This Is Not That: Discipleship
Human beings have a long history of not knowing what to do with the freedom Jesus gave us.
The urge for spiritual accomplishment—something we can control and measure—always sneaks back in. We find ways to attach expectations, steps, and ladders to almost everything.
So we talk about freedom. We sing about it. We preach about it.
But how often do we actually experience it?
After years of planting and pastoring churches, I realized the problem wasn’t a lack of activity or accountability. The greatest barrier was this:
Most people had never experienced freedom inside the very frameworks they defended with a vengeance.
From Platitudes to Plates
Which brings me to the story of Dario Cecchini.
As the son of a 4th generation butcher, Dario left his small Italian village to pursue a career as a veterinarian. In his words, “My desire was to care for animals, not kill them.”
But that dream ended when Dario received the call at school that his father had passed away.
Overwhelmed with the loss of the man he adored and the responsibility to provide for his family, Dario returned home to take over his father’s business.
As he struggled in his new role, he remembered his father's words: “if you ever need help, find Orlando, and he'll show you the way.”
For decades, Orlando was the meat selector for Dario’s father. Dario told him, “when I'm cutting meat, I feel great pain.” Orlando looked at him and passionately said: “It’s not about cutting meat!”
To show him what he meant, Orlando took Dario to the houses of the farmers who raised the cows. There, Dario discovered: “the butcher has a path of life beside the animals, not detached from them.”
Seeing the true nature of his father’s work, Dario found new life in his work.
But there was just one problem. Dario’s customers only wanted steak. It’s all they knew, and Dario didn’t think it was right to kill an animal for a steak. “I tried to explaIn this to my customers,” he said, “but they cared less and less. I needed a solution… and there it hit me:
‘The only way to not waste anything from a cow's life is to put the food on a plate to finally make them understand.’”
In his words, I was going to “teach people how to eat well.”
So Dario decided to open his first restaurant: Solociccia—meaning: “Just Meat.” The place consisted of one large communal table and food made from “all the parts of the cow considered less noble.”
From snout to tail, everything was served. Except steak.
In the words of international chef Samin Norsrat, “at Solociccia, you sit down to partake in things you would have never considered eating.
But when you taste the meat, your mouth starts to take in textures and flavors you have never encountered before, the larger fears you have dissolve, and you’re deliciously surprised.”
People leave there, and they’re changed.”
Which explains why the news about the whole cow spread all on its own—and the questionnaires'—were convinced.
Hearing that story, I realized Dario knew what I came to realize in ministry: people don’t change their minds about something because you explained it better. They change their minds when they taste something better.
That’s what discipleship is about: inviting people to a table where they can taste freedom for themselves.
And once you see that, something else becomes impossible to miss: discipleship was never designed to scale like an empire.
If Jesus Wanted an Empire…
He picked the wrong team.
Think about it: Jesus is standing there post-resurrection, handing off the keys to a crew of misfits that had just abandoned Him. No business plan. No structured hierarchy. No brand to defend.
Just this: “Go and Make disciples. Baptize them. And teach them to observe everything I’ve commanded.” (Matt. 28:19–20)
Religion turned that into a checklist. It’s why those words come with a weight today. But Jesus meant it as an invitation that brings life to every believer.
Let’s break it down:
“Go.”
The Greek word poreuthentes isn’t a barked command. It’s a participle.
It doesn’t mean mobilize or launch.
It means “as you are going about your day.”
Not a religious leader demanding expansion.
Not a movement built on conquest, control, or compliance.
Just Jesus saying, “As life unfolds—wherever you already are—be a friend. Walk with people. Invite them into the life you’re tasting.”
“Make disciples.”
The word mathēteuō doesn’t mean “recruit converts” to build a local organization. It means “help others see what is good where they are.”
You can’t manufacture faith. You can’t mass-produce trust.
Discipleship is not a classroom. It’s introducing a friend to the world’s best taco truck. You found something worth savoring—you just had to share it.
“Baptize.”
Not ceremony. Not control. Just water and awakening.
Someone discovers the God who’s always loved them.
So you find a river. An ocean. A bathtub. A hotel pool.
Water is water.
“Teach them to observe.
Here’s the line religion twisted.
As I mentioned in This Is Not Scripture, most translations say “obey.” But the Greek word tēreō means to treasure—to hold close, like a letter from a friend you reread until the paper softens.
And the word “commandments” doesn’t point back to the Ten or the 613 laws people added. It refers to everything Jesus showed us about the Father’s heart.
Not new rules to follow—a new relationship to understand.
In short, Jesus was saying, “Teach them to hold onto what I’ve shown you, like a treasure worth keeping close.” Because by then, the Law had done its job and He had fulfilled it (Matt 5:17).
As Paul said, “The Law was our guardian until Christ came… but now that faith has come, we’re no longer under a guardian” (Gal 3:24–25).
So what remains?
Not a list to obey, but a God to trust when He says, “There’s peace and joy in this way of life I’ve shown you. Help others walk in this joy. Not so I’ll love them, but because I already do.”
But what about evangelism?
Somewhere, the Church split “discipling” into two separate industries—Evangelism over here (Outreach), Discipleship over there (Teaching)—like two departments that never speak.
But the Greek word euangelion isn’t an “ism” at all! It’s not a technique, program, or strategy. The word literally means “good news.”
Which means to evangelize is simply to announce good news—to share the truth of who Jesus already is for someone, right where they are, as life unfolds.
And here’s the twist: most New Testament references to the gospel are written to believers, not outsiders! So treating the gospel as the front door for non-Christians—while assuming Christians need something “more advanced”—isn’t just inaccurate, it reverses the entire script.
Paul couldn’t have been more clear in 1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Why?
Because the good news of grace doesn’t just start the journey; it sustains every step of it. We never graduate from the gospel. Every part of our hearts and minds is transformed as we trust it more deeply while life keeps rolling on.
So What Does Discipleship Look Like?
Not leading services.
Not launching programs.
Not managing outcomes.
It’s tasting freedom. And then helping someone else taste it too.
Not as an expert.
Not as the one with all the answers.
But as a fellow mess wrecked by grace.
Because that kind of grace has nothing to lose and nothing to prove. No image to protect. No stars to chase.
It makes honesty feel safe.
And that honesty opens rooms.
It starts conversations.
It pulls in the curious.
Because freedom is hard to ignore when it walks in wearing love.
No clipboard. No steps. No strategy. Just stories. Meals in everyday life. Questions. And sometimes a baptism in a weird place.
How Do I Do That?
You start by realizing this world is starving for relief. And you’ve tasted it. Then, as a friend in everyday life, you step into:
Being Present. Show up like it matters—because it does.
Listening. Every story is sacred ground. Take off your shoes.
Sharing. Not sermons. Just your honest story of grace.
Inviting. Don’t push. Just point out the treasure you’ve found in light of what others need—and invite them to trust it.
That’s discipleship.
Right where you are.
No filters.
No stages.
Just open-ended conversations.