Is there just one way to be a disciple? Are disciples like little toy Ninjas spit from an injection molding machine so that each is exactly like the one before and the one after?
The thing about becoming a disciple is that it is much harder than just saying you agree with some proposition. There are powerful and charismatic people who arise from time to time who have a vision of what a perfect person is like. He (almost always a “he” throughout history) then tries to develop a society of robots under his control.
Jesus was not like that. He had a core teaching. He expected his followers to abide in that core teaching. He also collected an amazingly diverse set of characters into his inner circle. Beyond the Twelve and into the next circle, there were religious leaders, wealthy people, recovered prostitutes.
I was thinking about this reflecting back on my life while I’m also reflecting forward into what I’m doing now. Have I always been a disciple? Have I always done what I should?
We can look to Paul for some advice. I, like many of my contemporaries, initially disliked Paul. In fact, I have a friend today who will tell people to get out the big, black magic marker when reading Paul’s letters to just blot out some of his words. People have been doing that for centuries.
That’s a mistake. It’s just that Paul tried so hard, sometimes he got a little confusing. And sometimes he was telling disciples in AD 60 how to organize without thinking about (it probably never occurred to him) organizing when Christ-followers (or Christians) became powerful and diverse.
But Paul addressed this discipleship thing a few times. What he said was that there exist a variety of people. These people in general possess a variety of talents. Each individual has at least one talent. These talents are what we devote to putting into practice Jesus’ commands–such as to go into the world and make disciples.
Early Christ-followers were remarkable in their service to fellow humans even from a political and social position of powerlessness.
I guess that in the end, am I using what talents I have to help people and further the Kingdom. Am I constantly developing those talents to help even more? That would be my task–and my test.
Faith Venture 
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