Tag: Discipleship

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Level 4 Discipleship: From Learner to Leader

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(Click here for an Overview of the 4 Levels of Discipleship.)

After a person gets saved (Level 1) and matures in the Lord, they will go through the process of being taught about Christianity by others (Level 2) as well as learning to grow themselves through the Word of God and prayer (Level 3), yet that is not the end of discipleship. Their personal maturity in the Lord must continue to develop until their focus makes a shift from themselves to others. This change is part of a life-long journey into Christian service.

Catching a Vision To Serve

While a person is growing in the Lord, they must come to know their new identity in Him, and also the inheritance they carry. This process can take a lot of time and revision – years for many of us. However, this internal identity shift should naturally begin to manifest itself outwardly in service toward others. 

As a believer discovers the extravagant ways Christ loves us, their hearts will begin to change, in love, toward other people. They will naturally begin to look for ways to share that love. As they do, God will begin to give them a vision for ministry (which simply means service) and to reveal their spiritual gifts to them, for His purposes.

Although there are obvious universal aspects to God’s ministry within the church, this developing vision for ministry will be personal to each believer. As people demonstrate the desire to serve and begin to step into various love-sharing opportunities, we must begin to disciple them in clarifying their vision for serving others. 

Christ gave general commands to those He sent out in the New Testament. Those same commands still apply today. We must continue to “preach the gospel,” “heal the sick,” “cast out demons,” “encourage one another,” “care for widows and orphans,” etc. However, He has also uniquely designed each one of us to fulfill different aspects of service in His Kingdom. Each of us are equipped with different giftings and callings from the Lord.

As we disciple people to “become who they are in Christ,” we must never seek to force all Christians into the same areas of service, or expect the same abilities from everyone. Just as not all are apostles or pastors (see 1 Corinthians 12:29-31), it is also true that not all are choir leaders, children’s ministers, or ushers.

As we continue to disciple people, personally getting to know them, we must give them opportunities to develop their own unique gifts and talents, and help them find their place within the Body of Christ. This will enable them to serve His people, and the world He wants to save, with passion and effectiveness.

Catching a Vision To Lead

Once a person has found their own place in the Body and is using their gifts with excellence and with joy, the next step is to go beyond simply serving, to leading. As we have discussed before, we replicate in others what God has formed within us. We said that at the most basic level, disciples make disciples. In the same way, ministers will make ministers out of others.

As we have also previously discussed, Ephesians 4:11-12 makes clear that the role of ministry leaders is not “doing” the ministry, but “equipping” others to serve. All believers, without exception, must discover how to minister to the body of Christ and to share the gospel with the lost. However, in the continuing growth process, we must all move from being ‘learners’ to being ‘leaders’ in our service.

Part of a person’s vision to lead will develop naturally, as others begin to pick up and follow their passion for service. However, for most Christians, there comes a time when they must be pushed out of their comfort zone, and into the place of leading and guiding others.

We, as disciple makers, must make every effort to identify the giftings and fruit in a person’s life, and move them toward opportunities to teach others what they have learned from the Lord.

Let me share a personal example. I once served as a missionary to the island nation of Haiti. I was in an area of heavy witchcraft, yet the present reality of evil also built an expectation of supernatural activity from God. Every Sunday after I closed our church services I was approached by many people for prayers for their physical healing.

Up to this point in my life, I had seen people healed through the prayer of others, and I had a very high personal desire to see healing in the ministry, but I had never had the opportunity to pursue healing very much. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew that the “effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man” has power to heal (see James 5:13-15), but I did not know how to pray that prayer for myself. My passion was still greater than my inability; however, and so I prayed (ineffectively) for every person who came to me for months.

As I continued this pursuit, God led me to the ministry of a man named Randy Clark, whom God has used to both heal the sick, and to impart the healing gift into thousands of regular Christians all around the world. I was personally touched very powerfully by the Lord while attending the Voice of the Apostles conference and receiving Randy’s prayer. I went out with a new boldness to pray and a new gift inside me. The very next week, on a short trip to Southern Sudan, I had the chance to lay hands on a blind man and to watch his grey eyes regain their color. Many other incredible healings followed over the next few days.

Being emboldened by this experience, I signed up for Randy’s training course for healing ministry, to learn from him and his team how to pray more effectively. That was in 2012. Since then, God has used me to heal hundreds, maybe thousands, around the world in my own ministry.

I have also taken up the responsibility of teaching those I lead how to pray for the sick. I want my fellow ministers to have strong faith for healing breakthroughs, too. Though I have not attained to the level of Randy Clark or others, it does not release me from the responsibility of sharing what I have learned with others.

Imparting God’s Vision for Your Organization

The last thing I want to touch on is moving people from “lay minister” to joining the official ministry leadership within your church or ministry. It is at this point you must add to your mentoring processes what I call, Values-Based Discipleship. This is how you will begin to shape them with the vision God has given for your organization.

If I were to ask you, “what are your highest personal values as a ministry,” you would likely have an answer. Most founders and senior leaders of organizations have received a clear vision for the ministry. However, as I have found throughout my own ministry experience, that vision is seldom passed on to other leaders clearly or effectively.

We must personalize our leader-making discipleship strategies to fit our church or ministry. This will begin the process of turning new disciples into long-term, mature leaders within our organizations.

To give an example, in my ministry, Sozo Ministries, we have set 5 “cultural values” that the Lord called us to live out when we founded the ministry. They are Bible-loving, Intimacy (prayer)-led, Identity-driven, Revival-longing, Empowerment-focused.

The goal is that these values would mark every leader, missionary, pastor, church, and church member in our ministry. In order to make that goal a reality, we cannot simply post the values on the wall and hope they are being received by people passing by. We have to teach, train, and demonstrate these things in order to impart them into every leader and member of our churches. These things, then, become a vital focus in our disciple-making process.

In your ministry, too, I am sure you have a vision from the Lord and a set of values you attempt to live out. The question that must be asked is, “how well are you imparting those things into your next generation of leaders?”

It is true that not every person who comes through your ministry will end up carrying the same vision. That is perfectly fine! You will eventually release those individuals to go serve another ministry or begin something new. Praise God that He used you to touch their lives as you did. 

Despite this fact, there are those whom God has called to come behind you, to carry your vision on long into the future. That is a high honor for both you and to them, but it only happens when you fully share with them all that the Lord has placed on you.

We must realize that everything the Lord has done in our lives is intended to be passed on to others. We are to take the things God has given to us, and to give them away to others. If we have been taught from the word, we must share the truth with others. If we have been set free of demonic powers, we are given authority to set others free as well. If we have been called into leadership, we must raise up other leaders around us. This is not optional!

If we seek to protect what is “ours” — our ministry, our church, our blessing, our…whatever — we will end up losing it. Instead, when we learn to pour out what God has given to us for others, we will be refilled again and again as faithful stewards of the things of God.

Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

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Level 3 Discipleship: A Bible-Centered Life

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(Click here for an Overview of the 4 Levels of Discipleship.)

Once a person has been won to Christ (Level 1), and has begun their walk in the foundational truths and practices of Christianity (Level 2), the third level of discipleship — and the longest-lasting — becomes paramount to their longevity in Christ. The believer must be taught not only to read the Bible as a matter of normal practice, but must also learn to interpret the meaning and apply it practically to their own life. This is what Paul calls, “the solid food” for believers, rather than “the milk of the word” (see Hebrews 5:12-14). 

As I have shared in elsewhere, one of the most effective ways to teach a young believer to study the Word of God is called ‘The R.E.A.P. Method,’ which teaches you to Read, Examine, Apply, and Pray. In this post, however, I want to specifically look at some questions new believers should be taught to explore in every passage of scripture they read, which will help them to examine it and make a personal application. These questions can also be used as the basis for Bible-based group discipleship meetings, which will further help the new believers learn to ask them for themselves.

To Begin, Read the Passage

The obvious first step is to read the Bible. For deeper Bible study, the passage should not be too long. I would recommend a chapter at most, but more often than not, it should be a smaller section. A paragraph or even a single verse can be a good focus, especially in groups.

If you are doing a group discussion, it might be helpful to read the passage more than once. Allow the participants to summarize what the passage says, so that you can make sure they are grasping the story and context.

Question 1: “What does this teach us about God?”

The Bible is first and foremost God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. While scripture does give us important information about ourselves, that should not be the first focus of our study. Good theology is to understand the revealed truth about God!

If all scripture is primarily about Him, then we must understand what the passage we are reading says about Him first. Does it reveal a character trait, or speak about His love or His justice? Does it show us anything of His desires or His will? According to what we read, what do we learn about Him?

For private Bible study, a good practice to teach is to keep a journal and write these things down. Especially if something seems contradictory or confusing, then the people can bring the question up for discussion with a more mature believer or a church leader.

Question 2: “What does this teach us about people?”

Once we have established what the Bible teaches about Him, we then begin to explore our role in His story. As we look at what the Bible says about us, we must remember that there are two versions of us in scripture: the old man, who is lost without God, and the new man, who is redeemed and renewed in Jesus.

We are not yet asking application questions here, so it isn’t about taking action yet. First of all, we want to establish our identity according to scripture. Who does it say we were? Who does it say we are in Christ, now? What promises does the scripture make to us, and what conditions are those promises hinged upon?

Another avenue to explore is, how does what the scripture says about us compare with what it says about God? Are they the same, or is there a contrast being made?

Again, we should be teaching people to keep notes of these things, so that as God builds their knowledge through the Word, they will naturally begin to make connections and identify themes.

Question 3: “What does this teach that you should do?”

Once we have examined the things the scripture is teaching us, then it is time to turn our attention to the practical application of the Word. It is at this point we want to take note of any commands in our passage. Is there anything explicitly stated that believers should do or stop doing? Is there anything hinted at in the passage that would require our personal lifestyle or actions to change? Are there commands for the broader church, rather than just us as individuals? Once again, write them down.

Question 4: “How will you put this scripture into practice?”

Having established the commands of scripture, we now make it personal. We must look at our own lives as believers and analyze how we are measuring up to the teachings of the Bible. With the Holy Spirit’s help in prayer, we should see where we fall short, and turn our attention to repentance. In areas that are not sinful, but in which we must grow, we should ask ourselves how we can intentionally seek to develop in this area. Combined with listening to God in prayer, this exercise should not take too much effort to see where we need to grow and mature.

Once we have decided how we will pursue personal growth (and written them down), then I’d also recommend adding a timeframe to begin working on them. If it is a need to reach out to others, when will you make the time? If it is a need to stop doing something, then identify when that thing will come up and tempt you again, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you prepare to overcome.

If this is a group discussion that happens regularly, then encourage the participants to make an effort to apply these things before your next meeting, so that you can include a time for testimonies or follow-up discussion when you come together again.

Question 5: “Who do you know who needs to hear this message?”

This final question is one to encourage reaching out to others with the Gospel and God’s truth. It reminds us that we are part of a community of faith, and that no matter what God is teaching us in His word, there will be someone else who needs to hear it. We are called to give away what we have received from the Lord (see Matthew 10:8)

Encourage your disciples to think about someone else who needs this truth, and to make time with them to share what God has taught them. If it is a message of salvation, who do they know who needs to be saved. If it’s a word of encouragement, who do they know who would benefit from that message. When will you meet with them? Make it a priority!

This, again, will lead to a follow-up discussion at your next meeting if the question is asked as part of a group meeting.

This Becomes Self-Guided Discipleship

As the people you are discipling at this level learn to ask these questions, and make Bible study a regular part of their Christian walk, their maturity in Christ will begin to come automatically. Though we never outgrow the need for church fellowship and one-on-one accountability and mentoring, nothing can compare to a life committed to the scriptures for growth. Level 3 discipleship will help them to mature themselves in the Lord, and to have more to give away to others coming behind them in the faith.

(Click here for Level 4 Discipleship – From Learner to Leader.)

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Note: These five questions did not originate with me, but I have found them beneficial enough that I want to share them with you! I originally learned them through a book called ‘Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery.’ I cannot more highly recommend that book if you seek to develop your disciple-making skills and method. (If you use the Amazon links from this site, I get a kickback on your purchase, which enables me to continue my own disciple-making efforts in East Africa and beyond, so I am grateful if you do.)

Photo by Cathy Mü on Unsplash

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Level 1 Discipleship: Share the Gospel

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As I shared in my last post, there are four levels of interaction that take place when making disciples. The first level is the starting point of the gospel, as we go into the world preaching the gospel to the lost.

While we will not spend much time in this series on the practicals of outreach, I feel it is necessary at this point to discuss how to present the gospel to the lost, as this is the place where their discipleship begins – the point of salvation.

Briefly, I want to share with you two methods of gospel presentation, that will enable you to keep the story of the gospel in mind in any opportunity to share with non-believers. Each of these methods will utilize four key words that will keep you on track for sharing the gospel. They are not original with me, but have been effective for years in my own mission work.

After sharing these two methods, I also want to share with you the importance of incorporating your personal testimony in your outreach efforts.

Method 1: The Ground-Level Gospel

I call this the Ground-level gospel because it keeps the story very personable to the people we are sharing with. Though using scripture is always necessary, this method doesn’t go as deep into the history of the bible as the second method will. It is very simple, and may have even been the method used by the person who led you to Christ. 

The four keywords for this method are GOD – MAN – CHRIST – RESPONSE. As I have written in our ministry’s team training handbook:

“In this way of presenting the Gospel, you begin by explaining who God is; that He is perfect and holy, and that when He created everything in the universe He made it ‘very good.’ Because God is perfect and holy, He cannot associate Himself with the unholy. This brings us to the second point.

“Man, though he was created holy in the image of God, chose to disobey God’s command and eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. With this one action, sin entered the world and man lost his connection with God. The judgement came with the curses pronounced in Genesis 3, as well as eternal separation from God in this life and in the next.

“This is where Christ comes in. When you have a Holy God, and a sinful humanity, there has to be a major move on both sides in order to make reconciliation. So when Jesus was born, what happened is that God took on flesh and became a man. He lived a sinless life according to the law of God, then died in our place, taking our punishment for sin, and offering us new life and righteousness through faith in Him.

“With these three things in mind, the person being ministered to is then called to a response. Will they accept Jesus as their Savior and be reconciled to God through faith in Christ, or will they reject Christ as Savior and continue in life separated from God?”

Method 2: The High-Level Gospel

Though the first method is simpler, and can be used for a quick presentation of the gospel, the second method is, by far, my favorite. This method uses the full story of scripture to lay out God’s beautiful plans, the problem of sin in humanity, and the reason for which Christ came into the world. It can also be shared conversationally when giving an explanation of your faith, without adding the immediate pressure of a response, if the person is far from getting saved. Instead, it can act as the starting point to impart faith in God, that may lead to a later decision.

The four keywords for this method are CREATION – FALL – REDEMPTION – RESTORATION. Again, let me share form our ministry’s training manual:

“God created all things in the beginning and made them good. He put humanity in charge of His creation, giving him authority to rule as a steward of God’s universe. Again, this creation was perfect and holy, and man himself was righteous having been created in the image of God.

“When mankind first sinned against God, known as ‘the fall,’ not only was man affected with the curse, but the whole creation as well. This is why everything we see in the world is not as it was originally intended to be: war, famine, violence, natural disasters, etc.

“Another downside of the fall was that the authority over the earth which God had given to mankind was then delivered to the devil, who has become ‘the God of this world’ and ‘the prince of the power of the air…at work in the sons of disobedience (lost man).‘

“Redemption is a theological word meaning that on the cross, not only did Jesus die for our sins, but that He also came to break the curse over creation and reclaim what was lost in the fall. According to Luke ‘…the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ This goes beyond just the salvation of souls, but also the the redemption of righteousness and justice in the earth, and ultimately the authority over creation. This is why after the resurrection, Jesus tells the disciples that now, He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

“This is where personal salvation comes in. If Jesus is the Redeemer of all things, that means He also redeems us, and brings us back to our original intended relationship with God the Father. He also gives us new life and restores our ability to walk in holiness by faith in Him. Though we are not completely perfected in the moment of salvation, we now recognized Jesus as the Lord of our life and submit to Him. As we work to build our relationship with Him, we also begin to be conformed to His image once again, just as we were originally created to be in the beginning.

“This presentation of the gospel also looks forward to the day Jesus returns and we will see the final restoration of all things back to the way God intended them to be in the beginning. Sin and death and the devil will be dealt their final blow. Jesus will judge the world according to whether or not their faith was in Him, and then He, along with all those who believed in Him as Savior will see all things finally made right. There will be a new heaven and new earth, and all the promises from the Bible will finally be fulfilled. This should get us excited.“

One final note about this narrative: even if you do not use this method for reaching the person in salvation, it is an important story for them to understand once they are saved. Therefore, if the person gets saved using method 1, then method 2 should be used at the beginning of their Level 2 Discipleship.

No matter which method you use to preach the gospel, what must be made clear is that our goal in Level 1 Discipleship is to take a lost person and lead them to salvation in Christ. We must be bold to share the gospel, and we must give them the opportunity to accept Christ as their personal Savior. 

Using Your Personal Testimony in Sharing the Gospel

Let me once again share from Sozo Ministries’ training handbook:

“It is not enough to know the gospel story with your head. You must also know it to be true and effective with your experience for your words to carry any meaning to those you are sharing with.

“Your testimony is your personal connection to God’s story in human history and is a tool He will use for leading others to Himself. 

“The Hebrew word for testimony, ‘edut,’ and the Hebrew word for witness, ‘ed,’ both come from a root word meaning ‘to duplicate or repeat.’ This means that in sharing our testimony, we are asking God to repeat the action in the lives of those we share with. This can be our salvation testimony as well as our testifying to other works of God in our life. It is a way of saying, ‘If God did it for me, He can do it for you.’ This honors God by giving Him credit and raises faith in the person making a way for God to do it again for them.

“If sharing a testimony is declaring ‘Do it again, Lord,’ then is it any wonder that all throughout the Old Testament God commands His people to share the testimonies of His faithfulness with the next generation? Psalm 119 continually talks about remembering God’s testimonies and delighting in them. It is also the privilege of the Christian that we get to be Jesus’ story-tellers as we are called to be His witnesses to the world. Remember, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Sharing your personal testimony requires you to know where you were before Christ found you, how the gospel came into your life, and the change God has brought in you now.

I am not the man I was before Christ saved me at 16 years old. I was a teenage slacker, alcoholic, trying drugs and experimenting sexually. Even in church, I was a hypocrite, drinking with my youth leader on Saturday nights. Thank God, He used a man bold enough to preach the gospel to me, and though I knew the stories of Jesus my whole life, I finally put my faith in Christ to be saved. Today, I am free from all those addictions and perverse lifestyles. I am faithfully married, and have the privilege of sharing this gospel all around the world.

What is your Gospel story? It is not a shame to share what your lost self did before Christ saved you, as He will use it to bring others to Himself. We must know the gospel in our heads and with our lives. Then God will use us to reach others as well.

(Click here for Level 2 Discipleship – The Basics of the Faith.)

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Maturity in Christ: The Goal of Discipleship

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(This is Part 5 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

If you examine global Christianity with a focus on finances, it is impressive how much the church spends every year, doing outreaches and events in the name of “soul-winning.” Millions, maybe billions, of dollars are spent every year on community outreaches, crusades, and various other evangelistic efforts. And it works. Millions of people, every year, pray a prayer of salvation, in hopes of having an eternity in paradise when they die. Yet all too often, that is where the church’s outreach ends.

As we have discussed already in this discipleship series, the Great Commission calls us not just to make converts, but to make disciples. The sad reality is, however, that too many churches make big plans with big budgets for getting people saved, but have a much lower priority in helping the people become Christ-like. Discipleship has a much lower priority, than winning converts.

Even worse is the fact that we now have multiple generations of believers in the church who are caught in a terrible cycle where, because they were not discipled themselves, they do not know how to make disciples of others. We have churches full of Christian converts who live in immaturity, making more converts who also continue to live in immaturity.

The Goal of Discipleship is that People would Become Like Christ.

Discipleship is the process of leaving who we were before salvation, and becoming who we are called to become in Christ (see Ephesians 2:10). It is a leaving behind of the old man; a putting to death to our sinful nature, in the process of conforming to the image of Jesus, who is the perfect image of God and man (see Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5; and Romans 8:29).

If we have any plans in ministry, short of seeing people being transformed into Christlikeness, then we have completely missed the goal of discipleship, and need to reanalyze our motives. To be sure, it is a great thing to want to see hundreds or thousands of people get saved, yet that is not the finish line. Maturity in Christ is.

To use a football analogy, when trying to get someone saved, it is like playing the game on defense. Your only desire is to get possession of the ball before the other team can score (or in this case, to get the person saved before they die and go to hell).

When a person gets converted to Christianity, that is like the ball being intercepted and now rather than playing defense, you switch to playing offense. The strategy changes when you get the ball, but you still haven’t scored. You still have work to do to get the ball to the goal, which in this case, means taking the new convert from the point of salvation and leading them to maturity in Christ. Salvation is simply taking possession of the “ball,” but getting to maturity in Christ is the actual goal line.

So how do we know when a believer reaches maturity in Christ?

The Clearest Mark of Maturity is the Ability to Make More Disciples.

As with any living thing, the most recognizable mark of maturity is the ability to reproduce. When a human child grows up, they go through puberty and transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is a process, and takes time, and they undergo many changes along the way. They begin to look different. They begin to act different. They even begin to sound different. Yet the process isn’t complete until they can successfully procreate. Beforehand, they could not reproduce even if they tried, but after the maturing of their bodies, it becomes a natural part of life. 

The same is true spiritually! We are born again, then go through the process of transformation and spiritual growth, and then naturally, we will begin to lead others into the new birth and discipleship process as well!

Also, just as in the natural world, when we reproduce, we will replicate whatever is in our DNA. Cows give birth to cows. Birds give birth to birds. People give birth to people. So naturally, disciples should give birth to disciples. Disciple-making should be in the DNA of every believer. 

Maturity in the Body Means Everyone is a Disciple-Maker

The goal of discipleship is that as a believer grows in Christ, he or she will not only begin to live their lives by Christ’s example, but will begin reaching out and discipling others as well. As Ephesians 4 tells us: “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” – that is maturity – and “when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” The body of Christ builds up the body of Christ.

Earlier in the same passage, Paul tells us that it is the job of spiritual leadership – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – to equip every believer for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).

It is time that we understand that we must be equipping every believer to become disciple-makers, walking in maturity, and pulling other people out of darkness and up to the standard of Christ, as well. His image in mankind is the goal, and any target less than that, falls short of the high calling of God.

As we continue in this series on discipleship, the next post will begin to look at practical steps in forming a discipleship strategy for yourself and for your ministry. Stay tuned…

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Discipleship: Revelation and Preservation

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(This is Part 4 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)

Among the famous statements of Jesus, one of the most quotable things He ever said was, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). This, spoken to the multitudes of His followers was an amazing, identity-giving statement. As it should be! It is no small thing that Jesus viewed His church as the carriers of God’s revelation, which pointed the way to His salvation. We are all commissioned to go with the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to make Him known in the world!

Jesus went on to say, “you don’t light a lamp and hide it out of sight. It is meant to shine, and when lights shine together, as they do in a city, you cannot hide it from the world.” He then commands us, like a lamp on a stand, or a city on a hill, to let our lights shine in the world so that other people will see our good works, and turn to glorify our Father in Heaven (paraphrase of Matthew 5:15-16).

We Reveal What is Hidden

When we understand that we are the shining lights of Jesus, we will reveal what is true and real. That is what light does. You can hide a dirty room in darkness, but when the light is switched on, everyone will see the mess for themselves. The Christian is meant to be a revealer of the truth – both God’s truth in light, and also those truths that men desire to keep hidden in darkness.

As we go throughout our daily lives, we should be such a reflection of God’s glory, that people recognize Him in us, and want to see more of His reality. At the same time, they should also be confronted by the sin and dark places inside themselves, as the light of our lives brings those things into view. That is not to say we come with judgement on people, or live as self-righteous individuals by comparison. It is simply to say, in the words of Paul, that “we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

When we show up, those who know God are drawn more to Him, and those who are not believers have an encounter with the reality of their own sin as they see His glory in us. It’s just the nature of His presence through us.

If it isn’t obvious, the call to be light in the world, is definitely a call to do the work of evangelism, bringing God’s revelation to those who would be saved. What is interesting to me, however, is that before Jesus says we are agents of revelation (light), he first says we are salt.

We Preserve What is Good

Before Jesus said, “you are the light of the world,” He said, “you are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13).

Salt does a few things. Not only does it taste good, but it is a necessary substance for sustaining life itself. However, in the ancient world, salt had a different primary function. All throughout history, salt has been sought after and used as a preservative for food. 

If you lived in a society before refrigerators, and you had extra meat that you could not smoke, dry, or cook immediately, then you would pack it in salt in order to preserve it. If you didn’t it would spoil.

Regarding the verse in Matthew 5, The Pillar New Testament Commentary says:

“We should take salt as a metaphor and the earth as referring to people. Jesus is apparently thinking of the function of salt as a preservative, as the enemy of decay, and as giving taste to food. What is good in society his followers keep wholesome. What is corrupt they oppose; they penetrate society for good and act as a kind of moral antiseptic…”

The enemy is at work in the world bringing corruption and seeking to spoil the work of the Lord. We are called to prevent his efforts! Just as salt does for food, we are to enter the world, seeking out what is good and godly, and act to preserve it for the good of humanity and to the glory of God. The devil cannot steal or destroy what the believer is preserving for the Lord (see Matthew 16:18-19).

To bring this back in the context of evangelism and discipleship, this means that before we go into the field preaching the gospel and seeing people saved (shining our light), we must have a mindset that sees our responsibility is not just to harvest the fruit, but also to preserve the harvest which God gives to us.

When the enemy comes, like a bacteria, seeking to corrupt the good fruit of the Lord (see Matthew 13:19), we have the responsibility to block his efforts and preserve the harvest of God.

We Enhance What Can Be Better

Once we have taken the stand to preserve the fruit the Lord has given us, then we become like salt in other ways. As we mingle our lives together with other believers, we pull out what is good in them, and seek to make it even better. They do the same for us, and together, we enhance what is good in the world!

Just as salt enhances the flavor of food, we enhance the flavor of life through the gospel in personal discipleship and societal transformation. 

We call people into the light through salvation, preserve them from the corruption of the enemy, and then press each other onward to become more like Christ. As more people are discipled into Christ-likeness, communities are transformed; entire nations are renewed, and the cycle continues again and again! That is how we bring God’s restoration into the world: by being salt and light!

The church can no longer simply preach the gospel in our megaphones, hoping people will somehow get saved and mature on their own. We must engage on a deeper, more personal level. We must bring the revelation of truth. We must see them saved. And we must help them to become who they are meant to be in Christ.

Light shines in the darkness to bring people to Christ, but our job is to do more than just see people saved. Our job is to preserve the harvest from the corruption of the enemy, and to enhance the lives of believers as they become more like Christ. We are the light of the world, and we are the salt of the earth. If that is who Jesus says we are, then let’s act like it!

Click here to continue to Part 5, “Maturity in Christ: The Goal of Discipleship”

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4 Vital Prayers for Discipleship

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(This is Part 3 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2.)

As we saw in our last post, the Holy Spirit is the Chief Disciple-Maker. He calls, convicts, saves and sanctifies the believer. With all of that resting on His work, it seems there is little left for human action in the process of discipleship. Biblically, however, that is not the case. God clearly puts the job of making disciples on the church; on every believer, not just the leadership.

Since the Holy Spirit has the primary role in disciple-making, and we too are a vital part of the process, then it should become obvious that our first step in making disciples is to make sure and do so in partnership with the Spirit! For this reason, prayer is the most vital step in our own disciple-making efforts.

With this is mind, here are four prayers we should all be praying for discipleship:

Pray for Fruitfulness

Jesus very clearly taught us that the fields are ripe for harvest, and that we are to pray for Him to send more workers into the fields (Matthew 9:37-38). Once again, however, as we discussed in our first blog of this series, the call to the harvest field goes beyond “soul-winning.” We cannot just pick the ripe fruit, and leave it laying in the field. We must obey the fullness of the great commission by making disciples of every person the Lord gives us. Therefore, the first thing we must be praying for is our own efforts to be fruitful.

We do this by asking the Lord for clear instructions on what He is already doing in the world around us. God is already working. Likewise, every person we meet has a divine encounter with Jesus waiting for them. As we pray for fruitfulness and give the Lord the opportunity to use us, it will be through us that the Holy Spirit releases those experiences to people. We should be seeking to be the hands, feet, heart, and mouth of Jesus to those around us, most especially those the Holy Spirit reveals to us are ready.

More so, we must realize that every interaction we have with the believers in our life is an opportunity for growth, both in us and in them. We must be praying that our fellowship will be a fruitful time for sanctification, “as iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). When we become intentional about praying for fruitfulness in every relationship, in every conversation, in every meal or cup of coffee, we will see our level of discipleship rising.

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Pray for Wisdom

Most of us fear “discipleship.” It is a big, scary word, that requires something of us to build up others, and yet we don’t know what it is, exactly, that we are supposed to do. Even the most experienced disciple-makers run into this challenge because every person is different and has different life-experience and expectations. The good news is that the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to transform the lives of all men back to the image of Jesus, and wants to empower us to do so.

We have such a great promise in scripture that in our serving the Lord and others, we are not left to figure it out on our own. James writes:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

James 1:5, English Standard Version

Make it a priority to be praying for supernatural wisdom and divine revelation for every discipleship encounter. Even as the conversation moves along, make sure you are listening to the Holy Spirit and asking for wisdom relevant to the things being discussed and how they impact the person’s life. You do not need to be a professional counselor. You simply need to be in tune with the voice of your Father for guidance.

Pray for Receptivity

Up to now, we have been praying for our own ability and effort in the discipleship process, but we also must be praying directly for the ones we are discipling. Most especially, we must pray that they will hear the truth God wants to reveal to them and make life-changing applications according to His will.

Now, this is not praying that they will listen to us and do what we say. It is praying that they will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit through our time together, and do what He says. Even when we are not perfect in getting the point across, the Holy Spirit is more than capable of filling in the gaps where we are lacking. Just as Paul writes:

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 2:12-13, English Standard Version

We must pray for the person to have an open heart, sincerely desiring growth in the Lord, and their ability to receive the truth. We must pray for a willingness to be vulnerable to the process, and to repent where necessary. We must pray for their active attempts to apply the life-giving truth the Holy Spirit is wanting to share with them. These things are their active participation with the discipleship process, and without it, growth will be stalled and our efforts useless.

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Pray for Impartation

Finally, we must realize that for true discipleship to take place, we must be engaging more than just the mental life of the believer. We must pray for God to give an impartation to the person spiritually, which releases righteousness into them as their new identity in Christ, and enables them to stand as a new creature in this world.

Paul said:

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. 

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, English Standard Version

This means that the evidence of true discipleship does show up when it is demonstrated in the person’s mental understanding of a truth, but it is even more evident when there is a demonstrative experience of life-changing power that bears tangible fruit in their life.

The scripture is full of examples of impartation, where a mature, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led believer lays hands on and prays over the one being discipled, and in a release of God’s power, the one being discipled is supernaturally transformed in some way. This may be being filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time or being “baptized by fire” for cleansing and holiness. It may be the reception of new gifts of the Spirit or another kind of supernatural release. The point is, it goes beyond human ability, as it comes directly from God.

Paul reminds us that the Kingdom of God is not only in talk, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). We, therefore, should pray for and expect the power of God to show up in our discipleship efforts. We are not only teachers, but we are the conduit through which the Holy Spirit can touch the person. 

The truth is, without impartation we are simply filling the new believer’s with head-knowledge, instead of raising them up as supernatural Children of God, endowed with “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). We must pray for divine impartation to come.

(Click here to continue to Discipleship Part 4.)

If you’re enjoying the content I produce, a little caffeine to keep me going would be appreciated!



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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Photo by nega on Unsplash

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Please note that I do get a small kickback from Amazon for any purchases made using the links on this post. Should you choose to purchase from them, I just want to say thank you for further supporting my work in ministry!

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Why Discipleship Matters

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I live in East Africa as a missionary. What I have found where I live is that there is a passion for outreach and evangelism that is lacking in many parts of the world. In almost every church there is a willingness to gather together for open-air gospel crusades, door-to-door evangelism, and other forms of outreach. This is very different than where I come from in America. As a former leader in multiple churches in Bible-belt, Texas I know from experience that it is a difficult thing to get large numbers or Christians together for sharing the gospel, and if you try to do an open-air meeting, it is usually not-well attended.

In Nigeria and other places, Reinhardt Bonnke leads mega crusades attended by millions of people daily. It is an incredible sight, seeing the faces of people stretching past the horizon. However, a few years ago, I attended a Bonnke Crusade in Houston, Texas – one of the largest cities in America – in a stadium that only has about 22,000 seats plus whatever can be added at ground level. From my perspective, the stadium appeared to be one-third of the way full. I don’t think that is the fault of Bonnke. It is because the churches and believers in Houston weren’t unified to see the crusade become a success.

Here in East Africa, the church is good at outreach. They lead big crusades. Churches coordinate together to form mass choirs. Teams are able to canvas an entire city, door-to-door, in a few days. And it is common to see thousands of people put their faith in Christ. I am truly impressed at what I see here!

Can I tell you what the church is not good at in East Africa?

We are not good at bringing the harvest into the barns and preserving the fruit! All too often, the harvest is simply left laying out in the field where it was picked. Churches go out and lead many people to Jesus, yet do not do well (on a large scale) at turning those converts into disciples! 

This is not just an East Africa problem. This is epidemic! It is becoming a whole-church problem!

The Great Commission

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has  been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them  in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them  to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

Matthew 28:18-20, English Standard Version

The problem with the lack of discipleship strategy is that the commission of Jesus on the church was not to Go and make converts! It was never to simply to go, preach the gospel, and lead people in a prayer to accept Jesus as their savior. It wasn’t even to go and do signs, wonders, healings, and miracles so that people see the power of God!

All of those things are great, and we need to do them even more. However, until we take those who pray the prayer and those who are touched by the power, and bring them into the body of Christ and disciple them, we are failing at the mission given to us by Christ.

If someone gets saved, but does not get discipled, we are picking the fruit from the tree, but leaving it laying in the field. To say it another way, we are becoming spiritual fathers and mothers to people, long enough to give new-birth, then leaving them as bastard children in the world, with no nurture or guidance to help them grow.

Defining Discipleship

The Lexham Theological Workbook says: 

“Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. For the Christian, this refers to the process of learning the teachings of Jesus and following after his example in obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship not only involves the process of becoming a disciple but of making other disciples through teaching and evangelism.”

So discipleship is the process of taking a lost person, seeing them saved by introducing them to Jesus, and then walking with them into maturity as a believer in their relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

I used to think that discipleship looked different: The first steps begin small – things like repentance of sin, baptism, church attendance – then as time goes on, the person should grow to learn to pray, study the scriptures, and serve. Eventually, they step into leadership and begin evangelizing the lost, teaching biblical truths to others, and discipling others in their own Christian walk.

Those things are good and necessary, but as I have grown in the Christian life, I have come to know that those things are only the actions of a disciple. They don’t make a disciple.

Converts vs. Disciples

Truly making a disciple is taking the now-saved person and helping them draw closer to the Lord; to Hear His voice; to walk in obedience to Him; to learn their identity in Christ, and leading them to fulfill the destiny God has for them in such a way that gives all the glory back to God. That will involve all the action steps listed above, but it is also so much more!

Let me break this idea down a bit:

Q: Should a new believer come to Church?

A: Yes, obviously!

Q: Is it the goal to simply get a new believer to attend church? Is that “success?”

A: No.

The goal is that the person learns to worship the Lord and serve God’s people! Church attendance is necessary, but it is not the final goal. Church attendance should lead the people into the life of worship and service.

I hope you can see the difference: A convert becomes a church attender. A disciple becomes a worshiper and a servant.

Our job is to take a lost person, bring them to Christ in conversion, and then continue the process of leading them to become mature disciples. This is how we preserve the harvest Christ has given to us.

Discipleship matters because the world is full of converts to the Christian religion, but God’s desire is mature sons and daughters. We have to do more than go into the field as harvesters, we have to invest the time, energy, and resources to preserve the harvest God has given.

We would love to hear from you in the comments: Have you been discipled by mature believers in your Christian walk, or were you left to struggle on your own? How are you investing in the next generation of believers to see them grow to full maturity in Christ?

In This Series

In this series on discipleship, we will look at:

As we go deeper into how discipleship works, I pray this series helps you as a believer to create a strategy for discipling others. Don’t forget to subscribe! You might also enjoy this video teaching I did recently on this topic, also called “Why Discipleship Matters.”

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

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Leadership: The 3-12-72 Principle

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I love leadership. I love growing as a leader. I love raising up other leaders around me. I have attended conferences on leadership, taken online courses in leadership, and read many books, by some of the greatest leadership authors of our time and from the past. However, one of the greatest leadership lessons I have learned, actually came to me when I was reading the Bible. I was taking note of how Jesus organized those He led around Himself, and found this very helpful principle for my own leadership, and I believe, as it does come from the greatest leader in (and out) of history, it is relevant for anyone in leadership to understand. 

Jesus Loved and Served Everyone

The first thing we must understand about Jesus is that He loved everyone He came in contact with, ministered with compassion to all, and demonstrated grace to everyone, even the ones everyone else loathed. It is His nature to love, and his desire to save everyone. However, as He walked the earth in a human body, Jesus seemingly realized that His physical limitations would prevent Him from giving equal time to everyone. Equal grace, love, and dignity for all? Yes. Equal face time? No.

When Jesus called His disciples, He called 12 men to drop everything and come follow Him. These 12 had a unique leadership connection to Jesus as He commissioned them for ministry (Matthew 10:1-15). These 12 men were there for it all, and they received special times with the Lord behind closed doors, when Jesus would go deeper in His teachings about the Kingdom of God. 

However, among the twelve, Jesus held an even closer relationship with three men, who have been dubbed the inner circle, made up of Peter, James (or Jacob) and John. Jesus allowed these three men to walk with him in some of the most intimate and personal times of His life and ministry, such as when He met with Moses and Elijah on the mountaintop, called the ‘transfiguration’ (Matthew 17:1-8), or in the Garden of Gethsemane as He called out to God in prayer the night before His crucifixion (Matthew 26:36-38). The rest of the 12 apostles just did not get this same access to Jesus.

Beyond just the 12, we also know that Jesus had more disciples who were with Him regularly, and heard His teachings often, because He later sends out 72 people to do ministry themselves in the towns He would soon be going to (Luke 10:1-12). These 72 must have been following Him for a while and learned the basics of ministry from Him in order for Him to be willing to send them out like this. Still, though, these did not get the same relationship or access to Jesus as the 12, or the 3.

More than this, we also know that beyond these 72, Jesus was followed by multitudes of people hearing His teaching and becoming His disciples. There were so many in this crowd that at one point He had to get in a boat and push away from shore a bit to be able to teach them all (Matthew 13:1-9). We also know that this number of people ran into the thousands, because even the disciples began to be concerned for the crowd’s well-being, asking Jesus to send them away so they could find food (Matthew 14:13-15). 

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Lesson for Leadership: “The 3-12-72 Principle”

It is clear that while He was on earth, Jesus had a great ministry that reached thousands of people, in a day when technology, internet, and great sound systems hadn’t even been thought up yet. Nevertheless, despite His love for every one of them, Jesus devoted Himself first and foremost to the 3, to the 12, and the 72, because they would be the next generation of leaders when He moved on. 

There is an important lesson demonstrated by Jesus’ disciple-making, that every leader must come to terms with, and that is you cannot – and should not – make an attempt to mentor and develop every person who comes to you one-on-one. You do not have the time, energy, or even the ability to do so. 

For any organization to grow and thrive, the senior leader must identify a few key leaders whom he can train and raise up well, and then send them out to train and mentor more in the same way. Just like Jesus, every leader should have a very small group of people who have full access to them, to learn and be equipped at the highest level. This group will go beyond just being mentors/mentees, to having a very intimate friendship built on the sharing of life together. For Jesus this number was three; for  many other great leaders, it is often only one or two at a time. 

After the commitment to pour fully into this small group, each leader should have another group around them (the 12) who are high-level leaders within the organization, and are therefore getting regular, ongoing, personal development, that is not intended for everyone in the organization. These men and women may not have full access to the leader’s life like the inner circle does, but they should have a high level of understanding as to how the organization functions and be given  some authority within the organization to lead various teams, projects, or divisions. 

Next, a great leader will still find ways to train and equip the next tier of leadership (the 72), to ensure success in their work, as well as giving regularly communicating vision, values and mission to the multitudes who make up the organization as a whole. These people may not have private meetings with the top leader very often, but he should at least know their names, what they are good at, and be building them up along the way. 

Finally, though the leader will be making his biggest investments into the 3, the 12, and the 72, it must remain a priority for him or her to regularly be casting the vision, demonstrating the values, and clarifying the mission priorities of the organization to the ‘multitudes’ who  work for the organization or have a stake in its success. Though the leader will not have the time or energy to be training these people one-on-one — which is the job of the 3, 12, and 72 — he or she should still see a personal need to invest in them as a group when time and resources allow. 

If a leader will develop this tiered structure of leadership development, and determine his or her personal level of investment in each group, the equipping given to each will be immensely greater than if the leader tried to treat everyone the same and give them equal time and training. 

The hard reality is that as leaders to go higher, the numbers get smaller. You cannot expect the multitudes to function at the same level as the inner circle, nor will they all have the same giftings and drive as those making up ‘the 12.’ You have to identify the right people to invest in at each level of leadership around you. 

A Note for Growing Leaders

While this principle definitely sounds unfair to someone wanting to grow in leadership, who may be one of the 72 or even just a face in the crowds, it is, nevertheless, true and necessary. What every person serving under a leader must come to terms with is that not everyone gets a seat at the front of the table. Demanding or usurping authority that is not given to you undermines the leadership you are trying to learn from. Submission means that we are willing to step up when called upon, and to step back otherwise. 

Learning to grow as a leader takes time and effort, not only on your part, but on those that will mentor you. We must either submit and step back sometimes, or find another leader to follow who will train us.

If you’re enjoying the content I produce, a little caffeine to keep me going would be appreciated!



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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Photo by Kate Kalvach on Unsplash

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

Please note that I do get a small kickback from Amazon for any purchases made using the links on this post. Should you choose to purchase from them, I just want to say thank you for further supporting my work in ministry!

(This post was originally published March 3, 2011. It has been revised and edited for reposting.)

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