There is a Church that requires everyone who attends their gatherings to get involved in discipleship. They get a mentor, some required reading, and attend a weekly small group meeting. The leadership there makes it known that if you plan on joining their Church, you will participate in the discipleship program of their Church, or you will be asked not to return.

As you first hear this, I don’t know how you will react. I thought that this was a bit extreme, but I genuinely admire their determination to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples. Then, I thought long and intensely about how I could enforce something like this in the community of Christians I lead. After all, when I look at their Church, the people seem so committed to the Lord. Perhaps forced discipleship is the way to go.

Then I realized something. The people who attend their Church long for that type of atmosphere. People have already vetted them before they choose to participate. In other words, the people who join their community come in with a Christian background and long for someone to help them grow in their faith.

Here is the harsh reality for all believers. If you want to become a spiritually mature follower of Jesus, the desire must come from inside of you. No one can “force” you to become a mature Christian. It takes you waking up each and every day and choosing to take up your cross and follow him. The reason that this Church is growing is because the people who attend already want someone to invest in them spiritually, and those who don’t quit or go somewhere else.

I wish I could implement some plan that takes total non-Christians, leads them to faith, and then grows them into mature believers without any flaws or failures. But Jesus told us the parable of the Sower in which a man goes out scattering seed on four types of soil, and only one of them becomes complete and produces fruit. Three out of the four soils do not do what the Sower wanted them to do. Be clear: in this parable, Jesus is the Sower.

No one can force you into discipleship that leads to spiritual maturity, no matter how hard they try. Transformation starts inside your soul.