SEPTEMBER 2017
ISSUE 24
K I NGFI S H E R FAMILY Disciples make disciples The major theme of this year throughout the International Kingfisher Family is that of becoming Great Commission Disciples followers of Jesus Christ that conform to the Great Commission as outlined in Matthew 28. I have been travelling around the world with the message that the ‘Pillar of cloud by day and fire by night’ (Exodus 13:21-22) is on the move and we are being challenged to get up and get moving in order to follow the pillar move in the direction that the Holy Spirit is calling us. Where is that? To become Great Commission disciples. And what is the fundamental challenge of the Great Commission? “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18 - 20, NIV) Go and make disciples. In the light of the authority that Jesus Christ has, he issued this command to those who were his disciples - Go and make disciples. Right from the beginning it was understood that disciples were expected to make disciples. And these four words had spectacular results. They sent eleven people out on a mission which resulted, within five centuries, in Christianity becoming the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, with over 7 million followers.
is evangelism. Evangelism is the announcement of the gospel, the Good News of and about Jesus Christ.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19 True evangelism is not just about getting as many people as possible to ‘make a commitment to Christ’. True evangelism is the journey of making disciples - lifelong, God-honouring followers of Jesus Christ. We don’t make disciples from a distance - the accurate translation of ‘Go and make disciples of all the nations’ is ‘disciple all the nations’, which implies a hands-on, walking-together, relationship-driven process. This, of course, is just how Jewish rabbis (Jesus included) discipled their followers, which led to the blessing: ‘May you be covered by the dust of your Rabbi’. Disciples followed their rabbi as he wandered around and were to sit so close to him that the dust that his feet stirred up would fall on those eager disciples. Discipling is a journey, a process, developed in the course of a growing relationship.
The purpose of the call to become Great Commission disciples is that those four words become embedded at the very heart of our lives too. Go How does all that translate into the and make disciples. In other real world for us? At its most basic, it words, at the heart of being a Great translates into a shift in focus - a Commission disciple of Jesus Christ
focus away from me and towards those four words, Go and make disciples. 2018 will be a year of relaunching those four words as our major focus, both here in the UK and around the world. The International Day of Prayer recently saw over 100 people commit their lives to the Lord and this is just a ‘puff of cloud’ - a small indicator of the blessing that is to come. We are moving into a season of restoring evangelism to its proper place in the life of the International Family, and just one aspect this - an aspect that will become a lot more prominent throughout 2018 - is the PLUS ONE CHALLENGE. A ‘Plus One’ is the person who is invited along to an event by someone who is already on the guest list. If you are on the guest list of Jesus Christ, then don’t just focus on that - ask yourself who your ‘Plus One’ is going to be. “Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One whom the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see” said Philip.” “(John 1:45-46) Three simple words - come and see and Nathanael had become Philip’s ‘Plus One’. In 2018 there are going to be plenty of opportunities to invite a ‘Plus One’ along, and plenty of prayer opportunities to back it all up. Nathanael went from being a sceptic to being a disciple to witnessing the resurrected Jesus Christ (Acts 21:2) to himself spreading the Gospel far and wide. Who knows the adventure awaiting your ‘Plus One’.