When we make disciples, we must avoid having a mass-production mindset. For healthy discipleship to take place, we must acknowledge that it is not about efficiently building projects but genuinely loving people. That is what Jesus did with His disciples. He did not stop at training them; He cherished them. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). So it must be when we make disciples. We are to really love those we disciple, and real love requires real vulnerability. We must recognize our brokenness, open our hearts, and let others in. It is not easy, but it is crucial. As C.S. Lewis says about the importance of love and vulnerability:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (The Four Loves)
