Multiplying Disciples

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 20, number 21, May 27, 2021

“Brethren join in following my example” -Phil.3:17 “. . . Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” -1 Cor. 11:1

Perhaps you are a pastor or church officer in an existing church and you now realize you are not “getting it done.” You know there is very little actual discipleship going on in your church. What do I mean by discipleship? I mean doing what Jesus commands us to do—to confess Him before men, to love Him more than one’s family, to obey and follow Him, to deny one’s self (Mt.10:32-39). In other words, to get serious about being a Christian and seeing others become Christians and live out the same thing you are learning from the Scriptures. 

Or maybe you are a “regular” church member and have walked with the Lord for many years. Earlier in your Christian life you led small groups of believers and saw many of them really grow in their faith and reach out to others as well. Now, however, later in life, perhaps somewhat due to the fact that your church has more of an attraction model of ministry where the “experts and professionals” do all the heavy lifting of teaching, you have observed that you are more into a posture of sitting, soaking, and souring in the church pew. You have determined that you are going to get back at it.

Or perhaps you are a man who believes God is leading him to plant a new church in town. You don’t have an extra $300,000 or $400,000 laying around which you can use to get the church going, as is usually the pattern for many church plants in the 21st century. You have a regular job. You want to plant a church but your time obviously is limited by your work week, not to mention your wife and young children who need your fatherly care and instruction. So, what can you do to plant a Biblical church? 

Allow me to remind you that the Apostle Paul was a tentmaker most of the time. He had a clear mission from Jesus (Acts 9:15,16). He was compelled to fulfill it (Rom.1:14-16, 2 Cor.5:14,15) and within about ten years (48 to 58 A.D.) God enabled Paul to produce church planting movements in four Roman provinces (Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia Minor). And sometime after his first imprisonment (around 64 A.D.) he planted churches on the island of Crete as well as in Illyricum (modern day Croatia) and Nicopolis (Italy). He may have also planted churches in Spain. All of this happened within twenty years before his martyrdom at the hands of Nero in Rome around 68 A.D. How did he do it? Well, he told both the Philippians and Corinthians to follow his example, to imitate him as he imitated Jesus. 

Okay then, pastor or church officer, church member, or potential church planter, let’s do what Jesus and Paul did. Let’s imitate them. They began small so that they could eventually go big. They started slowly so that they could go quickly. They went deeply so that they could soar to great heights. Jesus began with twelve and He lost one of them. Even within the twelve he focused a great deal more of his attention on three of them—Peter, James, and John. And it appears that Jesus was really close to one of the three, John. Paul began with Barnabas but that kind of went south so he continued working with Silas. Luke saw a great deal of what was “going down” at the time and he reports it to us in his gospel and Acts. Paul also worked closely with Timothy, Titus, Mark, Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Ephahras, Onesiphorus, and many others. And while Jesus and Paul clearly gave out important information in the form of teaching what their disciples learned from their example was also vital. In fact Paul’s instruction to Timothy was more about Christian character than developing ministry skill such as teaching (see 2 Tim. 3:10-17 where the bulk of the exhortations deal with developing godly character). If you spend the majority of the ministry hours available to you each week in working with two or three or four people who are FATR (faithful, available, teachable, and reproducible), reminding them every time you are with them to be ready to multiply, then in due time you will see your work “go viral” which of course means it will multiply. 

So practically speaking, here’s what I am suggesting. Purpose in your mind and heart to get serious with making disciples. This means you may have to discard some  extraneous ministry responsibilities or other things which suck up your time. I am not referring to your family and work concerns. These are always there, of course. But all of us have extra time we fritter away in front of the television, reading blogs, watching podcasts which may be entertaining but they waste the valuable time we have left after all our other responsibilities.  

Then ask God to give you three or four people (men with men and women with women) who you think may be faithful (they do what they say they will do, they follow through), available (not argumentative, humble, willing to give the time), teachable (willing to learn, not prideful, willing to put into practice what they are learning, not doctrinaire), and reproducible (a burden for souls and a desire to see others grow in grace). Begin meeting with them weekly in a formal discipling type of class. I am happy to send you my Basic Discipleship Material as an example of what you can use. Just email me for it. Make sure you and your disciples have one very specific and practical thing you will do in light of each time you are together. And then ask them the next week how they did in following through with what they said they would do. You also need some time with them away from a formal class setting. Go to some of their children’s ball games and just hang out with them. Have them over to watch a sporting event or to eat dinner. They need to see how you live, how you get on with your spouse and children, how you handle adversity, etc. 

Within a couple of months you need to put into practice MAWL. 

M— you model for your disciples how to teach, how to live, how to pray. Live in such a way that they can join in following your example. Luke writes of all that Jesus began to do and teach (Acts 1:1). The order is significant. We teach what we know but we reproduce who we are.

A— you are to assist your disciples. Over a period of time, leaders will begin to “rise to the top.” A few, perhaps all of those whom you are discipling, will give evidence of being reproducible, having a burden for souls and a desire to help people grow in grace. Begin to spend more time with these people. Teach them how to teach, how to study the Bible, how to evangelize, how to answer hard questions, how to shepherd people going through difficult times. You assist them, not only by helping them gain ministry skills, but also by modeling godly behavior, integrity, love for your wife, etc. 

W— you watch them in ministry. Give them the opportunity of leading your Discipleship group and then get with them afterwards and give them feedback, what they did well, what they need to improve on. This make take a while. They need to gain confidence in their skill development. Take them out to share the gospel with you. Let them share part of the gospel presentation and then give them feedback. Get them to the place where they eventually are confident in being able to present the gospel fully. 

L— you launch them into their own group. Urge them to go to their friends, family members, neighbors, work associates for whom they have already been praying for many months. They can tell their “story” of how they came to faith and ask these people to share their own story. From there they can invite them to a small group they will be leading where they will read the Bible and learn what God says about life issues. I will have more to say about this in succeeding weeks. 

As people come to faith for the first time or are renewed in their faith they will have an excitement about following Jesus. They will then have a desire to make him known to others. From there groups can multiply. The existing church with its pastor and church officers will have more new ministry and new members than they can imagine. The church member who was languishing in lethargy will be renewed with a sense of mission and purpose. And the church planter will have a core group after a year or two of perhaps fifty or more fully committed disciples who are actually engaged in evangelizing daily, speaking the truth daily, and showing mercy daily. The church will have a solid foundation on which to build a powerful, Biblical ministry where people are discovering and using their spiritual gifts for the building up and expansion of Christ’s kingdom, the rule and reign of Christ in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.