As Karen and I prepare to begin help disciple 62 world racers beginning in September, we've been thinking about how best to do it.

The thought about curriculum inevitably comes up and I'm reminded of this conversation I had with a friend a few years ago:

My friend asked me, "What's the best discipleship curriculum you can recommend?"

"You are," I answered.

He was befuddled. "No, I mean like a book," he clarified.

"You mean you want to use a book to disciple instead of having them imitate you? Well, it didn't work that way with Jesus. He WAS the curriculum, just like you are."

"Right, I understand, but let's suppose you were to use a book, what would it be?"

"Well, if you have to use a book, I recommend Luke. Specifically chapters 4-10. That's where Jesus shows us how to disciple others."

"You mean where he taught them stuff?"

"No, he taught the masses, but he mostly discipled his disciples by hanging out with them and then by sending them out. It's right there in the Bible. It's the very thing that we don't do in most of our seminaries."

"So, how long should I take to do this?"

"Well, I estimate about 15,000 hours. I look at it this way, if the master invests that amount of time over the course of three years and at the end his best pupil is just barely getting it, who am I to do any better?"

"When you put it that way, discipleship is pretty tough."

"Yeah, I guess that's why Jesus called it a narrow road."