Phil Boydell lives in Stirling with his family, supports Arsenal obsessively and is the National Director of the UK Navigators.

I have often thought of the disciple-making vision as a vision of love. Love in our culture is a vague concept: a feeling, an emotional high or goodwill towards humanity.

But Jesus’ call to love others goes far beyond romance or niceness. An alongsider’s love is not fleeting or nebulous; it is focused attention on those God has put around us. It is a settled commitment to move towards someone in compassion, for their good and their growth in Jesus.

Organic growth

The idea of multiplication is popular in church culture currently – we don’t just make disciples but disciple makers. One person discipling someone each year, and helping them do the same, leads to exponential growth.

Throughout our history the Navigators have been passionate about this idea, using 2 Timothy 2:2 to illustrate it: ‘And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others’. What you have in this verse is multiplying steps: Paul invests in Timothy, who invests in reliable people, who invest in others.

Over the last 90 years, however, the Navigators have learned a lot about spiritual multiplication. Some people you invest in don’t become Christians, some who come to Christ don’t go on to disciple others ... but some do! It doesn’t work as neatly as a mathematical equation.

In recent years, the Navigators have shifted from multiplication language to ‘spiritual generations’ for two main reasons: it’s less mathematical and automatic (because life isn’t like that) and the Bible itself uses generations and nature to describe spiritual growth. Let’s dig down into the relational and natural imagery of being rooted in love.

God’s way of changing the world

Love is central to Jesus’ disciple making: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (John 13:35). John says it more bluntly: ‘Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love’ (1 John 4:8).

Jesus’ sacrifice was drenched in other-centred love and it redefined love: ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters’ (1 John 3:16).

The challenging thing about love is it’s costly. We need to make room at a heart level to give of our time and attention. However, the heart’s capacity to love is determined by how much it is filled with God’s sacrificial love (1 John 4:10).

Growing our capacity to love

Isaiah 61 illustrates this flow of receiving love and giving out of that love. Jesus lovingly inaugurates a disciple-making movement by declaring good news that will bring healing (v 1). His grace brings comfort to the mourning, praise to the despairing, abundance to the ashamed (v 2-7). Having experienced this loving grace, these people become ‘oaks of righteousness’ (v 3).

Jesus turns ordinary people from the broken into the beautiful and then makes them bountiful, like a beautiful forest. We bring God’s love to a broken world: we are rebuilders, restorers (v 4) and priests (v 6). Love is received and love is given.

Healing at a roots level

The fruitfulness of a tree comes from the health of its root system; if the roots are healthy, the tree will flourish. We ‘oaks of righteousness’ need healthy roots if we are to give our lives in love to others. However, as humans, we often live out of unhealthy hidden beliefs. How we view ourselves in the inner recesses of our hearts will determine how we live. So many of us live out our lives covered with an invisible veil of shame, guilt or fear.

It is vital that discipleship addresses these ‘underground’ realities, helping bring God’s freedom, comfort and forgiveness. Our roots will determine the degree to which we can live fruitful lives. Like a firmly established tap root, all our other beliefs can branch out from what we believe about Jesus.

But how?

We won’t be completely healed until we see Jesus fully, but according to Isaiah 61 the healing Jesus offers this side of eternity is substantial and transformative (see Colossians 2, Romans 8, Ephesians 1). Healing, which is so critical to being fruitful in the Christian life, is best experienced in close relationships, for that’s where we feel safe enough to unearth our struggles. It is easy to avoid (or not make space for) the kind of relationships in which grace is experienced deeply.  

To push the analogy further, this deep work is also brought about by regularly enriching the soil of our hearts – nourishing habits and rhythms that orient our lives to ‘the word of his grace’ (Acts 20:32) and practices like prayer, sabbath and forgiveness that draw our hearts back to who we are in Jesus.

This step of receiving grace and healing is profoundly important to alongsiding. You can see it throughout Paul’s letters: ‘...we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God’ (2 Corinthians 1:4). We receive grace and we share it with others.

We draw alongside others with our own story and experience of Jesus alongside us. May you know ever more deeply the grace and love of Jesus in your life, so that his love compels you to give your life to getting alongside others (2 Corinthians 5:14).