Connecting the Dots

Discipling is not like running a program or teaching a class.  You can't mass-produce disciples.  You can mass-teach them, but not produce them - as in make disciples.  Providing a Vacation Bible School, daycare, or preschool - any ministry - likely attracts those who are somewhat receptive.  Meeting a need - doing the Great Commandment - is a wonderful way to tangibly demonstrate God's love; and, in the process, it provides a platform for building relationships.  The relationship is the bridge over which the Gospel travels best. 

Making disciples is more like raising children.  To do an effective job, it takes time and a lot of hands-on attention.  You've heard the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child."  Well, it takes a loving parent to raise a child, too.  It takes a sold-out Christian to make a disciple, and a community of disciple-making disciples to disciple many others.  A ministry like a food pantry, daycare, preschool, elementary school, recovery class is a great place to begin that relationship. 

Everyone in the church should understand the Resistance/Receptivity Axis.  This is simply a way of understanding how receptive a person is toward meeting Christ.  It is a known reality that if you are meeting a person's need, they become more receptive.  If they are in crisis or in a process of change (job, house, retirement, new child) they are more receptive.  Anyone can learn this and every disciple-maker should.  (We teach these basics in our Outreach Clinic, and I'm surprised how many long-term Christians find it a completely new idea!) 

It is also helpful to develop a "centered-set" approach to disciple-making.  Some people are "closed set."  If you don't believe everything I do, the way I do, you're on the outside, and I will treat you that way.  "Closed-set" people often believe that the only other way to live life is by being an "open-set" person.  This is a person whose belief system is "anything goes":  it doesn't matter what you believe about God, or any god, you'll be fine.  But the missionary mindset is not "closed set" or "open set."  There is a third alternative.  It is a "centered set" worldview.  Jesus Christ is at the center and anyone who shows receptivity is considered to be on a journey toward that center.  This gives the missionary-oriented person (read "the disciple-maker") a freedom of grace.  It gives the disciple-maker a posture that is non-judgmental toward people who have aberrant ideas or behavior.  The "centered-set" missionary recognizes that the potential Christ-follower is at a different place on the journey.  That grace allows them to work with a person who is not yet a "polished Christian" (is there such a person?).  This also provides the missionary attitude expressed by Paul, a willingness to "become all things to all people, that by any means some might be saved" (1 Corinthians 9:22).  Christianity and disciple-making are seen as a process, not an event.  Again, it's like raising children.  Parents who follow a "closed-set" or "open-set" approach to parenting often struggle to raise balanced children.  It's the same way with raising the children of God, making disciples.   

The Formula  

Missionaries are taught a formula that is useful for making disciples and working toward "the harvest," where Jesus calls us to work, making disciples.  The formula begins with 1-P.  1-P stands for "presence."  This is the Great Commandment.  To love and care for people is simply part of what it means to be a Christian.  It is authentic Christianity.  But it's only the beginning of missionary work, and the mission formula.  1-P ("providing a cup of cold water," "being the hands and feet of Christ," "loving your neighbor as yourself") is a wonderful way to develop genuine relationships.  It opens the door for 2-P. 

2-P stands for "proclamation."  When a person is receptive - when the time is right (harvesting a crop is always about timing) - disciple-making calls us to tell the story.  It's called witnessing, and it works best when we tell how God has worked in our own lives in the context of a genuine relationship.  Most ministries of churches do this fairly well, especially Vacation Bible School, preschool, daycare, and sports programs like Upward Basketball (though I wish more Christians would follow the guidelines that Upward provides).  2-P is a natural setting to start the discipline of follow up and developing a relationship of discipling.  This leads to the 3-P part of the formula. 

3-P is "persuasion," the long, hard, wonderful task similar to raising children.  It's relational modeling of all the aspects of the Christian life and all the wisdom and depth of biblical teaching.  It is reproductive - like having children:  you multiply yourself - as a Christian.  This is the 20% that is missing in most churches.  This is what changes 95% of the disciple-making of a church.  Again, it is one-on-one ministry with another person.  Disciples cannot be mass-produced.  It takes an army to raise an army.  But when it happens, over time, a momentum begins.  It changes a church from an institution to a movement.  Don't you think that's the way Christianity is supposed to be?

The formula is this:  1-P +2-P + 3-P = making disciples.  If you aren't willing to pursue this, then shut down that daycare.  Close that preschool.  Let someone else do the food pantry - someone who will help people eternally and feed their stomachs at the same time.

It's a long process to change the culture of a church to make disciples, not just talk about it.  It requires that leaders model it.  It takes time to learn the Harvest Worldview, but it can happen.  The disciples got it.  The New Testament Church got it - then lost it...at least for most churches.