Discipleship: Roles, Management, and Stewardship

Twelve male followers of Jesus that lived thousands of years ago, this is the way most people would define the early disciples. Writing this paper gave me a rich insight into who the early disciples were, how disciples relate to the four functions of management, as well as how disciples relate to the stewardship of resources.

Luke 10:1-2 “After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.” The “seventy-two” others, were the original rarely discussed disciples. “Since the ancient world was thought of as being divided into seventy nations, it is probable that the sending out of the seventy disciples is symbolic of the worldwide scope of the gospel.” (Arnold, 236) The group of 72 watched Jesus perform several miracles, including feeding the 5,000, walking on water, and casting out

Initially, Jesus was the steward and the disciples were his resources. Jesus led the disciples who were useful, because they helped to spread his word. A testament to how great of a steward Jesus was is that after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, most of the disciples became the stewards and the Bible became their resource. Although they deserted Jesus at his time of persecution, the majority of them continued to preach the word of God using the miracles they were shown and the word of God as their resources.

Writing this paper gave me a rich insight into who the early disciples were. I learned that the disciples were literally and figuratively more than just twelve male followers of Jesus that lived thousands of years ago, how disciples relate to the four functions of management, as well as how disciples relate to the stewardship of