Who To Diaciple

 

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Who Should You Disciple? Getting Down to the Practice of Making Disciples

By Craig Etheredge | March 5, 2024 | No Comments | Blog

How do you make a disciple? Where do you begin? You may have never invested your life in another person. You may not really be sure how to get started. If that’s the case, don’t worry. God is preparing you right now to make a lasting investment in someone’s life that is going to result in his or her spiritual growth. You are about to have a front row seat to God working through you in a powerful way to build another person up! 

 

How do you choose a person to disciple? 

Selection is really important. You don’t want to choose a person to disciple who will not be committed to the process. So how do you choose the right person? First, let me encourage you not to just look for the most holy person you can find. Sometimes, the greatest disciples are pretty rough at the beginning. 

 

Think of how Jesus chose the twelve. They were not the brightest and best of their day, that’s for sure. Most likely, these men had been overlooked or discarded by the religious leaders of their day. They were common men. So don’t let the external deter you. Instead, I think we should look at Jesus’ example and do what He did. Here are some things we learn from Jesus:

 

First, pray. 

On the night before Jesus chose the twelve men He would invest His life into, He spent the night in prayer (Luke 6.12-13 ESV). I’m sure Jesus prayed for the Father to make it clear to Him who He should choose. So you should start with prayer. I can remember one man telling me, “Craig,just ask God to give you one man. Then when God gives you a man, pour your life into him.” That’s good advice. 

 

When I was a young pastor, I began to pray for God to give me a man to disciple. One Sunday afternoon, a young man I had never seen before walked into our church. His name was Gibson. He was young; just out of college. We met in the hallway, and I felt a strong urge to spend more time with him. Before long, I asked him if he would like to join a few other guys to read the Bible, pray and grow spiritually. He immediately said, “yes!” Over the next months, I met with these young men for Bible study and prayer. I invested my life into theirs and each one began to grow. 

 

Years later, Gibson joined our staff, helped launch a new campus and eventually planted a church in Philadelphia. One day, we were talking about that first meeting in the hallway, and I told him that I had been praying for a man to disciple. He said,“Well, I had been praying too. I was just driving by the church, and I felt the Spirit of God tell me to go inside. That’s when I met you.” We both sat there amazed. As I was praying for a man to disciple, God was bringing him to me. I’m convinced that if you will begin to pray for God to bring you a person to disciple, He will. 

 

Second, look for those who have a spiritual interest. 

As Jesus prayed about whom to select, He chose men who had already shown a high spiritual interest. Jesus didn’t have to twist their arms to be interested in spiritual things. After all, it was Andrew and John who pursued Him in the very beginning(John 1.39 ESV). He had been around these men now for almost two years. He had watched their behavior, He knew their hearts, and He chose men who were eager to grow. 

 

When the Apostle Paul chose Timothy, he noticed that Timothy had a good reputation and was eager to grow (Acts16.1-3 ESV). The best disciples are those in whom the Spirit of God is already at work, giving them a hunger for spiritual things. We call those people “poppers” at our church. just like popcorn, when the spiritual temperature turns up, they are the first to pop! Their spiritual light is on. They show up to church regularly. They ask great spiritual questions. They apply what they learn. They are honest in their struggles. They are joyful and thankful for all that Jesus has done for them. They seek more of God’s truth in their lives. They are responsive to spiritual instruction. Instead of making excuses for why they can’t grow spiritually, these people are eager, ready, hungry and quick to respond. Start looking around you. Ask God to show you the ones who are eager and ready to grow.

 

Third, look for F.A.T. people. 

That’s right, F.A.T. people: Faithful, Available and Teachable. Paul told Timothy to invest his time in “faithful men who will be able to teach others also,” (2Timothy 2.2 ESV). Choose people who are faithful to do what you are training them to do. You certainly don’t want to put time into others who will not be faithful to do what they have been called to do. That’s why Paul told Timothy to look for faithful men. Jesus chose faithful men. 

 

Also choose people who are available: who will create time in their busy schedule to meet with you for training. I have been discipling men for many years, and often, I will see a man who is eager and faithful, but he is not available. He has too many demands; too many distractions in his life to grow. Jesus said that these people are like a seed sown among the weeds. They hear the Word and begin to grow, but the“cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things” strangle out any growth that God is doing in their lives, (Mark 4.19 ESV). Therefore, they never bear any lasting fruit in their lives. 

 

Select people who are teachable. Don’t pick someone who will argue every point or loves to play the critic, but someone who is teachable and eager to listen. Over the years, I’ve found that people who fit this description are those who quickly take what I’m saying and put it to practice. 

 

Finally, don’t be afraid to disciple people who are older than you. 

I’ve noticed that many people are reluctant to disciple anyone older than themselves. They reason, “What do I have to offer a person who should be teaching me?” But remember, spiritual maturity and physical maturity are not the same thing. If God has brought people into your life to show you how to walk with God, then why would you keep that from others? Timothy was a young pastor, yet he was called to invest in faithful men. Don’t worry about the age of the person you are discipling. Look for the heart of the person! If they are eager and responsive, faithful and available, teachable and thankful, then pour your life into them. There is no telling what God will do with a person like that!

 

This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, Invest In A Few.

HEALTHY ABIDING

ByJason Hinton

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According to any personality test I have ever taken; I always scored in the 98th percentile of extroverts. Even before my relationship with Christ, being around others left me energized and felt life giving.

In my walk with Christ over the years I am learning the value of relationships; especially within the context of disciple making. Some of the most impactful and profound are those that proved to challenge and grow my ability to make disciples. Let me explain and start off with the obvious. My relationship with Christ is paramount. As I abide in Him, He abides in me. If I spend appropriate time in proximity to Christ through prayer (me talking to Him), quiet (me listening to Him), and studying the Word (me getting to know Him) Christ has been consistently faithful to develop in me the ability to be the disciple-maker He saved me to be (my redemptive purpose).

Early in my disciple-making journey, I would not have considered how directly other relationships in my life affected my ability to make disciples. My walk with Christ seemed the obvious to help me grow. However, I have come to discover that these other abiding relationships have a huge impact on my ability to be effective as a disciple who makes disciples.

Three truths I have discovered about abiding relationships that have helped me become a better disciple-maker.

Abiding relationships bring healing.

As earlier stated, most of the time people energize me and bring me life. So by nature of my calling as a shepherd and my wiring from God, I am always around a lot of people. Critically I have learned only a handful of intimate relationships with a certain number of those people lead to my own relational healing. Commonly as a pastor one can have so many ‘relationships’ that we sometimes forgo developing relationships that foster true authenticity, transparency and vulnerability. I am convinced this is one of the biggest disconnects in disciple-making today.

James 5:16 NLT says it this way…

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

While I believe the healing here can refer to physical healing I believe it also refers to spiritual healing. Light expels darkness, therefore when I expose the darkness in my life to God, He is faithful to forgive, but when I expose the darkness to another person I believe healing from that darkness can happen because it isn’t hidden any longer.

I would find myself struggling over and over with the same sins, I would ask God to forgive me, but until I exercised the courage to confess temptations, struggles, and sins with those close personal relationships helped me find victory Having relationships where I can be completely honest with my thoughts, sins, and struggles allows me to be healthy, spiritually and emotionally which in turn postures me in humility and helps me to be able to point others to Christ.

Abiding relationships encourage.

We all need encouragement from time to time. I am generally positive and see the glass half full most of the time. My wife refers to it as my toxic positivity. But I even find myself at places in life where I have a tough time having hope. Let’s face it when we make the decision to follow Christ it’s not instantly cupcakes and rainbows. It is a constant uphill journey for the remainder of our time here on earth.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 reminds us…

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”

Having abiding relationships in my life that continue to encourage and build me up in turn help me to be an encouragement and builder of others on their journey.

Abiding relationships set an example.

I am convinced a deep desire of everyone is to really “know” someone and to be really “known” by someone, whether they are aware of it or not. But we live in a world that screams the exact opposite.

As we read in the gospels, Jesus’ message was encapsulated in his method. He exemplified everything we need to know about disciple-making.

When I am intentional in my relationship with my wife, my children, and others, it always tends to produce good fruit. Good fruit tends to be attractive to the onlooker. So as I abide in relationships with others I am naturally exemplifying to others the value, necessity, and fruitfulness of biblical relationships.

John 13:34,35 Jesus gives this New Commandment…

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

As I grow in my understanding that relationships are the key to disciple-making, the more I value and invest in those relationships. First in my relationship with Christ as I am following Him, and second the relationships God entrusted me with in my life.

This post originally appeared at: Healthy Abiding – Relational Discipleship Network (rdn.org)

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Resources

You can listen to a new FREE audio resource and learn about what it means to be a disciple making church by clicking here: National Study: The State of Disciple Making Churches Free Audiobook

COME OUT OF THE TENT!

ByJames Warren

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“You!” The shift in tone cracked through the dusty lecture hall, abruptly interrupting the monotonous drone of the lesson. All eyes turned away from their studious notes or distracted doodles to focus on the weathered professor. “Hey, you!” the professor repeated, capturing the attention of every freshman in my Intro to Old Testament class. We all began scanning the room, trying to match Professor Harju’s gaze. And I thought he was looking at me. It made sense. I was the one lost in my doodles. “You, all the way back there in your little tent,” I looked at the girl sitting right next to me, her head down and face concealed by the hood of her jacket. No one else in the class had their head covered. He was talking to her! I glanced at her notes; they were meticulous. She seemed like a diligent student. What had she done wrong?

“You, young lady, are an isolationist!” Harju enunciated each syllable as if they were separate blades meant to pierce her spirit. “Why don’t you come out of that little tent and join the class?” The bewildered girl slowly pushed back her hoodie, and the lecture seamlessly resumed as if it had never been interrupted. As it turned out, the professor was right. She was an isolationist. She had come to Bible college with the intention of becoming a single missionary to Africa, independent and distanced from anyone she had ever known. She married me instead.

Jesus showed the value of periodic solitude during His time on earth. In Luke 5:16, we learn that He would purposefully withdraw to desolate places to engage in prayer. He intentionally stepped away from the bustling crowds after ministering to them (Matthew 14:23), took a boat out alone to mourn the loss of a dear friend (Matthew 14:13), and my favorite, withdrew from His friends to nap (Matthew 8:24). Like my wife, I am inclined towards isolation. The idea of withdrawing to a remote location, immersed in the study of God and His infinite mysteries, sounds like paradise! However, such a life is not God’s plan for me. Undoubtedly, spending time alone with God is invaluable, but our mission lies in spending time with others!

For years, I believed I was on the right path. I fully embraced vocational ministry, diligently teaching, preaching, praying, and studying, just as I witnessed the pastors around me doing. However, I distanced myself from people, particularly in forming meaningful relationships. People meant problems, and relationships meant responsibilities. I convinced myself that if God had called an introverted isolationist like me to full-time ministry, then He knew what came with that package. So, I continued my ministry journey, taking copious notes and striving to be a diligent student of Christ.

But one day, a sudden shift in the tone of my relationship with God halted my droning work: “You! You down there, in your safe little ministry tent! You are an isolationist!” God’s words struck me like a whip, exposing a profound truth. Yes, He had called me to ministry, but I had neglected the mission that Jesus had commanded me to fulfill: to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). Making disciples requires meaningful relationships, not isolated ministerial routines. Yes, Jesus exemplified moments of solitude, but He used them strategically for rejuvenation and connection with the Father, so that He could continue investing time in others, loving them in discipling relationships. Maybe I was a good student, but I was all rejuvenation and no relationships! In reality, I had been so focused on doing ministry, I had failed to join the mission.

“Why don’t you step out of that little tent and embrace the real work of the Kingdom?”

I made three simple shifts in answer to God’s revelation, and Jesus exemplified each of them: People over projects, ministry built on mission, and servanthood over solitude.

1. I must put people before my ministry goals. While I have responsibilities and a long list of tasks to complete each day, I must be interruptible. Those tasks will still be there tomorrow, but the chance to embody Christ’s mission by spending time with someone may pass me by. Call it an inconvenient compassion, but Jesus modeled this in Luke 9:10-17 when He prioritized those in need over secluding Himself with His disciples to debrief after a day of ministry.
2. My ministry must be founded on the mission of discipleship. This truth has been liberating for my daily work, leading me to abandon practices that do not contribute to making disciples. After all, why would I water the rose bushes while the crops are withering? Prior to His death and resurrection, Jesus declared to His Father that He had already accomplished the work, or mission, He was sent to do (John 17:4). That mission was spending time discipling others. His entire ministry revolved it.
3. I must prioritize servanthood over solitude. In the past, I used my personality as an excuse to isolate myself. “God made me this way!” I would tell myself. However, I now understand that Jesus can and has transformed me to reflect His character. I am not who I used to be. While I still cherish my alone time with God, I now utilize it to strengthen and enhance my interactions with others, just as Jesus modeled.

By making these intentional shifts, I have aligned my life and ministry more closely with the example Jesus set, and now experience greater fulfillment in carrying out His mission. So, I have a question for you: Are you ready to come out of your tent and join the mission of Christ? 

Go and make disciples!

This post originally appeared at: Come Out of The Tent! – Relational Discipleship Network (rdn.org)

Adrian - If you are listening to CNN or Fox and you are not discipling someone, what is wrong with you?  

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