Salvation

Coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ is perhaps the most significant single step in the life of any human being.  God gave each of us the gift of someone to stand-in for us and "take the bullet" that we deserve for our disobedience.  The only thing that keeps people from saving faith (and the only unforgivable sin) is disbelief; and disbelief is the result of an accumulation of unrepented disobedience to the Word of God (aka sin). 

Some believers take this step and never progress any further in their walk.  The difficulty for many believers is that almost as soon as they are saved and have a first-taste of fellowship with the LORD, they fall back into old patterns of sin; thus breaking fellowship with the LORD.  Indeed, this can be a stubborn cycle - sin, repent, sin, repent, etc. - that some believers never break free from.

Stewardship

When a believer yields the 3 T's - Time, Treasure and Talent - to the LORD, they enter into stewardship.  At this point we have some skin in the game, but we're not fully soldout.  In this phase of our walk we realize that we have nothing that was not given to us by the LORD; and, in-fact, we are merely stewards of the time, talent and treasure that have been given to us.  Furthermore, we understand that we will have to account for what we do with what we have been given (like the Parable of the Talents). 

This can be particularly difficult for people who seek "stuff", houses, cars, vacations, collectibles, do-dads, jewelry, 401Ks, etc.  The test of stewardship breaks many.  It has been said that 9 out of 10 pass the test of persecution, but 9 out of 10 fail the test of prosperity.  Often this can be a prolonged tug-of-war between me giving stuff to the LORD and then taking it back because I don't totally trust Him.

Discipleship

After we have experienced stewardship for a while, we realize that the LORD wants more from us than our time, talent and treasure (which He gave us anyways).  He wants ALL OF US, fully yielded to Him.  This is the test of free will.  Discipleship is particularly difficult for those of us who love ourselves - we're proud.  Youth, beauty, intelligence, and success are wonderful servants, but terrible masters - all gifts of God for a season.  Simply put: Jesus saves and disciples yield.

Followship

You may have noticed that each of these steps (as well as a significant number of Bible stories) involve God freely giving us/others things that we/they don't deserve and then seeing what we/they do with them.  But it's not a setup.  God gives us the answers to the test right up front and it's an open-book exam (life, that is).  Unfortunately, many are too cynical to believe that it's that simple.  It IS that simple, but it is NOT that easy.

At the 1died4all, we don't believe that there can be true fellowship without followship.  Indeed followship is why each of us has been given a few more breaths and a few more beats of our hearts.  We are currently working to provide more detailed and "followable" teaching materials about how to enter into followship of the King.