In 1963 Dr. Robert E. Coleman released probably the most influential book ever written on the topic of evangelism: The Master Plan of Evangelism. He sought to answer one simple question – What was Jesus’ strategy for evangelism? He concluded that the way Jesus did evangelism was to devote the majority of his time to the twelve disciples letting them get to know him so that they could become like him and teaching them the nature of his Kingdom so that they could live accordingly. He then sent them to disciple others in his name. Jesus changed the world not by converting the masses but by discipling twelve men who went out and discipled others. We have developed plenty of ways of going about evangelism: going door to door with evangelistic tracks, holding big evangelistic events, working at the food bank, inviting a friend to church hoping the preacher can get through to them, good signage, worship services with catchy music and uplifting messages. Unfortunately, that’s not the way Jesus did it. Jesus did evangelism through making disciples who made disciples who made disciples and so on.
Many years ago at one of my last Presbytery meetings in West Virginia, the chair of the Presbytery Finance Committee was lamenting on how the financial situation of the Presbytery was becoming drastically weaker in correlation to our congregations become smaller and financially in crisis. He diagnosed that the problem was evangelism, mostly the lack there of. This rings true here in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Our churches and our denomination are dying, but nobody is doing evangelism.
One could ask why that is and the obvious answer would be our churches have been good at producing members who call themselves Christians, but we would be quite near to lying if we said the people in our pews were actually disciples of Jesus Christ. Speaking for myself, in my 31 years of commitment to Jesus Christ I have only brushed up against something called being discipled on less than a handful of occasions mostly in university. I have simply been well churched through attending worship and Adult Sunday school and Bible studies – two things that have also dried up in most PCC churches. I’ve been well churched, but not discipled.
What is a disciple? I have two definitions for you. Greg Ogden in Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ says: “Discipling is an intentional relationship in which we walk alongside other disciples in order to encourage, equip and challenge one another in love to grow towards maturity in Christ. This includes equipping the disciple to teach others as well.”[1] Disciples grow in maturity in Christ and equip one another to disciple others.
Another definition, when Jesus called his first disciples he said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” In Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington unpack that verse and say that “a true disciple is a person who follows Jesus, is transformed by Jesus, and joins with Jesus on his mission”.[2]
A disciple follows Jesus. This is first a commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, a commitment to do his will in all things, a commitment to study his life teachings and live accordingly. It is a commitment to know him, to have a relationship with him in prayer, in scripture study, and in others. We must also remember that following Jesus is not an individual exercise, but something we do with a group of others in which there is accountability.
A disciple is someone whom Jesus is transforming to be more like him by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. A disciples’ relationship with Jesus among other disciples changes us. We learn we are beloved children of the Father. He changes our very nature to be like him. He doesn’t make us to be what we imagine him to be like. He gives us deep impressions of who he is that change us.
Several years back I took up the task of memorizing the Sermon on the Mount a verse a day. I would memorize the verse and as best as I could I kept reciting it to myself throughout the day. About 2/3 of the way through those roughly 110 days one afternoon on a run while I was reciting that verse Jesus impressed upon me a sense of how patiently non-judgemental and forgiving he is. It changed me and has taken the rough edge off of how cut and dry I could be towards others. He took me off my judge’s bench. When I find myself trying to resume my place on that bench I recall that feeling and I instantly become more understanding of others.
A disciple joins Jesus in his ministry of bringing about the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. This means that our homes, our work places, our neighbourhoods, are places to which Jesus has sent us (placed us) to be living witnesses of who he is and to be part of the means through which he invites and draws people to come and be his disciples. Jesus has placed us in every significant relational network we are in to be witnesses to him so that through us he might draw others to himself.
Discipleship is something we have to intentionally do if we are going to grow into the new life Jesus freely gives us and calls us to in himself. Timothy and I would like to introduce intentional discipling into the churches of the Coop. We would like in each of the churches that groups of 2-4 women and 2-4 men form and commit to meet together roughly once a week for a total of 25 weeks and work through this resource: Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ. This resource builds Christian friendship, personal devotion, and teaches the faith. It trains you so that when you finish working through it with the initial group you will go and start another group and work through the resource.
Jesus told us to go and make disciples. If I were a super-evangelist and got one person a day to make a personal decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, after 16 years I would have 5,840 decisions for Christ but no way to feed all those people so that they grow in maturity in Christ. But if I disciple two people through this resource and they in turn disciple two people who disciple two more and so on, after 16 years there would be 65,536 well fed disciples of Jesus Christ. As of 2015, the Presbyterian Church in Canada had 980 congregations and 91,036 members. If we started discipling, that would change quickly. Maybe we should start discipling. Amen.
[1] Pg. 17
[2] Pg. 54
