The three stages of
discipleship are win, grow, and send.
As disciple makers there is no stage more important than winning the lost to Christ. Winning is such an appropriate word in
that it denotes there is a loser; there sure is – Satan. When as disciples we
operate in conjunction with Holy Spirit to win a soul to Christ through
evangelism (telling the good news), the devil loses another victim; one less
person to go under with him. So then, the first step in winning the lost is
prayer. Dave Earley writes, “Although it seems obvious, we must not overlook
the necessity of prayer in effective evangelism. Jesus was, and is, an evangelistic
intercessor (John 17:20; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25).”[1]
There is no greater show
of love than to lay down our lives for a friend (John 15:13 NIV). When we offer
ourselves up to prayer for the soul of a lost person, we are laying down our
lives. One way to reach the lost for Christ is to meet them where they shop,
and eat, or go to the dentist, etc. A simple plan of setting up a table on a busy
street corner and offering people prayer, a free Bible, a bottle of water on a
hot day, and an open ear is sometimes all it takes to share the love of God.
This is a really easy plan to implement within a church context. All it needs
is a few willing soul-winners. The nice thing is that it can be multiplied by
having teams of three or four go out on many street corners at once – I call it
- Corners4Christ (I have done this and it is amazingly effective).
Stage two is all
about growing (developing) a
potential disciple maker. Earley emphasizes very concentrated relationship building
leading to trust, a deep trust; a disciple maker would be hard pressed to send
just anyone out to start a small group with the goal of making more disciple
makers without trust. Relationship and trust is built by spending time with
people, especially the ones just won to Christ. Small groups is what Jesus
focused on and “when done well, the best tool for disciple making is the small
group,” states Earley[2] Clayton
Keenon writes, “The most powerful context for
growth is a group of followers of Christ committed to pursuing love for God and
one another together.”[3]
What better way to allow for growth than to let a potential disciple maker
begin taking on ministry tasks to give him on-the-job-training as Earley states
it; experience is a great teacher.[4]
The beauty of small groups is they can travel anywhere. Most restaurants and
cafes provide wifi so there is really no place a group cannot meet. I believe
starting out at a café or familiar restaurant to conduct initial feelers is a
great way to start a small group and get the ball rolling. Once there, the
outline Earley provides on p. 151 is a great template, and see what the Lord
will do.
The
third stage is the sending and multiplying stage. This is the main event. This
is when you find out if the hard work you put in as a disciple maker paid off? The
many nights of prayer and fasting; the times you were a shoulder to cry on; the
times of seeing your disciples through hardships, struggle, pain, and doubt.
Was it worth the effort, the time, the money, the lost sleep? If it was done
right then you should be able to grow disciple makers, church leaders, church
planters, evangelists, missionaries, you name it. The power that should come
through your small group should be limitless. I cannot wait to experience that.
I believe as Earley does, and I am sure so many others do, that prayer is the
key to becoming a disciple maker, and producing disciple makers. I confess that
I do not pray consistently here. My heart cries out for the poor, the widow,
and the orphan. My BHAG has a lot to do with them. And yet my heart cries out
for my brothers and sisters just sitting on the side lines wasting away because
no one has thought to disciple them. I did not know how to pray for them. Now I
do, let’s see what the Lord of all will do. I suggest we pray, we fast, we
trust, we obey, and we wait expectantly to see what the Lord will do.
God bless.
[1] Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is…: How to Live the Great
Commission with Passion and Confidence, (Nashville: B&H Publishing
Group, 2013), 136.
[2] Ibid., 150.
[3] Clayton Keenon, “Discipleship Small Groups: Helping
One Another Become Like Jesus.” WheatonCollege.edu,
http://www.wheaton.edu/Student-Life/Spiritual-Life/Discipleship-Small-Group,
accessed July 24, 2014.
[4] Earley, 151.
Bibliography
Earley, Dave, Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is…: How to Live the Great
Commission with
Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B&H Publishing
Group, 2013.
Keenon, Clayton. “Discipleship Small
Groups: Helping One Another Become Like Jesus.” WheatonCollege.edu. http://www.wheaton.edu/Student-Life/Spiritual-Life/Discipleship-Small-Group.
Accessed July 24, 2014.
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