Discipleship Is Toughness — With a Touch of TLC.

My mind was taken back to my high school days— not the fun kind TBT. I remembered my first week in Form One, fresh out of a two-month holiday, suddenly dropped onto the hills of Masaku. Our school was perched up high, between Machakos and Wote Town. The view? Beautiful. But I only discovered the best view while in Form Two—because that view was only visible from those classroom windows. From there you could see the night lights of Machakos, Athiriver and Nairobi City at a distance. It was mesmerizing. 😎 Enough of nostalgic moments. Let's rewind to Form One, shall we?

That first week was pure brutality. Every teacher who walked into class had either a pile of books or a prefect carrying them—and of course, many came armed with a cane. (Not all, but enough to make an impression.) This is not sugarcane BTW, but a cane that hits your character before hitting your body. 😁

The routine was simple:

* Introduce themselves.

* Announce their subject.

* Dive straight into the lesson.

It was a hit-and-run orientation. They would learn our names as we went on. No warmups. No easing in. Just straight into What is chemistry? What is biology? What is agriculture?... After every lesson, we were given work to do. Not homework - we were sleeping in dorms now. No. They're now called assignments. Seven of them. Day one, and it was not good!

I always wondered. Did the teachers have to start us off that fast? Did they think we're robocop with part of us been computerized and able to grasp this new information and new system? We were kids! Muuuuum! 😭 Some of us even tiny body wise. We had just come from a long holiday where we were not reading or learning anything academic based! Did they have to be tough!? I'm complaining BTW Incase you've not noticed. Healing takes time. Fast forward to present day. While reflecting on all that, the Lord dropped a line in my spirit: "Teachers have to be tough if students are to stand."

That hit different. You see, I and my classmates are products of the toughness at different degrees, and that depends on how we responded to the toughness. If we were resistant, the grades resisted. If we allowed their toughness, the grades became respectable.

Suddenly, I saw the cane, textbooks, and exercise books in a new light. The cane kept us fearfully motivated 😅, the textbook guided us, and the exercise book captured our journey.

And then the Lord dropped the mic: “The Church is slow at making disciples and producing ministers because for years, the teachers haven’t been tough.”

Ouch. But true.

Instead of challenge, we offer comfort. Instead of correction, we offer encouragement. We give teachings, but no tasks(assignments). We allow inconsistency with no consequence—and in the end, we raise congregational members, not disciples. Why? Because we dropped the cane, taught from other books and did not give assignments and demand fulfillment of the same.

Just recently, a friend asked me a sincere question about God’s posture on a certain matter. I shared my personal testimony and encouraged them to search scriptures for more on the same—felt pretty solid. Unknown to me however, she had asked the same question to another saint. His response?

He asked a few questions, pointed her in a certain direction and tasked her to write 2000-word report that would be due in 48 hours. 😳

When she told me that, I was shook!(presentpartpartipiple of shaken). I thought I was a tough discipler. Kumbe there are tougher ones out here!

And suddenly it all clicked. The kind of tough love Jesus modeled is what we lost somewhere along the way.

Think about it Jesus used statements such as:

* “Let the dead bury their dead.”

* “Get behind me, Satan.”

* “Don’t cry for me—cry for your children.”

This statements are tough! Some of them were disappointed in him and left never to return. The toughest of them all according to me though is “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

That is tougher. I’ve tried. Succeeded some. Failed many. Making anything isn't easy. But Jesus gives a target area that's too wide. All nations? Why not just my neighborhood or networks?

I have personally failed in this responsibility in the past, and I suspect one reason for my failures is no one was tough on me, and I wasn’t tough on others either. We were tenderized into matters of faith.

The early disciples struggled with the toughness of Jesus that they avoided the nations bit. So God had to recruit Saul and his introduction to the force was tough; he was knocked down first, then blinded, kept hungry for days, then hated abandoned by his traveling mates. This brother was literally monolized into ministry. It was tough, but he turned out tougher. So tough that when a prophet told him he'll die if he goes to Rome, he smiled at death just for the opportunity to testify before the rulers of the day. 🤦

Here’s a principle worth tattooing in our hearts (metaphorically please 😅).

> A teacher(discipler) will only see results if they bring three things to the first class:

* A notebook for the student.

* A textbook for guidance.

* A cane for discipline.

All are a must. Our textbook is scriptures.

Our notebook is a willing disciple.

And that cane? Call it accountability if you want to sound spiritual. But use it and use it well.

Discipleship isn’t a theology degree—it’s a lifestyle of training, tasking, and transforming. It’s not for the crowd. It’s for the committed.

So… Are We Discipling Right?

Here’s the hard truth: We’ve built congregations. We’ve collected crowds. But we’ve not done well on discipleship.

Let’s change that. Let’s be tough—with some pinch of tenderness.

Let’s stop just teaching. Let’s start training. Let’s not wait for them to come. Let’s go for them.

Because remember:

If we don’t disciple them, they won’t disciple others.