The Discipleship Issue

ISSUE 02 >>

2013

a newfrontiers usa publication

the discipleship issue Discipleship: The Missing Link >> Tom Shaw Impartation & Training >> Mike Lawson

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SOUNDBITE • QUICK LOOK

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AUSTIN, TX WITH GRAHAM ALLEN

JOHN LANFERMAN >> Team Leader >> Newfrontiers USA

DISCIPLES IN MISSION AND LIFE Jesus set the mandate for us to make disciples in Matthew 28:18-20. Several issues come into play in these verses. First, we are commanded to make learners of Jesus. He does the saving, but we’re commanded to make disciples. Also, making disciples occurs while on mission together as shown by the use of the words “go” and “going.” True discipleship takes place in the midst of mission. Jesus very powerfully demonstrated this in making disciples while on earth. The method Jesus gave us for discipleship is baptism and teaching obedience to His commands.

Jesus also gave breadth to making disciples, telling us to focus on all people groups. One key addition to Jesus’ mandate to make disciples was that He promised His presence and power would be with us and upon us throughout this process. Matthew 28 also provides the foundation and model for making disciples. We are to give ourselves to walking in mission together, in community, in order to make obedient learners of Jesus, and we are assisted by His power as we pursue His calling in our lives.

Matthew 28:18-20 not only gives us the clear calling to make disciples, but also the methods.

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Together Discipleship takes place in community, with purposefulness.

I will often ask people to travel along with me while I am engaged in ministry and apostolic activity. This affords opportunity for one-on-one interaction as mission takes place in the community. It is spending time together and this experience in real life situations that allows for things to evolve in mission. Following these times, opportunity is given to process, much like one sees in the gospels with Jesus’ disciples. Even failures become a training mechanism as learning happens while being on mission together.

It is during times of walking together in mission that doctrinal issues can be explored and applied. This involves applying Jesus’ teachings to the situations in which you’re engaged. Praying and sharing scripture together while on mission is vital to discipleship.

Training is not formal, but natural, relational, and intuitive.

As disciples grow in relationship together, they can be observed. Spending time together exposes character and life

Disciples Are Made, Not Born

by Walter A. Henrichsen and Howard G. Hendricks

SOUNDBITE

Discipleship is not so much taught as it is caught through doing mission and life together.

Read more from John and other writers in the Link at: www.confluenceblog.org

issues. Personal issues, like how money is handled and how time is spent, along with gifts and skills may more easily be addressed. This interaction happens naturally as we serve alongside each other on the mission.

When discipling, besides mission opportunities, have disciples spend time with you in more social and recreational settings, such as eating together, praying together and just doing normal life together where they can observe you in your daily routine. As these disciples are involved in your life, they observe how you apply Jesus’ teachings to your own life. This provides opportunity for questions, discussion, and feedback. Discipleship is not so much taught as it is caught through doing mission and life together.

Selection Who should one spend time with? The keys to answering this question are to observe faithfulness, availability and a teachable heart as evidenced by asking questions more than giving opinions. Be careful to invest in those that are most receptive, as Paul instructed Timothy: “…entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” I am looking for reproducing disciples.

Releasing The next steps have to do with giving responsibility to others in areas of ministry. We learn quickly by doing, and the feedback afterwards is of great value. Give ownership and empower others so as not to create dependency. Affirmation, as well as rebuke, takes place at this stage.

Finally, these disciples should be engaged in the early stages of reproducing more disciples.

Making disciples is a vital issue with which we should come to grips. It requires we give significant amounts of time to those learning to follow Jesus. To be a disciple is to endeavor to bring along all those associated with you; your family, friends, and all those you are leading. We must not succumb to the temptation to replace discipleship with our “ministry”, letting our ministry to the crowds remove us from our primary responsibility of making disciples. Jesus, our example, would leave the crowds and give himself to the twelve. The gospels demonstrate the vast amount of time he gave to just a select few. He served the twelve because the growing kingdom was dependent upon those few disciples who would, in turn, reproduce disciples. Giving ourselves to a few faithful people while at the same time ministering to the crowds is to do it the way Jesus modeled and commanded us: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all people groups…”

TOM SHAW >> The City Church >> Canterbury, UK

DISCIPLESHIP: THE MISSING LINK

When Jesus said some of his final words to his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” I think there was a clue in the word “make” that this required effort.

It’s perhaps more common today to see “seekers interested” and “converts occur” than to actually see “disciples made.” This is a different deal altogether.

Jesus utilized different sizes of gatherings to ensure this occurred. In the larger gathering he had his 72 whom he sent out on his behalf. This perhaps is discipleship akin to our Sunday gathering. Jesus also had his 12, which is similar to many small group discipleship sizes. But when I hear the word “discipleship”, I mostly think of Jesus and his 3:1— Peter, James, and John as those closest to Jesus, and one could argue John as the closest of all.

It is this smallest unit of 3:1 that often gets forgotten when considering discipleship. My own experience of being discipled by a single person who intentionally felt more responsible for my growth than anyone else led to me growing in character and in spiritual gifts more than anything else. Typically this happened in a weekly or biweekly coffee meeting.

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Issues of my thought life, my affections for Jesus, my heart for prayer (or “not” as the case often was), and my ability to feed myself with scripture were the focus of these times in my early years.

Seeing the effect it had on empowering me to walk away from sin and growing a passion for Jesus put faith in me that this basic model was massively important to see multiplied in our church today. We now commonly speak from the front about our passion to see everyone both being discipled and being open to discipling others as well. When talking about people as leaders, we will invariably find ourselves asking the question, “Who are they discipled by?” This is an automatic question and culture now in the church that means people are both safer and more accountable than if it were not the case. Being proactive creates a greater expectation of positive growth in individuals to become more like Jesus as they continue the journey of discipling and being discipled.

I have a few rules of thumb I find useful when I am about to disciple someone. First, I must have a heart of love for the person to some measure. Discipleship is about father-

The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ

by Bill Hull and Fran C. Sciacca

Being proactive creates a greater expectation of positive growth in individuals to become more like Jesus as they continue the journey of discipling and being discipled.

ing/mothering, or at least being an older brother/sister. In the context of love it means I can then be somewhat direct and challenging which, deep down, we all want. It gives the discipleship relationship permission to have a little teeth. For example, I expect them to contact me to arrange a time to meet, not the other way round. This tests the heart to see if they actually want to grow or if they want me to do everything for them. Secondly, I ask, “What is it in me that you like and want to grow in?” This is not a weird ego trip, but helps to give our times focus rather than just a nice general hangout time. Third, I give it a time limit; normally six months, and then all bets are off. They are free to walk away from me as well. This means there is a sense of urgency to the time we have, that it is precious and not endless. Of course I have some people whom I will disciple for many years because of a mutual love for one another, but the six-month review gives a sense of freedom for both parties. Sometimes our times together will involve setting goals, chatting about potential relationships if the person is single, discussing the particular focus they mentioned at the start of the discipleship relationship, etc. Other times may be far more relaxed and fun, just doing stuff together.

In my view there is no one right way of discipling someone: it must connect with how you are hard wired. The fruit is real, but sadly this area is often overlooked in church life.

It isn’t viewed as being important so long as Sundays and small groups are happening.

For many years I have raved about discipleship to my mom and dad who are now in their 60s. A few years ago they found themselves, for the first time, discipling men and women in their 30s. My parents have been successful Christian leaders for many years and my dad has been a brilliant preacher for over four decades, yet both have said that discipling a few individuals in recent years has been one of the most fruitful and rewarding things they have ever done. Are you ready?

My wife has discipled many women and her way is very similar to mine, but it also has some differences. As a mother of three young children, time expectations for her and the sheer craziness of life has meant that discipleship has changed its form and intensity throughout different life stages. Getting the expectations clear from the beginning of every discipleship relationship is massively important.

For more material or helpful resources, check out our discipleship page at: www.thecitychurch.org.uk/discipleship-resources.

MIKE LAWSON >> Jubilee Church >> St. Louis, MO

IMPARTATION & TRAINING

There is a percepti knowing a lot of fa wise person or an e to, but that is a

Training is a broad term, but there is one aspect on which I would like to focus: impartation. The kind of training I am interested in goes beyond the transfer of knowledge. If what we learn about God doesn’t ultimately affect the way we live our lives then we must question if it’s worth devoting our time and brain cells to retain it or to teach it.

Think back to the most influential teacher you had in high school or college. I bet you can’t remember a single fact they taught you, and yet you consider them influential. Why? They imparted something beyond just facts. (This is not to denigrate facts–they are necessary for wisdom.)

There is a perception in our culture that knowing a lot of facts is what marks a wise person or an expert worth listening to, but that is a false assumption. How many of us change the way we live because 4 out of 5 dentists, or a group of “scientists”, say we should? Unless facts find root in the fear of the Lord, they do not guarantee wisdom as a result. For example, knowing how to build a fighter jet is very different from actually flying one. It is a testament to the engineering “facts” when the jet flies without crashing. In other words, it is in the fruit of a person’s life that we recognize the validity of the “facts” that make up the foundation. Jesus

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The Great Omission

by Dallas Willard

said it this way: “the fruit validates the tree” (my paraphrase of Matthew 7:20).

Early on in my biblical studies I enrolled in a distancelearning program from Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. After the first two New Testament lectures from Rikk Watts I closed my eyes, bowed my head, and with tears welling up asked God to give me what Dr. Watts had. The material was outstanding, but that was not what I was asking for. Rather, it was his ability to impart a thirst for engaging God in Word and in Spirit in a way that addressed the way I live. I felt I literally “had to have” this. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was asking for the ability to impart to others.

It is this intangible (but perceivable) aspect to discipleship that I want to make sure we do not neglect. Relaying facts and principles is easy. Impartation through the overflow of what God has done and is doing in us is the real substance behind those things. It is deeper than principle – it is the deep-seated place of values and attitudes. This is why our Newfrontiers USA leadership training program, Trilogy, contains a significant local mentor component. It is not a classroom with four walls, but the classroom of life that produces disciples.

I came across an interesting blog post from Mike Breen entitled Why The Missional Movement Will Fail. He used the analogy of mission being like a car and discipleship the engine. His conclusion was that the missional movement would fail because those involved are making converts and not disciples. I think Breen is onto something. I think an improvement on the analogy would be associating the baptism in the Holy Spirit with fuel for the engine (see Acts 1:8).

QUICK LOOK

ion in our culture that acts is what marks a expert worth listening false assumption.

I share these things to bring us to two questions to ponder in regards to training. First, who are we spending time with in such a way that we are imparting attitudes and values and not just knowledge? Secondly, are we drawing from the well of God so that we have something of the kingdom to impart? How we answer these questions will also be the answer to our present and our longterm effectiveness as a family of churches.

For more information on our training initiatives, visit newfrontiersusa.org >> training:

Trilogy: A church leadership training program

FYT (Frontier Year Team): Training that develops learning, serving and growing in Christian discipleship and leadership.

CPT (Church Planting Training): A training initiative to rapidly equip churchplanting leaders.

Austin Facts Population: 850,000 (2 million in metro area) Annual job growth rate of 3% in 2012 #1 on Forbes’ list of America’s Fastest Growing Cities Texas state capital Home of the University of Texas Wide cultural diversity

AUSTIN, TEXAS with Graham Allen Share a little about yourself. I am from Woking, UK, and married to Kimberley, a Texan. I serve as Evangelist and an Elder at The Coign Church, the Newfrontiers church in Woking. Before being saved in 2000, I worked in the touring-sound equipment industry working with bands, artists, and manufacturers around the world.

Why do you want to plant a church in the USA? God has gripped me with a love and passion for the United States. I sense a compelling call to share the Gospel, serve people, build the local church, and see lives transformed.

Why Austin, Texas? Austin is reportedly the fastest growing city in the USA, averaging about 150 new people a day! It’s a vibrant city, full of diversity and growing liberal views. During the past few years God has directed our hearts to this great city. We have an urgency to see Christ’s grace, word, and Spirit bring radical change to Austin and the surrounding area by establishing a local church with Newfrontiers vision & values.

What do you feel most passionate about?

I feel most passionate about seeing people transformed by the gospel, saved, and added to the local church, who then play their part in changing cities and nations for Christ. I also feel passionate about my wife, Kimberley!

How can we pray for the Austin church plant?

We plan to be in Austin in the fall of 2013. Please pray for people to gather with us who are full of God’s radical call on their lives to reach this city and to build a reproducing local church. Please pray that we can quickly integrate into the community, building solid relationships and establishing foundational gospel truths from the start! Please pray for the people of Austin to be gripped by the grace, power, and purpose of God in their lives, that they would be drawn to us, and to play their part, too.

Prayer Points Launch team: pray that God would draw many quality people to the launch team who are radically committed to building local church and playing their part.

USA Connections: pray that relationships with the apostolic team and our USA church family would continue to grow; that there would be a sense of serving one another, faith, vision, and being on mission together.

Personally (for the Allens): pray for travel visas, finding a home, and finances; for this transition to go smoothly.

Find out more about Celebration events in your area at www.newfrontiersusa.org >> events.

er t es th m e y8 S l er Ju m ns i m Su beg

www.trilogyproject.org Training present and emerging leaders to work within the church community to reveal the Kingdom of God

2013 314.832.9042 thelink@newfrontiersusa.org www.newfrontiersusa.org @thelink_nf newfrontiersUSA

SPEAKERS

D AV E F E R G U S O N , T E R RY V I R G O , JOHN LANFERMAN

S H E R AT O N W E S T P O R T C H A L E T H O T E L SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI

OCT. 17–19

www.newfrontiersusa.org/thelink Copyright Newfrontiers USA | May, 2013