OPEN BIBLE BULLETIN
VOL. 56 NO. 3 MARCH 2015
New Brunswick
Bible institute GOD’S PURPOSE
OUR PASSION
FOCUS
BY JOHN BOYD
Discipleship There was a time when the church influenced the culture. Now the culture influences the church! Why? It is my conviction that the church has neglected the one mandate, the one method, that Christ committed to our trust! Research in recent years shows that 85 to 95% of churches are not making disciples! This is the one command in the Great Commission! The Lord Jesus mandated His followers to go and make disciples. I believe this is the method Christ modeled and gave to us for the building of the church. “We’ve been using the wrong metric,” said Brandon Ware, senior pastor at Green Street Baptist Church in High Point. “Traditionally we have defined success as bigger buildings, bigger budgets and more bodies. That’s been our primary focus, and we circumvent the whole discipleship process.” “...the term ‘disciple’ appears 269 times in the New Testament, with 238 of those occurring in the four Gospels (the root word is used 281 times in the New Testament and 250 times in the Gospels alone). Why is this so important? The answer is because Christ did not come to make Christians; He came to make disciples!” - Growing Up: How To Be
A Disciple Who Makes Disciples by Robby Gallaty, Crossbooks Publishing. What do I mean by the term “making disciples”? This is the process I believe Scripture teaches us: “Discipling others is the process by which a Christian with a life worth emulating commits himself for an extended period of time to a few individuals who have been won to Christ, the purpose being to aid and guide their growth to maturity and equip them to reproduce themselves in a third spiritual generation.” - Allen Hadidian This was the model that was used in the church at Thessalonica. When you read through those five chapters you see the imprint of discipleship all over it. They took the gospel to them; they received it and were changed. They continued to invest in their lives to show them how to walk pleasing to the Lord. 1Thessalonians 2:10-13. Here are three questions that every believer needs to ask themselves: Am I growing? Am I investing in others? Do I need someone to invest in me? Let me challenge you to read through 1 Thessalonians and keep in mind the mandate that Christ gave to us, “Go and make disciples.”
8
Interested in a Solid Biblical Education? Just a mouse click away
nbbi.ca
ROUND 2 COLLEGE FOR A DAY
For more details see inside Register at nbbi.ca/cfad March 26 - 28
CHAPEL SPEAKER MARCH 2015
March 19-20.........................John McKim Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry 1