Pastor's Circle - Gil McKee

Gil McKee, Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, joined the Pastor's Circle today to discuss discipleship. Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

Define discipleship for me.

The basic meaning of being a disciple is being a learner.

One of the things we're trying to learn right now is what the difference is between being a "Christian" and being a genuine follower of Christ.

That's something we're trying to work through.

What are the characteristics of a disciple?

We first of all talk about the attributes and characteristics of Jesus. We need to have the mind of Christ, the attitude of Christ, the behavior of Christ.

We're on a 9-week series right now about reading Scripture carefully. We're really learning how to dive into God's Word.

Last night  we were dealing with how to read the Bible through its proper historical context, cultural context, and  literary context. Those are things that the average Christian probably never addresses, but as you know, it's so important.

Tell me about the "attitude of Jesus."

When I think of the attitude of Jesus, I immediately go to the Fruit of the Spirit. I think Jesus fleshed out in human daily life what we're supposed to be.

I don't think the problem for us is not that we don't know what we're supposed to be, I think the problem is allowing the Spirit to work in our lives. It's a daily challenge, and a daily submission to Him.

What about the "behavior of Jesus"?

I guess we could begin with our habits. What are we doing in our daily life that is drawing us closer to Him?

And an even bigger question than that, to my mind, is what comes out of that? What is that producing in my life?

One of the things we have to do is to ask ourselves is whether this is what Jesus would do.

If it matches with the life of Christ as seen in Scripture, then so be it. If not, then it's our job to allow ourselves to be conformed.