Update from Multiply Asia

Francis, David, and the team have been privileged to meet with pastors and leaders from China and Japan this week.  Here are some of the pictures from their time in Asia thus far.  Please continue to be in prayer for them and for the Church in Asia as they are making disciples who are making disciples…

Register for Multiply in November  – If you haven’t registered for the Multiply Gathering from Austin, Texas, we encourage you to join us.  Registration is free and easy to do on our website.

David preaching outside of Beijing, sharing how God has used the people of China to shape his life.

House church leaders speaking with the team about the challenges that face the Church in China. The Church is growing due to evangelism but there is a great need for ongoing discipleship.

David and Francis had the privilege to meet with many believers in Japan to encourage them through the Word and in prayer.

Multiply Asia

Multiply Asia is underway, and we want you guys to partner with us in prayer as Francis and David encourage believers on the other side of the world to make disciples who make disciples. Their schedule is packed, and they need support, so here are some ways you can be praying for them over the next week:

Travel – 3 countries in just over 1 week! Pray for their safety, for ease of travel (getting through airport security, no flight delays, etc.), and for rest from their almost nonstop itinerary and jet lag.

Speaking – Francis and David will be speaking before thousands throughout the trip. Pray for their messages to be clear, motivating, and most of all, God-glorifying. And pray for energy, especially on Sunday the 6th, when they will be speaking at a combined 9 services.

Relationships – Pray that the Lord would bless the relationships that Francis and David have with church leaders in Asia, both old and new. May these relationships result in the multiplication of disciples worldwide.

Disciples – Pray that more are made! At the same time, pray that existing disciples in Asia will be spurred on to spend their life making disciples… if not for the first time, then more than ever before.

As you pray, keep your eyes peeled for updates on the blog from the team in Asia. May God accomplish things through Multiply Asia that no man or group of men could ever accomplish alone!

Authority

Be a part of this year’s Multiply live stream on November 8, 2013 as we encourage and challenge one another in making disciples both locally and globally! Register here.

Discipleship: By Grace, In Love

The Lord of Grace

Salvation is all about the grace of God. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to save yourself or earn God’s favor. Paul said, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). No one can brag about his or her good deeds because our works cannot save us. Salvation comes through the grace of God as we place our faith in Jesus Christ. All salvation requires is faith: Do you believe that Jesus is who He says He is?

But keep in mind that while this is simple, it’s not easy. Faith in Jesus Christ means believing that He is Lord (according to Rom. 10:9). Have you ever thought about what that word Lord means? We sometimes think of it as another name for God, but it’s actually a title. It refers to a master, owner, or a person who is in a position of authority. So take a minute to think this through: Do you really believe that Jesus is your master? Do you believe that He is your owner—that you actually belong to Him?

Paul is so bold as to tell us: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). The same Lord who by His grace set us free from sin and death now owns us. We belong to Him, and He calls us to live in obedience to His rule.

The problem is, many in the church want to “confess that Jesus is Lord,” yet they don’t believe that He is their master. Do you see the obvious contradiction in this? The call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is open to everyone, but we don’t get to write our own job description. If Jesus is Lord, then He sets the agenda. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then your life belongs to Him. He has a plan, agenda, and calling for you. You don’t get to tell Him what you’ll be doing today or for the rest of your life.

It All Comes Down to Love

But don’t get the impression that following Jesus is all about joyless sacrifice. More than anything else, following Jesus boils down to two commands, which He said were the most important commandments in the Old Testament Law:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 22:37–40)

It all comes down to love. Peter expressed it well for people like us, who didn’t see Jesus on earth but follow Him nonetheless: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Pet. 1:8).

Following Jesus is not about diligently keeping a set of rules or conjuring up the moral fortitude to lead good lives. It’s about loving God and enjoying Him.

But lest we think that we can love God and live any way we want to, Jesus told us very clearly, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The love for God in the first commandment is made practical in the love for our neighbors in the second commandment. John actually told us that if we don’t love the people that we can see around us, then we don’t love God, whom we can’t see (1 John 4:20).

True love is all about sacrifice for the sake of the ones you love: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). When we understand love in this light, it’s not difficult to understand that love for God and obedience to Jesus Christ cannot be separated. God’s love changes us from the inside out and redefines every aspect of our lives.

This excerpt was taken from Part 1, Session 1 of the Multiply material. You can purchase it wherever books are sold, or you can download it from the Multiply website.

“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.

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!

Do You Love?

Francis Chan and David Platt encourage us to love those whom we are trying to disciple. Discipleship is not simply a task to be accomplished. Let’s make sure we are loving people as we invite them into our lives and pour into them.

This video is a 90 second excerpt from the leader video (over five minutes long) in part 1, section 3 of the Multiply material – “The Heart of a Disciple Maker.”

Questions – The Soil of Christian Growth?

When most of us think of ways to help others grow in their faith in Christ, we think primarily in terms of what we have to offer to them. Discipleship for many of us has been primarily a one way street of information imparted from us to them.  And this is good, as well as necessary. Jesus often stands up and preaches in the synagogue or to the crowd. Paul taught all night in Acts 20. But what if the people we desire to grow more into the image of Christ need more than for us to impart information? Certainly not less than imparting information! But what if they also need for us to enter into conversation with them through asking good questions?

I’m convinced that asking good questions is the soil for Christian growth. Notice that questions neither give the growth, nor are they the growth themselves. Rather, questions are the soil in which growth can happen through God’s inspired Word (i.e. impartation of information) and the power of his Holy Spirit. I think we see this in many places throughout Scripture in many different forms and functioning for many different purposes.

How can asking questions be a helpful companion to sound teaching, or some form of imparting information? Questions naturally lend themselves to internalization. In order to answer a question, there must be thought. Thought brings about ideas that interact with beliefs. Beliefs (depending on the subject) are connected with emotions. Emotions are connected with the heart. When you begin to ask others intentional questions that flow from the Word, then you are tilling the soil of Christian growth. Truth enters into the thought processes introducing (potentially) new ideas that interact with beliefs, which draw out emotion concerning the ideas, and ultimately begin to expose the condition of the heart.

For example, suppose you are talking with a couple of people about sinfulness. You are discussing Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden and how since then, sin has corrupted the world. This leads to further discussion about the nature of humans, and with Romans 3 in mind, you ask, “Would you say that all people are totally sinful and unable to do good apart from Christ?” This forces them to think about it.  They weigh the idea that mankind is totally sinful against their belief – perhaps that humans are essentially good. As this new idea interacts with their belief, their emotions may come to the surface. Remember that while emotions are never the means by which truth penetrates the heart with change, they often expose the beliefs of people’s hearts. In this particular example, suppose that they become defensive and a little bit angry. “Wait a second… are you trying to tell me that out of the billions of people on this planet, not one does good?” Their tones and facial expressions give them away – they do not like this new idea. But through your question, they have been forced to deeply consider the idea. You (hopefully) have gently and lovingly challenged their preconceived notion in such a way that they are driven to wrestle with this scriptural truth that is so hard for them to swallow. And now, you also have a good idea of what they believe, which will inform your approach to future discussions with them.

Earlier, I emphasized that growth in Christ does not come only through imparting information. However, information is an obvious component of Christian growth. How? This is where it comes together. It is not to say that information is not important and essential in the discipleship process. It is to say that the main concern should not be on transference of knowledge, but on transformation of heart. The one serves the other. Part of the goal, then, is to be able to see what areas people need to grow in, and then begin to plot out how to help guide them there through asking really good questions and conversing with them about those questions. This then leads to opportunities to impart biblical truth in a (hopefully) relevant and penetrating way. Your questions become a way of teaching truth and imparting information that is needed, but in a way that hopefully takes truth to the heart, where true Christian growth takes place.

We want to encourage you to begin listening more intently to what the people you are discipling are going through, ask the Lord to show you the needs of their heart, and then begin to ask intentional questions that are filled with the truth of God’s Word. As you begin to do this with others, seek to do this in your own life. Whether studying the Bible, sitting at work, or even after a disagreement with your spouse, begin to listen in each situation and ask good questions. I am convinced that asking good questions is the soil for Christian growth.

How Do You Approach Bible Study In Discipleship?

Where do you start with Bible study when discipling someone? How do you approach studying the Bible, and how do you maintain sensitivity to someone who may not yet buy into the Bible being the authoritative, infallible, and inerrant Word of God?

Leader video excerpt from the Multiply material – Part III, Section 1: Why Study The Bible?

Leading By Listening

Each lesson in the Multiply material is accompanied by a leader’s video.  In these videos, Francis Chan and David Platt discuss things that might be helpful for you to remember as you lead someone through the lesson.  Leader videos can be found at multiplymovement.com/#material, embedded beside each of the corresponding lessons.  These are great tools to help you in your preparation to disciple someone.

Above is a 60-second excerpt from the leader’s video for the very first lesson, “Living as a Disciple Maker.”  In this short clip, they encourage leaders to listen well.  They explain that we’ll never know how to rightly apply the truth of God’s Word in someone’s life if we don’t know where they are coming from.