http://www.worldmag.com/2013/03/journey_of_grace.)
It’s easy to want to dive into the methods of how we should disciple versus backing up and thinking about what discipleship means and what it is. Disci…