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I just finished reading a doctoral dissertation on T4T written by Steve Smith, who was the co-author of the T4T book with Ying Kai. Smith has been involved with T4T since the early days of CPM research, and has implemented T4T successfully with a rural tribal group in Asia and has taught T4T to missionaries and consulted on various CPM initiatives for many years. He is probably one of the 10 most knowledgeable people on the subject of Church Planting Movements / Disciple Making Movements. This dissertation is book length and includes far more in-depth information about T4T than the book mentioned above. You can download a copy here for free.

However, I am also aware that most won’t take the time to read through a 350+ page doctoral dissertation, so I’m going to just highlight here in the blog some things that caught my attention as I read it.

In the last post I surveyed the 3/3rds process that is the genius of Ying Kai. I mentioned the 4 essential elements that are necessary for multiplication. I want to just quote a few comments from Steve Smith on this subject.

“It has been observed in T4T training around the world that a general lack of awareness prevails about the three-thirds process in general and the four essential reproduction components in particular. In the International Mission Board where T4T was developed, a general lack of awareness prevails in many contexts despite (and sometimes because of) the T4T training received.

I personally find in my T4T training of missionaries, church planters and pastors globally, that these four components are the greatest surprise of the discipling process of T4T. In general, it seems that would-be T4T implementers typically drop many or all of these four components from their training time for two main reasons: lack of awareness of them (i.e. they do not realize they are essential elements of the T4T process) or the pressure of time. In regards to the latter, when trainers are pressed for time, (e.g. the meeting starts late, so they have less time for their T4T meeting), the elements of the seven most commonly dropped to save time are these reproduction essentials. The typical order of what is left out is:
• Practice (most common; the meeting is out of time)
• Accountability (second most common; the trainer is uncomfortable with this)
• Vision casting (third most common; the trainer forgets its importance)
• Setting Goals with Prayer (fourth most common; the meeting runs out of time)”

As one would expect in a doctoral dissertation, Smith did research via surveys of CPM practitioners and drew conclusions from the statistical analysis of the responses and the relative success of those practitioners. Without boring you with the details, I’ll just quote his summary of those results:

“The top performers emphasize all the components except new lesson more than the bottom performers. This indicates an attempt to create a well-rounded meeting, even sacrificing / shortening a new Bible Study at times in order to help the trainers [disciples] work through problems or get to reproduction. In contrast, bottom performers emphasize the Bible study (new lesson) element much more than the top performers… It is important to note, that while the top performers struck a healthy balance of all seven components, the four reproduction components were among the most frequently practiced. This regimen appears to indicate purposefulness by these practitioners to get to reproduction – to implement a new way of discipling that enables their members to become disciple makers.”

In the next post I will describe some things I learned and that surprised me about Vision Casting.

Some of us have been asking this question. Clearly the scripture teaches that there is a spiritual gift of teaching and preaching. Clearly Paul commanded Timothy to “preach the word“. However, the T4T and DMM methodology emphasizes the discovery process or Discovery Bible Study, whether that takes an oral format (Bible Storying) or a written format (3 Column discover Bible Study taught by CityTeam). Most of us see the immense value of the discovery process, having sat under the teaching of some of the best preachers in world and watched great preaching roll like water off a duck’s back (for both ourselves and others).  That experience has encouraged us to move toward the discovery process. And yet we feel a tension knowing that there is a gift of teaching / preaching, and there is a place for it Biblically. But where does it fit in to T4T/DMM?  This video is 24 minutes long, but if you don’t want to watch the whole thing you can fast forward to minute 21 where the last 3 minutes discuss this issue in a way that made sense to me.  Check it out.

Here are two good videos that will consume only 4 minutes of your time.

I love this insight Frances Chan shares about Obedience Based Discipleship from the Transfiguration.

Jeff Vanderstelt seems to have discovered Obedience Based Discipleship.  He says,

“That’s one of the things I’ve been starting to do, is to say, ‘No more Bible Studies that we don’t obey. And we don’t do it alone. We’re going to learn to do this together. And we’re going to do this on mission…‘”

For more specifics of the “how” of this topic see the three part series Discipleship in 3 simple steps.

Chuck Wood has an excellent little video on Oikos Mapping. It is 4 minutes long and well worth your time. Check it out.

Oikos Mapping from Chuck Wood on Vimeo.

This sounds like a good idea.  I haven’t adopted it yet.  I travel constantly, so carrying around a file box of cards doesn’t work for me, but I would work for lots of people.  I kind of wish my favorite bible memory app (fighterverses) would incorporate this system into its design.

I previously did a review of 8 to 15, The World is Smaller Than You Think by Tom Mercer.  The catchy title is really about the concept of Oikos, and how each person has 8 to 15 people they can influence.  Somewhere on the web I came across this transcript of a sermon by Tom on the Subject.  I hope you’ll enjoy it as I did.

Five Myths About Oikos by Pastor Tom Mercer

My task today is to redefine why HDC has become such a powerful lighthouse for so many people both here in the Victor Valley and around the world.  At the end of the service, I will close with a proposition, a proposition that we will process for the next three weekends- give us five hours a week and together we’ll change your world!

It’s been said that 80% of what you do could be done by someone else with no training.  That eighty percent contains all the things that all of us do every day.  By saying that, I don’t mean to in any way trivialize those things- many of which are not only important, but essential to our survival.

15% of what you do could be done by someone else with some training.  That fifteen percent contains things like an occupation, things that we and a smaller group of others are all probably pretty good at.  But, the truth is, if we ever quit our jobs, management could probably find other people who, when trained, could do what we did and, in many cases, the new guys might even do it better!  It’s not that the fifteen percent are unimportant, but the things in this category are just not unique to us.

The remaining 5% of what you do can only be done by you.  That’s the area of focus for which God gives us the greatest passion.

You’ll notice that we, here at HDC, help you focus primarily on that 5% because, within that 5% you will discover your unique purpose in the world.  The short of it is this- God has given you a spiritual stewardship of a group of people and you are to expected to manage your life in the light of their proximity.  Notice the number of times that “you” and “your” shows up in the following passage (I counted nine).

Colossians 1:21-25, Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation–if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.  This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.  Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.   I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.

Paul says that we became part of God’s Kingdom when we heard the Gospel and embraced it.  But if want to be great in the Kingdom of God, then we must be servants.  Life change happens when we become part of the Kingdom.  Worldchange happens when we aspire to accept our assignment as a servant within it.  Are you just in the Kingdom of God, or are you a servant of the Kingdom.

That’s your mission- actually your “commission.”  In Colossians 1:25, the word, “commission,” is the Greek, oikonomia, a compound term combining oikos, “house,” with nomos, “law.”   So God has been given you official (even legal) influence within a specific and relatively small circle of people. The English word accurately frames the intent of the statement- God’s mission becomes our mission.  We partner with Him to “co” that mission together!

Being an efficient servant requires focus, managing life in the persisting shadows of the people who frame that commission.

My belligerence has frustrated some, but I continue to insist that, if the Kingdom is to function on all cylinders, there must be synergy between Christ, the Church and the Christian.

• Christ died to reconcile people.
• Christians are given a “co”mission, a certain number of those people to point to Christ.  In fact, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:19 that Jesus actually “committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
• Local churches exist to facilitate strategic partnerships with local Christians, to enhance their success in that venture.

In my opinion, where most churches miss the boat is in understanding that role.  Most tell their people to do the work of an evangelist but don’t partner with them in that task.  When I was growing up, my church leaders challenged me to share Christ, but acted as if everyone in our youth group had the spiritual gift of evangelism.  The problem with that assumption is that, in reality, it’s estimated that only 10% of the body of Christ actually have that gift.  For those who don’t, churches have been strategically positioned between the Great Commission and a number of local world changers to form partnerships that better prepare the rest of us for our role.  This church has one purpose- to prepare you to fulfill you!  You’re not here to help this church succeed.  You are the church!  We meet together to help you succeed.

An oikocentric church is a local church that has a ministry strategically centered around the primary relationships of those who attend.  It’s as simple as it sounds and, therefore, greatly misunderstood.  Here are some misunderstandings about oikos:

Myth #1: Oikos is the best evangelism program out there!

That is false.  Oikos is not a program, it’s not an evangelism emphasis- it’s a paradigm, a set of lenses through which we view life.  Some push back, “Oikos is a cop-out- it’s too easy.  Instead, we need to go to all kinds of classes, memorize all kinds of stuff and then go out there on the street and call people to repent, argue with them, if necessary, until they cry “uncle,” give up and surrender themselves to Christ.”  That’s fine, if that’s what you think God’s called you to do, but as strange as it may sound, oikos is not easier, but a more difficult worldchange model that that.  Cold evangelism is complicated, but it’s actually not that difficult.  Find someone to give the bullet points to the plan of salvation, have as meaningful a conversation as is possible and then walk away, probably feeling pretty satisfied about the fact that you had just “witnessed.”

Witnessing goes beyond what we say to people.  Jesus said that we wouldn’t go witnessing, but that we would be witnesses!  Because of your oikos, Christ-like behavior suddenly matters.  The success of your marriage suddenly matters.  Being a good parent suddenly matters.  Learning the Bible suddenly matters.  Intercessory prayer suddenly matters.   And all those things matter all-day, every day, because there is a specific group of people who are not just watching you, they are already being influenced by you.

Having said that, it’s important to understand that oikos isn’t just about being an example to people and keeping your mouth shut.  Oikos means that people who are watching you will, at some point, also want to talk to you- so you better prepare to have something worthwhile to say.  It’s not just about inviting people to church.  If you invite them, we’ll be here with you to encourage them.  But what if they don’t come to church?  What if they just want to meet you at Starbuck’s and talk about faith?  You better prepare to have something to say!

Myth #2: Oikos discourages you from witnessing to someone you don’t know.

That is false.  Sharing Christ with anyone, anytime is all of our responsibility, regardless of whether or not they are in our eight to fifteen.  But the fact is, without someone’s permission, you can’t have a meaningful conversation (if you’re married, you already know this).

Cold evangelism experiences can be very exciting, but successful ones are rare because people seldom grant that kind of permission on the spot.  That’s not my opinion, that’s what the research reveals.  For example, in the New Testament:

After healing the demon-possessed man, Jesus told him to specifically, “Go home to your family (oikos) and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19)

Immediately following Zacchaeus’ conversion, Jesus reflected on what had just happened by saying, “Today salvation has come to this house (oikos)” (Luke 19:9)

When Jesus healed the politician’s son, John said that “…he and all his household (oikos) believed” (John 4:53)

When Jesus called Levi (Matthew) to be His disciple, Mark recalled that, “while Jesus was having dinner [with] Levi’s house (oikos), many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.”(Mark 2:15)

In Acts 10, we see the first example of a Gentile oikos coming to Christ. Cornelius responded to the Gospel presentation that Peter made and he and his household became believers.  In reporting to the church leaders in Jerusalem, Peter reflected on what the angel had told Cornelius about Peter.  “He will bring you a message through which you and all your household (oikos) will be saved.” (Acts11:14)

The story continued in Philippi with Lydia and the city jailor, both of whom responded to the Apostle Paul’s challenge to place their faith in Christ.  Acts 16 describes how, in both cases, an oikos believed and were baptized.

That’s the data.  Because Jesus designed the relational Universe, Jesus knows where permission is most likely to exist.  What you don’t find in the New Testament is Jesus saying, “Now that you’re saved, go out on the street corner and argue people into My Kingdom.”

As a matter of fact, raise your hand tell me if you received Christ at the result of a cold-turkey encounter…Praise God for the stories those hands represent, but they are few.

Years ago, I heard an incredible story about a guy who was walking through an intersection in a large city and he noticed a police officer directing traffic in the middle of the street.  As he walked by, the man sensed the Holy Spirit telling him to go up to the officer and say that God loved him.  The man dismissed the impulse and kept walking.  Haunted by the continued sense that he had been disobedient to the Spirit, he finally walked back to that intersection, up to the cop and said, “Excuse me officer, but God just told me to tell you that He loves you.”  Tears started to trickle down from under the cop’s mirrored sunglasses.  Traffic stopped.  With a broken voice, the officer said, “I prayed to God for the first time in a long time last night and told Him that, if He was real, the least He could do was to send someone to tell me that He was there.”  Within a matter of minutes, the officer called for backup and then prayed to receive Christ right there on that street corner.  Now, I was mesmerized by that story- it was one of the most amazing and powerful conversion stories I had ever heard.  After the speaker told our group the story, he said, “Now go out and witness to people,” so the whole church was looking for cops all week!  Now some of you have had so many traffic tickets that certain Highway Patrol Officers probably are in your oikos!

There’s nothing wrong with those events.  In fact, they really can be compelling stories.  But they’re rare.  The problem is, when they happen, we put those testimonies on Christian television, write books or use them as the centerpiece of some sermon on evangelism and everybody thinks that’s the way people normally come to Christ.  They don’t, at least not 90% of us didn’t come to Christ that way.

2 Timothy 1:5, I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

That was not only Timothy’s conversion story, it may be the most boring personal testimony ever written.  The interesting thing is that it sounds just like mine and probably much like yours.  Some may have to exchange the grandmother and mother for a father or a friend or a coworker or a neighbor.  But most testimonies are eerily similar to 2 Timothy 1:5!  No drama.  Just worldchange.

Now raise your hand if you received Christ (primarily) because of the input of someone in your oikos…That’s virtually everyone in the room-  that’s what I’m talking about!

Myth #3a: Everyone in your oikos is a non-believer.

That is false.

• Some are non-believers.  Since they need Christ, the focus for you is to evangelize.
• Some are distracted believers who have allowed other important challenges of life to crowd out the most important- their walk with Christ.  They are already in the Kingdom.  They just need to be re-energized for their purpose-driven mission.  Our focus is to pray that they will find their spiritual groove again.
• Some are believers already focused on becoming better prepared to reach out to their own oikos for Christ.  They will need you to continually pray for them and encourage them to stay the course.

Two points here- (1) know who is in your world and (2) everyone in it will always need your input and support (or they wouldn’t be there).

Myth #3b: Everyone in your oikos is a believer.

That is false.  That may be what many of you who have been a Christian for many years actually think sometimes, but that’s because no one has ever trained you to think oikocentrically.  We are all more connected to non-believers than we realize, but a lack of intentionality has kept our focus inward, seeking to surround ourselves by other Christians who can minister to us, rather than focusing outward, to the relationships that need our encouragement.

Myth #4: You get to decide who’s in your oikos.

That is false.  That is false.  Every member of your oikos has been supernaturally and strategically placed in your relational world.  You may not even like some of those people, but that’s irrelevant- just because you wouldn’t have selected them doesn’t mean they’re going anywhere! You can ask God for an inter-oikos trade, but probably won’t get it.  People will consistently wander in and out of your oikos and those migratory patterns will probably not be as much the result of your personal magnetism as they will be the result of divinely orchestrated circumstances.

Myth #5: Oikos is all about growing a church.

That is false.  Actually, oikos won’t grow a church nearly as fast as flashy programs will.  But programs tend to impress people who go to church more than people who don’t.  That’s why there is an alarming number of Christians in our culture who simply move across town to the church that has better programs, better bands, better preachers.  The math doesn’t lie- if one church grows at the same time another church shrinks, then there is no net benefit to the Kingdom.

We are not about simply adding bodies to our services.  If you’re visiting with us today, please don’t think that we consider you another notch on our gun belts.  You’ve been invited here today because Jesus really loves you.  Someone in your oikos is a Jesus-follower, so he or she really loves you too.  But the real reason any of us are here is because we have always been on Jesus’ radar screen.

We’re not after you.  Jesus is after all of us.  We were all at the heart of Christ’s mission to the world.  He came to accomplish a very specific job- to seek and to save people like us, those who were lost.  Jesus didn’t come to feed people or heal people.  He did both because He cared about them, but when He took off (and I mean literally) there were a lot of hungry and sick people still here.  Jesus came with a specific focus and He accomplished a specific purpose.  He left the Father, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, rose from the grave to conquer death and then ascended back to the Father.  He finished the job He came to accomplish and then He left.  That’s why we call Easter Weekend the Passion of Christ!  That was His passion.  That was His focus.  That was in His five percent!  That was something that He and He alone could accomplish.  Nobody could save the human race but Jesus.  If He hadn’t bothered to passionately engage His unique mission, then something really really important would have never been accomplished and we would all be left to wallow in our sin.

Jesus was all about focus.  So it should not surprise us to discover that focus is the primary building block of His church’s mission, the strategy that Jesus brought to the formation of the church.  God calls us all to be involved in very specific tasks (we call them spiritual gifts), to get together with other like-minded believers at a very specific place (we call it a local church), to prepare to do life with a very specific group of people (we call them our oikos).  That’s our 5%; that’s our world; that’s the world God wants to change through us.  So, together, let’s get focused.

What exactly is the mission of this church?  To help you become great in the Kingdom by focusing on the most important arena of your life.  When people decide to do that amazing things happen.  You’re not going to want to miss what’s next.  This weekend 46 people are being be baptized on our two campuses at HDC.  Please do not leave until I come back in a few minutes and close the service.

–Baptisms—

That can happen to you and for the people God has brought around you.  Your world can be transformed.  If you believe that, then I want to pray for you.  Some of you have already made that commitment- to bring that kind of focus to your lives, to ask God to generate that level of passion in your heart- so that you’re not just watching this kind of transformation in other people’s lives and relationships month after month, but you’re experiencing it in yours.  If you’d like to ask God to use you to change the world, then I want you to stand up today.  By doing so, you’re making a commitment to say no to those things in your life that distract you from the main thing.  You’re saying that you will make that list, if you haven’t already, and will pray every day that God would change you and use you to somehow reach them.  Your five hours start right now.

This video speaks to me. I have watched this video over and over again.

Bill & Vonette Bright – Surrendering Everything from Generous Giving on Vimeo.

Helen Roseveare is a physician from Northern Ireland who has served as a medical missionary in Zaire, Africa, and the surrounding region for some time. Here, in her own words, is an eyewitness account about a hot water bottle.

One night, in Central Africa, I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all that we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying, two-year-old daughter.

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

A student-midwife went for the box we had for such babies and for the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly, in distress, to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. “… and it is our last hot water bottle!” she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk; so, in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over a burst water bottle. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. “All right,” I said, “Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.”

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with many of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chilled. I also told them about the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt consciousness of our African children. “Please, God,” she prayed, “send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, the baby’ll be dead; so, please send it this afternoon.” While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, “and while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?”

As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, “Amen”? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything: The Bible says so, but there are limits, aren’t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time that I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel! I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone; so, I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then, there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children began to look a little bored. Next came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas — that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. As I put my hand in again, I felt the … could it really be? I grasped it, and pulled it out. Yes, “A brand-new rubber, hot water bottle!” I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, “If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!” Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone: She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked, “Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?”

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday School class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. One of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child — five months earlier in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it “That afternoon!” “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24

 

Books, discussions and conferences on the subject of Discipleship and Making Disciples are trending upward. That is not just my observation, but the observation of many authors I’ve read recently. This is a good thing, something that is Biblical and overdue. But in all these discussions, it seems there is a gaping hole. An important piece is missing.

In order to understand any passage of scripture, you need to look at what it meant to the original audience. And when you apply that to Matthew 28:19, you realize that when Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples, he wasn’t suggesting to them that they should start a once-a-week discipleship small group. Jesus’ disciples would have understood him to be telling them to go and do for others what he did for them. He didn’t give them a class or a once a week small group meeting. He did life with them full time for 3 years. Now I know that a lot of readers are pushing back right now, thinking that such a thing is impossible in 21st century America. Hang with me for a minute and let’s explore this together.

Western, non-participatory discipleship, in other words, is satisfied when a person knows concepts about God, but apprenticeship isn’t satisfied until the person has learned to live the life of God. This is a simple but profound switch in thinking for several reasons.  

                                                              — Hugh Halter

As you read books about discipleship, you will read over and over the Greek word used and it’s definition…. A disciple is a learner. Hmmmm…. Maybe, depending on what kind of learner you are talking about. A seminary student sits in class and learns many things, but that doesn’t make him a disciple. The Hugh Halter says you need to equate disciple with apprentice. I think he has nailed it. An apprentice is a learner, but he learns by doing. I worked my way through College as an EMT in the Emergency Room of a major teaching hospital. There was a saying among the interns and residents that went like this: “Watch One, Do One, Teach One.” They were describing the steep learning curve used in that apprenticeship system of learning medicine. They had learned the fundamentals in the classroom. Now they were learning how to use that knowledge to do things that lead to healing. First year residents were taught by second year residents who had been learning the same things the year before, and second year residents were taught by third year residents. In reality, your instructor on any given procedure might be in the same year of placement as you are, but the difference is that he/she has done one or two of this particular procedure before, and you haven’t. That is apprenticeship, whether it is in carpentry or medicine. And that is what Jesus did with his disciples. And when he told them to “Go and make disciples”, they understood that he was asking them to do the same for others.

I was an Airplane Flight Instructor for four years. I was always amazed at how fast flight students learned. I could take a kid who didn’t know an aileron from an elevator and get him proficient enough to solo the airplane in 10-12 hours of flight time. One student was ready to solo at 7 hours. Some aren’t ready at 20 hours, but most students can solo in 10-12 hours of training. That doesn’t include the ground instruction or personal study, but it is still an amazing feat when you consider how much the student has to learn. He has to learn the controls and indicators, regulations, aerodynamics, how to talk on the radio, how to control the airplane including takeoffs and landings and configuration changes, and he has to be able to handle emergencies such as an engine failure. It was fun to watch a student progress at such a rapid rate. What causes such rapid advance? The short answer is the combination of every sensory input. Learning increases as we use more of our senses, combining hearing, seeing, touch and coordination, balance and vestibular sense, and even smell. You add to that a healthy dose of motivation, and the student learns at an amazing rate.

That may explain how Jesus could prepare 11 men to take over for him and leave the world in less than three years. He didn’t just teach doctrine or spiritual disciplines, but he did ministry with his men, and then sent them out to do ministry on their own and debriefed them when they returned (Luke 10). Small groups teaching spiritual disciplines and holding one another accountable for obedience is certainly a big improvement over a Sunday School class teaching doctrine, but it falls far short of what Jesus did. It will likely bring some life change in terms of personal habits and spiritual disciplines, but will it produce disciples that make more disciples?

 “My friend Dennis has something to share with you”. Dennis said, “No I don’t. I don’t have anything to share.” And he said,“Yes you do!” and took out a piece of paper and told him to share the bridge.

What would this look like in our modern context? I recently ran across an illustration of it on the DVD series of documentaries on missions titled Dispatches from the Front. The DVD on West Africa followed the ministry of an African man named Dennis Aggrey who has started a very effective Church Planting Movement in Liberia and neighboring countries. In the “extras” section of the DVD Tim Keesee interviewed Dennis, and he talked about how he got saved and how he was discipled very briefly. He had been involved in church and even taught Sunday School, but as a teen went to a different Christian High School where a missionary teacher confronted him with the gospel using Ephesians 2:8-9. Then the guy discipled him. He taught him to memorize scripture and have his own quiet time. He trained Dennis how to share the gospel using the bridge diagram. Dennis told about how they were sitting at a table in a restaurant, and his discipler started a conversation with another patron and said, “My friend Dennis has something to share with you“. Dennis said, “No I don’t. I don’t have anything to share.” And he said, “Yes you do!” and took out a piece of paper and told him to share the bridge. Dennis said he was scared to death, but put in a situation where he had no choice, so as Dennis describes it, “with fear and trembling” he proceeded to share the gospel with this man using the bridge diagram. When he finished the guy accepted Christ on the spot. From that point on, he was excited about sharing the gospel and knew that he wanted to give his life to sharing the gospel. That single event was life changing for him.

That is discipleship. That is what Jesus did. But if we think we can do that in a one hour per week small group meeting, we are in dreamland. Obedience to Jesus’ command to Make Disciples may not require us to live with our disciples 24 hours, but it will require far more shared life experience than one meeting per week. This is what is missing from most discipleship books and videos.

6 minute video on the clarity funnel.

This 2 minute video is well worth your time.

“What does all this mean for church leaders? Clearly, we must do much more than simply suggest that our congregants get into their Bibles on a regular basis. We need to teach this as a necessity. Insist on it. Follow up. Challenge our congregations to reflect on the Scriptures week after week.”

from Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth by Greg Hawkins & Cally Parkinson

Simple discipleship that lead to over 1300 churches planted. At 2.5 minutes well worth your time!

Making Disciples – Pastor Ralph Moore from InspireChurch.tv on Vimeo.

In his book Making Disciples: Developing Lifelong Followers of Jesus, Ralph Moore tells the story of how he made the transition from doing the typical program based youth group to becoming a disciple maker of young people. One of the people who influenced him was an unlikely mentor.

I met a guy who would drive the lesson home even further. He was a newly appointed youth pastor working in a gang-ridden neighborhood in East Los Angeles. His group of kids expanded from nothing to more than 200 in just a couple of months. You need to understand that when we met, I was still pretty full of myself and my formal education. You also need to know that this young man had no formal theological training at all. That he wasn’t properly trained only served to make things worse for me. I was offended—actually, you might better say jealous— by his success in spite of no seminary. I remember pressing him for his program. I wanted to know the secret of the rapid growth he enjoyed while I was pastoring just 30 kids after a period of five years. This successful young man seemed kind of confused by my use of the word “program.” It was foreign to his view of the ministry. Finally, he said something to the effect of, “Well, I guess my program is to get the kids praying, reading their Bibles and spending lots of time talking about what they’ve read.”

That single statement got Ralph thinking, and result was a radical change in his ministry in the youth group, and later on a whole network of churches that he founded.

The youth group in our church soon turned into a disciplemaking machine. We were admittedly slow to jettison our fancy programs . But we added hanging out, centered on the Bible and prayer, to everything we were already doing. A very dead 6: 00 AM Tuesday prayer meeting for high-school students suddenly burst into life when we all started sharing “what I got from my Bible this week.” That prayer-and-share meeting soon became the launch pad for an everyday invasion of our high school with humorous Christian literature and outreach in the form of intentional friendships…. That prayer-and-share-the-Bible time was so effective that I recently got a Facebook message from a very godly woman who told me it is the reason she is solid with the Lord today. She is involved in ministry and says the reason for that is because I made her read the Bible every Monday night during high school. She went on to admit that during those days she only read her Bible on Monday nights so she would have something to say on Tuesday mornings . We brought her into the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit caused life to grow in her heart.

This is once again confirmed by the REVEAL study Willow Creek did.  They say:

We find that Reflection on Scripture is much more influential than any other practice by a significant margin. In fact, for the most advanced segments— Close to Christ and Christ-Centered— it’s twice as catalytic as any other factor on the list. This means it has twice the power of any other spiritual practice to accelerate growth in spiritually mature people.

That being the case, simple programs like One to One Bible Reading (covered in yesterday’s post) ought to be the centerpiece of every Church.  Bible Story Telling methodology (covered here and here) is also an easy method to communicate God’s word and encourage reflection upon it.  It takes a little more preparation time than One to One Bible Reading, but it is still a method of communicating God’s Word simply and without any offensiveness in the approach that any follower of Christ can do.

Last week I posted an article on “making disciples” among unbelievers as opposed to the more traditional view of “doing discipleship” with a young believer.  I concluded that both are valid and both are needed, but wondered if it is possible to do both at the same time.  On Friday I discussed the matter of the most basic and simple part of discipleship which is reading and reflecting upon scripture.  It is obvious to believers that every Christ Follower needs a steady diet of scripture, whether or not they are actually doing it.  But could this also be key to “making disciples” among lost people?  Two key verses come to mind.

In the parable of the soils, or the parable of the sower as it is sometimes called, Jesus tells a story about a farmer going out to sow seed, and when he explains the parable, he says this:

“The seed is the word of God.” — Luke 8:11

The seed is NOT good works like feeding the poor or digging wells for people without clean water (good things to do and even things we are commanded to do, but they are not the seed).  The seed is not churches or even testimonies.  The seed is just one thing.   The seed is the Word of God.  Peter says:

love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; — 1 Peter 1:22-23

Peter agrees with Jesus.  The seed that produces new life is the word of God.  If the Word of God is not planted in the soil, the seed hasn’t been planted.  We often hear talk about “living the gospel” and the St. Francis quote about sharing the gospel and if necessary use words.  That is kind of like saying, “Feed the poor, and if necessary use food.”  These passages tell us that words are necessary.  So the Word of God is one of the things that both unbelievers and believers need to either obtain eternal life or grow in they walk with God.  That simplifies the issue of “making disciples” among the lost (Matt 28:19) while at the same time doing “discipleship” of believers.  We can concentrate most of our efforts on this one thing.  But how do we do that?

I recently came across a book by David Helm titled One to One Bible Reading a simple guide for every Christian that addresses this issue clearly. David gives a simple plan to read the Bible together with either another believer or an unbeliever and meet together once a week to discuss answers to some simple questions about the text. He calls the questions COMA questions, for Context, Observation, Meaning and Application. The questions are slightly different for each different Genre of scripture, but all the questions can be printed out on one page. For instance, the four categories of questions for the gospels and Acts consist of 14 questions. This isn’t about selling study guides to each book of the Bible. This is a simple system of reading and writing down answers to a fairly stock set of questions. The questions can be printed out from PDF files or even emailed.

Is this an effective way to do evangelism?  I think it is.  Consider this statistic from Ed Stetzer:

“…We asked a total of 1,000 twenty-something unchurched people; 900 American, 100 Canadian. And we compared them to a sample of 500 older unchurched (30 or above). … And what we found is that yes, there are negative views of the church, two-thirds saying the church is full of hypocrites, people who do one thing and say another. But there was also great openness that’s there. One of the questions that we asked them to agree or disagree with was: “I would be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to?” Among twenty-somethings, 61-percent said, “Yes.” Among their older counterparts of 30 and above, 42-percent said, “Yes.” That was a statistically significant difference saying there is something going on, there is an openness that’s there. So we’re seeing that as an opportunity that in the midst of some negative views of the church there is also some openness to the things of God.”  —Ed Stetzer, The Albert Mohler Program, July 30, 2009

Here is what I love about this:

• It is about simply planting the seed of the Word of God.  This is a Biblical form of evangelism.
• Anyone can do this.  You don’t have to have any knowledge.  You are not teaching anything.
• It doesn’t require expensive printed material.  There is no curriculum.
• It is not offensive.  You are not trying to convince anyone of something.  You are just letting the Spirit work through His word.

You don’t need to buy the book to learn how to do this.  Mattias Media has created an excellent web site with an online video course by the author as well as work sheets you can download.  You can learn this for free.