“Not What I Expected”

Hope is making disciples in Canada, but it isn’t going exactly like she expected. Outmatched, overwhelmed, and underprepared, she is being hit with the reality of her own inadequacy and desperate need for God. Here’s her story, in her own words.

I’d like to share my discipleship story and ask you to pray for me.  Last fall, I began to ask the Lord to bring people into my life that actually wanted to be discipled. I live in a “religious” part of our Canadian province, and many people just don’t want to be discipled.  Life is just too busy for that!

So, around Christmas time, I felt a gentle nudge to befriend a lady who had tragically watched her husband drown while saving their only child and, as a result, suffered from post traumatic stress.  We connected, and God has greatly blessed both of us in our friendship.  But, it hasn’t been what I thought it would be.  It’s slow going and certainly requires lots of grace and patience.  She seems to be seeking God and searching, truly hungry for love, but is presently looking in earthly relationships to fill this void.  She is also being pursued by a married “Christian” man. 

Then, shortly after Christmas, a friend that I hadn’t been connected with for a long time was brought back into my life.  She apologized to me for the way she had treated me and then proceeded to tell me her story, which she had been attempting to suppress for years.  She had been sexually abused for many years, starting when she was four years old.  Currently, her “Christian” husband is being unfaithful to her and telling her that she is the reason he is doing this.  She believes this and is broken-hearted that she is the cause for “ruining” a godly man.  SO much pain and damaged emotions wrapped up in this precious lady’s life.  Amazingly, God has opened the way for her to accept a few truths from me.  However, she does not believe that God is good right now, so trusting Him is an issue.

I truly believe that God has answered my prayer by giving me these two ladies as disciples, and I believe He is going to do great healing and bring them into His Light and Life.  Will you please pray that I will abide in Him and have wisdom, love, patience, and grace in the process. 

This is not what I expected discipleship to be like at all, but it is amazing to know that Christ is living through me.

Missional Community?

In our last post, we highlighted a story about two young engineers who have their sights set on reaching people in their community with the good news of Jesus. How are Mitch and Cory engaging the community they live in? By being Cub Scout leaders. However, another true answer would be, in the context of a missional community. If you read their story, you may have noticed this phrase, and you may or may not have been familiar with it. If it seemed peculiar or mysterious to you (and for that matter, even if it didn’t) we’d like to draw your attention to an article written by Texas pastor Todd Engstrom in which he explains.

Engstrom’s article is titled, “What Makes a Missional Community Different?” Different than what? A community group, a Bible study, and a small group, for starters, though he’s not saying that those terms are wrong or that the term “missional community” is right. Yet generally, Engstrom also shows how the ideas behind missional communities are different from the idea that someone should attempt to make disciples lone-ranger-style. The difference is huge, and if we are seeking to effectively make disciples as the body of Christ, we would do well to consider some of the vital truths and practical help that Engstrom offers as he encourages missional communities… whether we call them that or not.

Disciple Making In Action

Mitch and Cory work as engineers in Huntsville, Alabama. However, you may not peg them as young professionals from seeing where they live or what they do in their free time. Through God’s providential hand, they are now making disciples where they least expected to.

“It all started with a simple question, ‘Would you guys be interested in helping out with Cub Scouts?’ I think we literally laughed in Keri and Shellie’s face,” says Mitch.

What began as doubtful laughter turned into grace-drive service. Let me introduce you to Mitch and Cory – not the engineers, but the Cub Scout leaders. Here’s their story.

For more information about Shattered, the magazine that published this article, be sure to check out their website.

Let’s Get Practical

Making disciples takes a lot of time. Is it even a realistic possibility with my crazy schedule?

How can I reach my neighbors?

What are some ways I can be an effective witness in my workplace?

How do I tell people about Jesus as an introvert?

What are some ways I can share my faith?

If you’ve ever asked any of these questions, you’re not alone. These are great questions! Sometimes we can know all about discipleship, believe in the mission, and even desire to be obedient, without knowing where to begin. But when the rubber meets the road, we’ve got to know how to actually make disciples… not in theory, but in practice.

In light of this, check out this Verge post containing practical ways to be “missional,” which they simply describe as living “as Jesus lived – as sent people who live everyday life with gospel intentionality.”

Of All Nations, Part 2/2

You can probably already hear the rebuttal to the previous post, if not from within, then probably from something you’ve heard others express. “Now wait just a minute. Are you telling me that people are in sin if they aren’t going to Africa? Even if they are faithful church members who serve their community and spread the gospel to those around them? No, no, I think you’ve got this one wrong. Not all of us are called to missions, and that’s just fine.”

Maybe we aren’t all supposed to be career missionaries… fair enough. But then what did Jesus mean when he said to make disciples of all nations?

At least one thing it means is that we don’t have the right to be merely American in our Christianity. Nor do believers in China have the right to be merely Chinese in their walk with God. Believers everywhere serve the same God, and he is the Creator and Sustainer of Chinese people, American people, and all peoples in between. As such, he deserves the praise of them all. We can celebrate our respective cultures and enjoy them, but we cannot hate or ignore other cultures.

So when we become aware that there are 4.1 billion unreached people in this world, we don’t have the option of responding (or not responding) apathetically. God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and he has appointed us to be his ambassadors (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Corinthians 5:20).

This doesn’t mean we forsake the local ministry with which we’ve been entrusted. People are either lost or saved, and to reach out to the lost is always a great thing, no matter where you do it. But there is a difference between being lost in America’s Bible Belt and being lost in the mountains of Nepal. UPGs (defined in the previous post) do not have access to the gospel like the other people groups of the world, and that’s an urgent need we must address. To say one must choose between either local ministry or global missions is to create a false dichotomy. It’s not an either/or, but a both/and. You can live here and work for there; you can go there and impact here. Faithful local ministry and faithful global missions actually serve one another.

Have you considered the entirety of the Great Commission? Are you intentionally making disciples of all nations, even if indirectly? Do you have a heart for the unreached? The task is huge, and the task is difficult, but what a privilege to be a part of it! As a quick look at Revelation 7 will tell you, it is a joyous task that is guaranteed success.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:9-12)

For more information about the nations, check out Operation World, Joshua Project, and People Groups.

Of All Nations, Part 1/2

We’re working hard at making disciples, and many are making great strides, seeing some fruit, and growing a lot themselves. So since we’re talking about growth and fruit in disciple making, we wanted to plant one more seed for you to ruminate on. In the Great Commission, what does it mean for Jesus to have told his followers to make disciples of all nations?

This is an important component of the Commission. Jesus could have just as easily said, “Go, make disciples,” and left it there. But he didn’t. In fact, he made a point to specifically command them to go beyond their own people. This is enforced in Acts 1:8 when Jesus names specific areas to which his followers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, would go. The short list was then ended with a big vision for “the ends of the earth.”

We don’t have to stop with Jesus’ words to his disciples before he ascended to heaven. From Genesis to Revelation, God has an evident heart for the nations. He starts by blessing one nation, ultimately purposing to bless all of them through Israel (Gen 12:2-3). We see glimpses of God’s international redemption in people like Rahab and Ruth, and then in prayers like Psalm 67, a plea to God to “let all the peoples praise [him].” Then, as the church is spreading, the Bible ends with a picture of heaven in which people from all the nations of the earth are worshiping their Savior and King (Rev 7:9).

So does this apply to us?

There are currently 6,600 unreached people groups (UPGs) in the world, which means that less than 2% of the people in each of those groups (designated as such by common ethnic identities and languages) are evangelical Christians. 4.1 billion of the world’s 7 billion people are unreached.  Of those 6,600 UPGs, 3,500 are also unengaged, which means that there is no evangelical church-planting strategy underway among them.  There are 350 million people In these unreached unengaged people groups (UUPGs).

For someone born in a UUPG, they will most likely live and die having never heard about Jesus.

So, let’s ask again, does the “all nations” portion of Jesus’ command apply to us? We’ll put it this way: the Great Commission has yet to be accomplished.

Statistics gathered from the IMB

A Piece of the Puzzle

Making disciples. That’s it… the goal of our Christian walk. Leading others to follow Christ is our ultimate purpose.

Right?

Some of you are probably familiar with the John Piper quote, “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”  Our God is worthy of all people’s worship. So, out of love for God and love for people, we endeavor to lead those who aren’t currently worshiping God to do so. In other words, the purpose of making disciples is that people will worship God.

And this rings true in Scripture, doesn’t it?  From the Ten Commandments (Ex 20, Dt 5) to the Great Commandment (Mt 22:36-40, Mk 12:28-31), God is concerned with people worshiping and loving himself above anything he created. This means that we are to subject ourselves to his lordship, obeying his commands. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3). In obeying God, we worship him.

Therefore, we can worship God by obeying Jesus’ Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18-20). And we must worship God by making disciples of all nations… it is, after all, a command. Worshiping God by being a witness of Jesus is why God has left us on this earth until Christ returns. For worshiping God in heaven would surely be “far better,” but worshiping him in the meantime by discipling others is “necessary on [their] account” (Ph 1:21-24).

Yet in all this, we must be mindful that making disciples is only a piece of the puzzle which, when put together, is a complete life of worshipping God.

It only makes sense, really. How are we to expect people to listen to us when we tell them to be baptized if we have not been baptized ourselves? How are we to teach them all that Jesus has commanded us if we don’t know and practice his commands ourselves? Making disciples is certainly an act of worship, but aren’t prayer, studying, giving, singing, and thanking also acts of worship?

It stands to reason, then, that you can’t make disciples well if you aren’t also doing these other things. So our encouragement to you is to worship God. By making disciples, yes, but also by not neglecting the other worshipful acts of the Christian life. While disciple-making will pass away, worshiping God will endure forever, and that should be our ultimate goal. Our desire at Multiply is to help equip and encourage you in the disciple-making portion of your worship, so this is what we focus on. However,  other areas of your worship need focus as well.

Are we deemphasizing disciple-making? Not at all! In fact, by emphasizing worship as the ultimate purpose of all disciple-making disciples, obeying the Great Commission is elevated to its proper place. Likewise, as we become better worshipers, we become better disciple-makers too. Praise God for his glorious design!