Have you ever experienced an epiphany? One of those moments where something becomes crystal clear to you like it never has been before? I experienced one of those the other day.

At our staff meeting this week at my church, we had a brief discussion about the differences between discipleship and outreach/evangelism. It was a good conversation, and it sparked some thinking in my mind for the next few days.

The following morning, I posed a question based off of my thoughts on this to a group of men that I meet with weekly. I wanted to gather some additional viewpoints and perspectives. Some of their comments added to my thoughts as well.

I have always differentiated between these two concepts. In my mind, they were two very distinct and different things. Outreach and evangelism is what we do to reach the lost and bring them to Christ. Discipleship, on the other hand, is the process that takes place after one becomes a believer, and conforms us to the image of Christ.

Or at least that is what I have always thought about these two ideas.

Tuesday morning, I was suddenly and abruptly confronted with the thought that these two things maybe aren’t as distinct and separate as I have always considered them to be. Maybe, just maybe, the discipleship process begins with the event of becoming a disciple, evangelism, and continues into the transformation and growth phases.

That is a much more organic approach, and doesn’t leave things in stark black and white.

Maybe discipleship isn’t just about the journey. It’s about the becoming.

Evangelism is taking the gospel to the lost. Evangelism is all about making disciples. And discipleship is what happens when the gospel takes root.

Maybe the two concepts aren’t different as I have always thought them to be.

As a result, now I have begun to rethink how I approach both discipleship and evangelism. How can I grow in this for myself? How can I challenge the people in my church to grow as a disciple? What do I need to do differently in order to be more effective for the kingdom in the area of making and growing disciples?

These are all interesting questions, and have been circulating through my mind for the past few days. Where these will lead, I do not yet know. What I do know is that the way I approach ministry has just experienced a paradigm shift, one that will have implications into almost every area of my life and ministry.

That is exciting. And somewhat frightening. And even more challenging, since I may have to set aside years of thought and practice in order to grow.

But grow I must. After all, it’s part of the process of discipleship.

Question: How do you distinguish between outreach/evangelism and discipleship? What do you do to be effective in both areas? You can leave a comment by clicking here.