The Topic of Discipleship in the Cape Town Commitment

Abstract

The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action is one of the significant documents of evangelical Christianity that briefly addresses many important topics; one of such topics is discipleship. This article traces the theme of discipleship in the document and offers a theological reflection on the content and form of discipleship for contemporary evangelical Christianity. After the first part where the topic of discipleship is addressed, the article continues to offer a theological reflection on the topic of discipleship. Hence, the second part discusses the content and the form of discipleship. While the third part explains the importance of discipleship arguing that discipleship (Matthew 28) is the channel through which God realizes the return of the original creational blessing that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12. In the conclusion it is pointed out that if we want to take the topic of discipleship from The Cape Town Commitment seriously, the following is needed: a) to understand that discipleship is not an after-school or extracurricular activity but a channel through which God wants to spread his redemptive blessing to all nations; b) in our local churches and academic institutions we need to return teaching by example, because various church or educational activities are part of the discipleship but they are not a supplement for teaching by example; c) to redeem the term “Christian” in a way that this term is only used for those who are “disciples.”