The church where you are a member likely has a church staff. It might be a combination of full-time, bi-vocational, or even lay leaders, but there is a group of people in charge. And those people, as people do in any other field of work, have job titles. Those titles help people know who to go to when they have a question or want to volunteer:

Question: “Who is responsible for the weekly preaching?”

Answer: “That’s our senior pastor.”

Question: “Who is in charge of the music in this congregation?”

Answer: “That’s our worship pastor.”

Question: “Who takes care of the finances here?”

Answer: That’s our business administrator.”

Simple enough, right? But here’s another question that deserves a bit more thought and explanation:

“Who is responsible for discipleship in this church?”

Now at first, the answer might seem easy. You might have a person with that word – “discipleship” – in their job title. Or you might have several folks, each working with a different age group, that might be considered responsible for discipleship of students, kids or adults. That’s perfectly fine. It’s a good thing for a person to run point on issues of discipleship, whether holistically for the church or for a given age group. But as you think about this question, consider this verse from the final chapters of Paul’s letter to the Roman church:

I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another (Rom. 15:14).

There are a couple of things that are remarkable about this seemingly simple verse of Scripture. First of all, we should remember that Paul had not started or visited the congregation at Rome. Sure, he knew some of the people there, but he had never stood before the congregation. He hadn’t spent time in their midst. He still had it as his aim to go there, but that hadn’t happened yet. But despite all that, he was “convinced.”

Sure.

Certain.

Confident.

Convinced that they were full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and were fully able and capable of instructing one another. And that’s the second remarkable thing – the “one another.” It seems, then, for Paul, at least when it came to the church in Rome, the answer to the question of who is responsible for discipleship is this:

They were.

Similarly, perhaps the answer to the same question for us today is not a singular person, but instead this:

We are.

Who is responsible for discipleship in this congregation? Who is in charge of making sure people are progressing in their faith? Who is shouldering the load of helping people draw closer to Jesus and follow Him in obedience?

We are. We all are. Indeed, that’s why we are in these relationships to begin with.

As you roll through the account of creation recorded in Genesis 1 and 2, you see that after everything God made, He reflected that it was good. Yet it’s not until He forms man, in His own image, out of the very dust of the earth, and breathed the life of the soul into him that the phrase shifts: “It was very good.” It was very good, for humanity alone possesses the unique characteristic that the Book of Genesis describes as being created in the image of God. Very good indeed.

Yet not finished.

]Scholars debate the meaning of the phrase, “image of God” used to uniquely describe the place of humanity in God’s creation. Some argue that this image of God is shown through our capacity to create, albeit not in the same fashion as God. Others say the image of God is manifested in the presence of the immortal soul. Still others regard it to mean the higher thinking and cognitive functions of humanity. All are probably true, for all stem from and provide a glimpse into the capacity of God Himself. But there’s another component woven into the very fabric of our being, too – something that also reflects a key attribute of God.

We are relational creatures.

And we are relational creatures because God is a relational God.

This is not to say that God was lonely or bored in heaven one day (or whatever you might call a “day” before there were days) and thought to Himself that He needed a companion. Not so. To think this way calls into question the perfection and self-sufficiency of God.

The Persons of the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – exists in perfect and unbroken relational fellowship with each other, within the trinity, from and for all eternity. God exists in relationship to Himself. To be made in God’s image, then, is to be made to relate.

That’s why it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Being made in the image of God means we were made to mirror the relational capacity of God. And so Adam was given Eve.

Echoes of our relational need are rooted deep inside of us, down past our selfishness and greed in relationships. Why do people congregate together? Why do we know that emotional health is seen not in isolation but in relationships with others? Why is isolation seen as a warning sign of someone on the edge? Because we know, down deep inside of us, that we were meant to be together. This current of togetherness runs throughout the pages of Scripture.

When God called Abram to leave his home and go to a land he had never seen, what was He doing? This was the launching point for the people of God, not the individuals of God. When we were called from darkness into light as Christians, God birthed us into the people of faith. Then there are all of the various commands of the New Testament in which we are called to love one another. Be kind to one another. Give to one another. Gather with one another. It sounds remedial to say, but these commands cannot be lived out in isolation. And when we get to the very end of the story, we don’t find humans in heaven worshiping alone but together, accompanied by those from every tribe, tongue, and nation. God wants us to be together.

God has always been building a people for Himself. Though we might have been individually saved, we weren’t the only individuals saved. We are part of that people, marked by the blood of Jesus Christ, that will live in fellowship with Him for all eternity. No, it is not good for man to be alone. We were meant for more. It is our eternal destiny to be united with others in the worship of Jesus.

The image should blow our individualistic minds. When we are with others, deeply loving and caring and walking alongside each other, we aren’t just hanging out. We are meant to proactively help each other pursue Jesus and walk with Him all the way to the end. Discipleship is what we do as we help each other on the journey.