This is an extended quote from Len Sweets book “Real Church In A Social Network World which I thought was worth reproducing

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“Jesus didn’t call the disciples to regular discipleship. Regular disciples would have stayed in Jerusalem, founded a school, studied the words and works of their master, carefully screened and admitted only the most promising students. But Jesus wasn’t regular. He commanded his disciples to scatter, to go to the ends of the earth, preaching and teaching the good news, healing the sick, casting out demons, witnessing about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’s command ensured that the disciples would go out to the people, not sit and wait for an interested few to come to them. Jesus’s command called his disciples to be witnesses, not students, not caretakers, not sages. The disciples saw with their own eyes the miracle of the Resurrection, the glory of the Ascension, and they knew the significance of those acts. Their witness was to nothing less than the salvation of the world. The calling that shaped the lives and work of the disciples reflects direct experience more than distanced intellect, action more than erudition, boldness and chutzpah more than careful planning and deliberation.”