By Daniel McCoy: Dr. Orpheus J. Heyward is involved every day in the trenches helping people to be disciples of Jesus. He uses the Word of God as his foundational manual for disciple making. And yet … there are many people with questions about Scripture.

The following is a Question and Answer post by Daniel McCoy and Orpheus.

Daniel McCoy: Alister McGrath wrote Christianity’s Dangerous Idea in which he explains that if you give everybody their own Bible in their own language, you will have tons of different interpretations. With everybody having their own Bible (and their own social media account, blog, podcasts, etc.), there’s a risk that people will invent and teach some very unbiblical interpretations. Can you give an example of when you heard somebody’s interpretation of a Bible passage and it made you say, “What in the world?!”

Dr. Orpheus J. Heyward: I can think of numerous cases and some of those cases may even be from my own early preaching experience, where after looking back retrospectively, I started to realize, Man, I really took some Scriptures out of context.

In the name of theology and doctrine, sometimes our zeal gets ahead of our hermeneutical understanding. When we want to be orthodox or when we want to ensure that we’re theologically correct, sometimes we’re more loyal to a particular religious tradition than to a proper interpretation of Scripture.

One example would be 1 Corinthians 14:40. This is a really common passage, where it says,

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”

That passage has been used for a great variety of things from saying you shouldn’t clap in church, to how women are dressed in church, to what should be the order of worship, to the idea that you can’t sing and do the Lord’s supper at the same time.

Protecting the Practice vs. Interpreting the Scripture

So, there have been numerous ways that that passage has been used to suggest various positions, and every position I’ve heard on that passage has been about trying to protect the practice—as opposed to truly treating what the apostle Paul was treating in the context of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14.

In 1 Corinthians 14:40, when Paul says that all things be done decently and in order, contextually he was dealing with the management of spiritual gifts. And he was dealing with the fact that you had prophets and tongue speakers who were not doing things in a way that would be edifying, in a way the church could understand.

Yet we have taken that passage and used it for everything we want to use it for. We use it as a double-edged sword. We cut people coming and going without truly understanding what Paul was dealing with in that context.

DM: What’s another example of people teaching a Bible passage which they clearly hadn’t taken the time to interpret correctly?

OH: Another would be in Acts 17, which says that God is not worshiped with human hands. That verse has been used to suggest that clapping is a sin. Yet, if you look at the context, you see that they were making idols. Paul addresses the practice of idol making by helping them to understand who God truly is—that he is not a God that needs you to make him or create him. In that context, he’s far from dealing with clapping.

DM: I think clapping is a sin … but only when it’s off-beat. Other than that, I think it should be okay. So, a lot of people see spirituality as a matter of opinion. They might say, “Well, this is how I read the Bible. And I find it to be an inspirational, inspiring way of reading it.” If I’ve got my own inspirational feelings from reading the Bible my own way, then does it really matter what the original authors meant to say? Isn’t it enough just to figure out what it means to me?

OH: You know, that’s a common approach of reading literature called the “reader-response method.” The reader response method took the position that in the absence of the author—since we do not have access to the author and we can’t ask the author what is meant—then we need to ascertain what it means to us. Therefore, the method was called “reader response.”

The problem with that is that God places the meaning in Scripture. We need to be very careful that we don’t negate the methodology of God by which He wants us to be guided by his wisdom. And to that end, he gives us Scripture and Scripture is not to be privately interpreted from the perspective that I can come up with what it means to me.

I need to ask, “What is God trying to communicate to me? What is God trying to say to me? What is the instructive mechanism involved here?”

For instance, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God might be equipped for every good work. Well, if it’s left up to me to come up with what it means, where’s the rebuke? Where’s the correction? Where’s the instruction in righteousness? It then becomes subjective, which means I can then bend Scripture to my will as opposed to making my will bend to Scripture.

So it becomes a dangerous process when I lead with the notion that I can give Scripture meaning. That perspective negates the wisdom of God—that God is the revealer of Scripture by which He wants to communicate meaning to us. So, I think the reader response philosophy is very dangerous and gives birth to a plethora of different religious positions that are predicated on what people want and what people feel as opposed to what did God actually communicate.

________________________________________________________________

Recommended resources related to this topic:

Join Orpheus Heyward in the Discipleship.org Collective on Thursday, April 22nd at 10:00 am CT where he will talk about how to read and understand the Bible and what to do with our questions. Hosted by Daniel McCoy and Renee Sproles from Renew.org

Original Blog Source: https://renew.org/whats-so-dangerous-about-bible-misinterpretation-qa-with-orpheus-j-heyward/

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Source: What’s So Dangerous About Misinterpreting the Bible?

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By Discipleship.org:

Shut your mouth.

That sounds a little harsh, I know, but track with me… To make disciples who make disciples, there is great value in keeping quiet. This has been the most consistently challenging, beneficial, and practical disciple-making lesson the Holy Spirit has taught me. It is a lesson I need to be reminded of everyday.

For some of you, this may be an easy directive to follow. Many of you are like me: God has given you a passion and a calling to proclaim his Good News. And perhaps you’ve studied creative communication strategies, taken a deep dive into deep truths of his Word so that our exegetical messages take into account culture and context, and when you are in a Bible study group you always have something to say that is (in our not-so-humble opinion) insightful, inspiring, and certainly interesting.

In my decades of full-time ministry, and through my missions work on three different continents, I have been blessed to sit at the feet of some amazing men and women whom God has used to spark multi-generational disciple making movements (DMMs). These leaders came from multiple streams of evangelical backgrounds and their training varied in several areas. However, one point has been consistent throughout: talk all you want if you want to make disciples and have it stop at one generation.

To truly disciple a disciple maker, however, we must learn to shut our mouths, listen,andtrust the Holy Spirit.

Why do I, personally, have a hard time shutting my mouth? It really comes down to pride. I too often trust in my own ability to impact the person I am discipling more than I trust in the Holy Spirit’s ability to teach and guide them.

Do you trust the Holy Spirit living in you? Do you really trust that the Holy Spirit can work in a disciple, even if they’ve just started following Jesus?

If you are reading this, I’m sure you love and follow Jesus. And if Jesus were physically present with you now, you would have no problem trusting him. You would also trust him with any person you might be discipling. If this disciple were reading Scripture and seeking to understand it better, there is no doubt you would trust Jesus to reveal to them just what he needs to know.

Do you trust the Holy Spirit in the same way? Jesus said that it is better for us that he should go to be with the Father (John 16). Ponder that for a moment: Can you imagine anything better than having Jesus physically present in the here and now, right next to you? Nothing could be better than going about your ministry with Jesus alongside you, right?

Getting stuck on a difficult Bible passage? Easy, let’s ask Jesus!
Someone you are discipling has doubts and asks a difficult question? “Well, I don’t know,” you might say. Then, turning to Jesus, “Uh… Jesus? What do you think”?

How great would that be? And yet, Jesus himself said there is something better:

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:7–8).

Just a few verses down, Jesus names this helper the “Spirit of truth” that will guide us into “all the truth.” What is better than having Jesus next to us? Having Jesus in us through his Spirit of truth. We must also believe this is true for our disciples if we want them to become disciple makers.

We will make disciples like Jesus when we follow Jesus’ example of trusting the Holy Spirit to guide us. Specifically, we must learn to trust that the Spirit can work even in baby believers in powerful ways. I am always astounded at how much Jesus entrusted to his disciples—all of whom he knew were still quite clueless about even important truths of the promised King and His Kingdom. Jesus knew their passionate faith and willingness to obey could make up for what they were lacking in theological depth.

Think about when Jesus sends out the twelve apostles (in Matthew 10) and later the 72 disciples (in Luke 10). Think of the crucially important task he was giving them even though they were off-track in so much of their thinking about the Messiah. They were to go to towns and villages and proclaim the prophesied arrival of the Kingdom of God! Jesus told them to make known his message and, amazingly, he trusted these young disciples to DO just as he DID. He trusted in the Spirit to lead and provide:

Jesus depended on God’s provision and his disciples were to go out with nothing and trust God to provide. (Matthew 10:10; Luke 10:4)
Jesus discerned who was open to the gospel and he trusted his followers to be able to, on the one hand, find people of peace open to the gospel and, on the other, recognize when those people were not present and walk on – shaking the dust off their feet along the way. (Matthew 10:12–14; Luke 10:6–11)
Jesus even trusted the Spirit to work in these young disciples supernaturally, so much so that he laid some pretty bold expectations before them. They were to touch the untouchables, deliver the demon-possessed, heal the sick and even raise the dead! His trust was well-founded. These disciples, who were still so young in their faith-walk, came back with amazing reports of God’s faithfulness. They joyfully exclaimed, “Even the demons are subject to us in your name”! (Matthew 10:8; Luke 10:9,17)

How much do you think they learned about Christ and his Kingdom through that experience? How much more was their faith strengthened than if they had simply watched Jesus do it? Jesus expected them to put their faith into practice from the start. He sent them as sheep among wolves because He knew God would be with them. The fruit was evident, and far more people encountered the Kingdom of God than could have been accomplished by them staying together as one large group.

Jesus sometimes had a short, impactful encounter with someone and then sent them on saying, “go and sin no more.” Even some who wanted to stay with Jesus, he sent away. One example is in Mark 5 and Luke 8. The Gerasene demoniac, so fresh from being radically delivered from a legion of demonic forces, begged to go with Jesus. In our Western Christian culture, we would invite this former demoniac into an extensive time of healing and Bible study while protecting him from the big bad world outside that had so thoroughly abused him. We would certainly not give him any significant responsibilities at church until we had seen a prolonged history of healthy habits being created. Jesus, however, commissioned him to go reach his own people in Decapolis. Some of these people had just rejected Jesus and asked him to leave! Was this commissioning successful? So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. (Mark 5:20)

After the resurrection and before the ascension, Jesus imparts his peace to the disciples while making it clear that they are to do as he did, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”. (John 20:21) He also commissioned his followers to go and make disciples by baptizing and teaching obedience. Jesus made it clear that they were NOT to do this on their own. Though he told them to go, he told them to first wait. Wait for what? Wait for the Spirit! Then, Jesus foresaw, they would be empowered to make disciples as Jesus did. (Acts 1: 4, 8)

These disciples followed Jesus’ model and trusted His Spirit in sometimes surprising ways:

In Acts 8, Philip, John and Peter went through various Samaritan villages and saw great fruit. They then moved on, entrusting the Spirit to continue the training of these new disciples. One encounter was very quick. Philip had no choice but to leave the Ethiopian eunuch with the small but significant teaching that led to the eunuch’s baptism. Philip was “carried away” to another place and the eunuch was left with the Spirit living inside of him. Was it enough? The eunuch went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39).
In Acts 10, we see the gentile Cornelius and his entire household become Christ-followers. Everyone knew this was incredibly significant. Gentiles had accepted the good news and God had accepted them! With something so significant and “out of the box,” we would expect Peter to be certain they would “get it right.” Right? Surely, he would stick around to impart the knowledge they needed. Instead, he had no doubt that these non-Jews had received the same Spirit that they had. Peter and his coworkers simply stayed there for “some days” – not “some months” or even “some weeks.” Just a few days! Why? He trusted that Cornelius and his household had what they needed: “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us”. (Acts 15:8)

In the latter half of the book of Acts, the commissioned Paul and those with him followed this same model of truly trusting the Holy Spirit. Paul would stay or leave a place under the direction of the Spirit, independent of the success of his church plants in any particular area. He seldom stayed in one place more than a few months and yet the churches survive, thrive and even multiply under the continued guidance of the Spirit. Yes, Paul would often leave other leaders in these places. But these “leaders”, like Timothy, were also quite young in the faith. In 2 Timothy 2:2, we see Paul encouraging Timothy to make disciple-making disciples – four generations! All of Paul’s letters to these churches and young disciples reinforce the importance of a dependance on the Holy Spirit and trust in the Spirit’s guidance (good examples of this are found in Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 2 and 12, and Galatians 5).

Here we are 2,000 years later. Are we following the model Jesus gave us as we make disciples? Are we trusting in the Holy Spirit? Are we listening more than talking? Are we training our disciples to do the same?

All of the disciple making movements that I have encountered around the world have leaders who really, really trust the Holy Spirit’s ability to teach and guide even baby-believers. Do these young disciples get off track sometimes? Of course. Do they stumble and fall? Yes, indeed. When a child learns to walk, you expect some falls along the way. When a baby stumbles, we don’t suddenly distrust in their ability to eventually walk. We would never just put them in a wheelchair and say, “I tell you what. You just let me push you where you need to go. It will be better for you that way”. Of course not. We help them up and encourage them to try again! Half of the New Testament was written to help admonish young followers of Jesus who were struggling to obey the Spirit’s lead.

One area we often trust ourselves in more than the Holy Spirit is when we lead a disciple in a Bible study. When I was first exposed to disciple-making movements and the training from their leaders, this was one of the more challenging areas for me to follow. Again, I was blessed to be exposed to many different streams of “DMM” training and tools. Without fail, though, they employed a similar method when it came to getting into God’s Word with a disciple. This tool is commonly called a “Discovery Bible Study” (DBS). These varied methods had one crucially important trait: disciples are given the freedom to discover truths from God’s word, trusting the Spirit to teach them what they need to “discover”.

This is a significant departure from typical Bible studies in Western Christian culture. A traditional Bible study is more top-down. The teacher imparts information to the student. Yes, God’s Word is utilized but it is the teacher who tells the student what they should believe about any particular passage. A good teacher will employ questions and even discussions but only as a tool to get to a preconceived parcel of knowledge that the teacher wants the student to receive. This is not wrong in and of itself, but it does propagate a dependance upon an “expert”. Without that so-called expert, the disciple is paralyzed by lack of confidence. The teacher seems to have all the answers, so the disciple becomes dependent on that teacher. Too often, religious experts insert themselves into a place where the Spirit would be much more effective.

Discovery Bible Studies, on the other hand, ask simple questions and then allow the Spirit to do his work. The students feel a sense of ownership because this new understanding came from the Spirit living within them. This also shows them that they too can share God’s word with others. These new disciples know that they do not have to carry the burden of having all the right answers in order to make disciples. They trust the Spirit to help their new disciples discover the truth just as the Spirit helped them. This empowers even brand-new disciples to know Jesus, follow Him and teach others to do the same.

My experience in using the DBS method has humbled me. I have witnessed how much better a teacher the Spirit is than I am. I ask simple questions like, “What does this Bible passage teach you about God or Jesus”? And then I hear the Spirit tell me, again, “Shut your mouth”.

Sometimes it is so hard to obey!

“But,” my heart cries out to the Spirit, “I have such an amazing insight into this verse that I just KNOW they will be blessed by”!

“Just be quiet”.

“But what about the cultural context and other related bible passages”? I stubbornly argue, “What I know about this is very relevant and I think they need to know this”.

The Spirit patiently and firmly convicts my heart again, “Stay silent, even if the silence feels awkward. Let them think. Let me work. Just wait”.

I do. I wait. I let these young disciples discover a truth from JUST God’s word with JUST the Holy Spirit to guide them. What happens?

Time and time again, their answers blow my mind. It is often something I would have never thought to say but exactly what they needed to know and understand. I am even more amazed by their answers to another common “DBS” question, “How can I obey what I’ve learned from this passage”? Their answers are typically much more radical and far bolder than I would have been comfortable expecting of them. Are they always spot on? No. Sometimes they throw in something off the mark. A follow-up question like, “Now where in this verse did you see that”? usually gets them back on track.

Because they “discovered it” themselves, it sticks. The Spirit places it deep in their heart and they believe it. They obey it. Not only that, but they inherently understand that anyone can take God’s Word and learn what they need from it. They see that the Word is alive and active and convicting and relevant and worth spending time with.

This is what happens when I choose to trust the Holy Spirit with a simple Bible Study time. Don’t misunderstand. The Spirit will lead us to teach deep truths at times, but our default should be to first allow the Spirit to do his work. That means being quiet far more than we are accustomed to.

One final note regarding Bible Study – simple truth with simple obedience is powerful. We love to complicate things and keep truth abstract. However, when we trust in the Spirit, we must be willing to keep truth simple and practical. One of my favorite quotes is from the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

Of course, our need to trust the Holy Spirit transcends just Bible Studies. The need to be more Spirit-dependent saturates every aspect of making disciples who make disciples:

Prayer and Fasting (all disciple-making movements start with prayer movements).
Moving from knowledge-based discipleship to Spirit-led obedience-based discipleship.
Discerning where God is at work, who he is working on, and joining him in that work.
Knowing when a disciple is ready to step out on their own. (It is sooner than you think when you trust the Holy Spirit).
The list goes on.

Want to be a good disciple-maker? Trust in the Holy Spirit. Want to make disciples who make disciples? Trust that the Holy Spirit will work in those you disciple.

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Source: Trusting the Spirit Enough to Keep Quiet

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By Justin Gravitt: It’s the best known, most visited, most written about, and most famous work of art in the world. You know the one, right? Picture it in your mind. This is the most famous painting in the history of the world. It’s so famous that you can clearly picture it in your mind, right? Take a moment and picture it right now.

Chances are you are correctly visualizing the “Mona Lisa.” Now let me ask you, Are her eye brows thick or thin? What color are her clothes? What color are her eyes? What’s in the background? Very few people can answer all of these questions. Their inability reveals blurriness around what just a few moments before was thought to be clear.

In our series on Marks of a Disciple Making Culture, we’ve cultivated clarity in a few normally blurry areas: What’s the big vision? Where should the church be aimed? What’s the place of intentionality? And today, we’ll look at the importance of a picture of a disciple.

Just as most people have trouble clearly visualizing the Mona Lisa, most pastors and Christians have a blurry picture of a disciple. It’s a big problem. After all, if you can’t see it, how can you be it? Plus, it’s hard to repeatedly make something that you can’t clearly see or articulate. The absence of a clear picture of a disciple makes the already difficult task of culture building nearly impossible. How is your church doing in this area?

Picture a Disciple

Try this: sit down with your staff team and ask them to write down what a disciple is, does, and believes. If your church culture has a picture of a disciple this question will surface it. If you don’t have one, you’ll get lots of puzzle pieces, but no picture.

When I say picture of a disciple, I don’t mean a definition or even a description. I mean a visual that sticks in the mind. Developing a disciple making culture without one is like doing a puzzle without the picture. The picture helps us know how the pieces fit together into a whole. It’s the next best thing to a living breathing example.

Jesus was a living example of a disciple, but he still offered pictures of a mature disciple to His disciples. Whether it was to be a fisher of men, a tree with good fruit, taking up the cross daily, or being just like the teacher, Jesus not only modeled what it looked like to be a disciple, he painted pictures of it. He wanted the disciples to be very clear on what He was asking them to become.

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Paul understood he was a living example too, but he still tells Timothy to be like a soldier, an athlete, and a soldier (2 Tim. 2:1-3–7). Later he compares the life of a disciple to a house with ignoble and noble articles. After some housekeeping the disciple is useful to the Master for every good work (2 Timothy 2:20–21).

There are plenty of modern examples to look at as well such as, The Navigators’ Wheel Illustration (and where I often start with a disciple), 3DM’s Up/In/Out Triangle, Dann Spader’s Holy Spirit POWER (Prayerful, Obedient, Word-centered, Exalting the Father, and Relational). Each one clearly communicates what the life of a disciple should look like. Each one has the power to shape the focus of a disciple and a community of believers.

Develop Your Picture

If you don’t have one, let me suggest a simple process to help you develop one.

Spend time with your leaders doing a Bible study and praying for clarity about how Jesus made disciples. This one is very good.
Ask the group for the top three things a disciple is, does, and believes. As a group identify 6–10 key qualities of Jesus.
Pray for God to help you identify an image or acronym to hang these on. For most, this takes time and wrestling.
Take your picture to other leaders in and out of your church and ask them to critique it. Use their input to improve it.
Come back together to finalize your picture.
Develop a plan for how to communicate this picture to everyone in the church.

Every disciple making culture I’ve ever seen has a picture of a disciple. It’s one of the major pieces of a culture that’s focused on being and making disciples. Since what we elevate people aspire to, such a picture sets people’s sights on who they are to become…and who they are to make.

It’s okay if your picture is the same as another’s. The important thing is not a brand new picture, but the process of collective clarity with your leaders. A pixelated image of a disciple isn’t enough to motivate people to do the hard work of becoming. They need living, breathing examples of what a disciple looks like. Clarity allows you and your leaders to live it and communicate it with conviction. And that sort of life brings incredible power to transform (Acts 1:8).

By Justin Gravitt

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Source: Picture of a Disciple

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By: New Churches

In Episode 504 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss if feeling like the community is in need of a biblically-based church necessitates a call to plant a church.

“My name is Justin and I am wondering if a need necessitates a call. My wife and I , and our four children, moved to an agricultural area and we cannot find a biblically-balanced church for ourselves to call home. The nearest church that would fit us and align with our beliefs is about 40 minutes away and out of the community. So, I am wondering if we should start one here. I have a ministry background, theological degree, I used to travel and speak. We did that for about 10 years, but over the last 5 years I’ve been in business and have done some work for others. I’m wondering if now, since we cannot find a church, if we should be the ones to start a church. Does the need necessitate a call?”

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

If sensing a need in the community is the same as feeling a call to plant a church
Why you should start by making disciples

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“The need is one component, but it cannot be the driving force to plant a church, because there are needs everywhere.” – @danielsangi
“There will always be more needs than there is time to be able to meet them, especially for one church.” – @danielsangi
“It’s not just a mathematical decision, you really do need to commit this to God and experience that sense of call.” – @danielsangi
“There is no reason for you to at least not start a Bible study.” – @toddadkins
“It is poor stewardship of your life if you are not pouring into some biblical community in some way.” – @toddadkins
“Take a church planter assessment, see your gifting, commit it to prayer, but beyond all that start discipling.” – @danielsangi
“If you are used to preaching and leading, sometimes you have to submit yourself to say this is not perfect and I am not in charge, but I need to handle myself in such a way that I lead my family well in being part of a biblical community.” – @toddadkins

Recommended Resources:

Read Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im
Take the New Churches Church Planter Candidate Assessment

Help us Multiply the Mission:

Please subscribe
Leave a rating and review on iTunes
Ask a question by clicking Send Voicemail on the right hand side of NewChurches.com
If you’re on a phone or a tablet, then go to www.speakpipe.com/newchurches to download the app and record your message
When you’re recording, introduce yourself and your context in about 15 seconds and then record your question for 30 seconds

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Source: Episode 504: Does a Need Necessitate a Call?

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by Impact Discipleship Ministries: I don’t know about you, but I want to be a dangerous disciple. I want to be the kind of disciple that Satan hates to see coming, the kind of disciple that the demons are trying to figure out how to slow down. I want to become the kind of disciple that is causing a ruckus in Hell. I want to live every day in such a way that the life God has given me is being used to the fullest for His glory. I’m not there yet, but I want to get to the point where God is using me every moment to impact eternity.

As I understand the scriptures and the life of Christ, the most dangerous disciple on the planet is the one who is multiplying more disciples. Multiplication is the one thing Satan fears the most. It is the one things that has the power to put a dent in the darkness and push back the evil influence in our world today. Men and women who live in such a way that they are multiplying many generations of Christ followers are dangerous disciples.

Determination.

What does it take to become dangerous? The single most important thing that defines a dangerous disciple is dogged determination. In other words, someone with a spirit that simply will not give up, an attitude that will not let you quit. Someone who puts their hand to the plow and just keeps going and going when others have already gone home.

This blog is from our partner Impact Discipleship Ministries. Sign up here to get updates sent to your inbox about ministries like theirs so you can grow as a disciple maker.

Satan’s number one most effective strategy against multiplication is distraction. His most effective tool against multiplying disciples is to get us distracted with “good” things that keep us from the “best” things. If Satan can cause a disciple to get busy with the wrong things, he can stop him or her from being productive in the right things. As disciples, it is so essential that we stay focused on what really matters.

Connection.

Let me encourage you to connect with a group of people. Meet with them weekly to study God’s Word together, do life together, minister together, and pray together. In a year or two, someone in the group, people in your group will be ready to go out and repeat the process with other disciples. Keep replicating this disciple making process over and over again. By the time you leave this earth, you will have made multiple generations of disciples and put a serious dent in the darkness.

Let me challenge you to become a dangerous disciple. The world needs men and women who know from where the real power to change the world comes. Work the plan God has given us. Don’t let all the wrong things distract you from the main thing. Make disciples like Jesus did and keep doing that over and over until He takes you Him. That’s it.

By Impact Discipleship Ministries

Impact Discipleship Ministries exists to help you be and build disciples. For resources or training for disciple making, check out their website or contact them through impactdisciples.com.

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Source: Dangerous Disciples

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by unSeminary: If you’re a church leader, chances are you’ve heard some form of criticism that sounds something like this:

“It’s not deep enough.” “I wish we would go deeper.”“I wish our church was more gospel-centered.”

I feel like these criticisms are as old as our faith. In fact, after talking with church leaders across the country, it appears they hear some version of this common comment all the time. This commentary isn’t limited to one particular style or theological persuasion of church; it’s heard throughout various corners of the Christian world. From the happy-clappy to the frozen chosen, from the Bible-centered to community-responsive models, it always seems like there is a segment of Christ followers that are happy to provoke their leaders by complaining that the church just isn’t “deep enough.”

How do you respond to such criticism?

For many leaders, it can feel like a dagger to their very souls. None of us got into ministry because we wanted to have a shallow faith. None of us are sacrificing the things we do just so we can scratch people’s ears or simply present some sort of watered-down version of the Gospel.

Church leaders try to establish a faithful representation of the biblical community they see in the New Testament within their own communities today. The heartbeat of church leaders is to apply the timeless teachings of Christ to the life we experience today. We’re looking for ways to apply the ancient scriptures so that people can live out that faith in a robust and generous manner during their day to day lives.

Practically speaking, how do you react and respond to this question when you’re confronted with it? Like every question that’s asked of you as a leader, it’s good to dig below the surface and understand the real reasons behind the question before responding.

Let’s consider how you can respond to discipleship critics at your church. Here are some ways to think about how to encourage people to understand your mission more deeply and to engage with the community you’re attempting to connect with.

Faith in action

The New Testament leans towards the fact that our faith in Christ is not primarily something between our ears but rather something to live out in the world around us. Sometimes when people are criticizing the church for not being “deep enough,” what they’re actually looking for is more trivia acquisition. They’re looking for more Bible facts and figures so they can impress other Christians at cocktail parties (but let’s be honest, this crowd doesn’t go to cocktail parties).

However, that motivation is starkly contrasted to even just a plain reading of the New Testament. Time and again, people ask, “How are we living out our faith? How are we taking what we know about Jesus and putting that into action?” It doesn’t appear that true faith, from a New Testament perspective, is just about information acquisition or a simple verbal or mental assent to a series of timeless truths.

It’s legitimate to push back when someone comments that the church is not deep enough and ask them to explain what a deeper faith looks like. From what I can tell, it would appear that a deep faith is one that attempts to live out the message of Jesus in a relevant manner in the communities around us.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” – Proverbs 19:17“‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” – Luke 4:18-19“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” – Galatians 2:10“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” – James 1:22“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” – James 2:1-4“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:15-17“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” – Matthew 25:40“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” – 1 John 3:18

“There’s another church across town.”

You’ve got to watch how you say this one, because you don’t want to come across as aloof or emotionally disconnected from someone when they’re asking you a legitimate question. However, it is true that your church isn’t going to be the right fit for everyone in your town.

We need lots of different approaches in order to reach different kinds of people. It’s perfectly acceptable to point to another four or five churches within a 20-minute drive of your church that you could refer people to when they come to you with this kind of complaint.

A great way to do this is to ask them to complete this sentence: “I like our church; however, I wish it was more ______.”  That would be the time to help someone understand there may be other churches in town that are more in line with what they’re looking for.

For example, someone might complain that your church doesn’t “do more worship.” After you process that idea with them and realize that you don’t seem to be coming to a meeting of the minds,  you could say, “If you’re looking for a church with more musical worship, you really should check out this other church across town. I know the pastor there, and they have great people at Across Town Church. They love the Lord, and you know what? I happen to know that they do 45 minutes of musical worship every Sunday. You should check them out.”

People might say, “I really love our church, but I wish it was more focused on expositional teaching.” And you could say, “Well, I’m glad you mentioned that. My friend Pastor Susan across town is in the middle of a 24 week series on the book of Luke. It’s fantastic, I really think the world of them. You should check them out. Would you like me to make that connection for you?” By being disarmingly open with your people, you both clarify why it is you do what you do and show that there really is no competition in the body of Christ. It’s so important to realize that at the end of the day we all want people to get more connected and deeply rooted in their churches.

Challenge into leadership

When someone comes to you and says that the church simply isn’t deep enough, you might consider engaging this person in a conversation about leadership.

Sometimes this concern stems from a very genuine place about the discipleship makeup of a church. In fact, this might be the opportunity to help this person become more connected to the community by becoming a leader in the church. Sometimes people raising their hands like this are the ones you want to get more plugged in!

Rather than deferring them or challenging them about whether they’re putting their faith into action, you could simply acknowledge that yes, we are looking for ways to continue to grow the discipleship culture. Ask them to explain how they would see that the discipleship culture grow, or how they would improve this aspect of your ministry. Maybe they’ll offer to lead a small group, suggest the possibility of a Bible elective, or run a weekend preaching conference. Once they mention their ideas, it would be entirely appropriate to ask if they would be willing to help that idea come to fruition.

Reaching new people

This can be a perfect opportunity for us to talk through the mission of our church. The church I attend has regular conversations about how we’re trying to be the kind of church that unchurched people love to attend. For us, that means that we do feel uniquely called to engage those who don’t normally attend church.

Consider when Jesus was asked questions about faith. He often just responded with more questions rather than diving into long, theological diatribes. Following in that tradition, we are attempting to engage the broader public as they’re asking questions about faith, about things that are relevant to the Bible, and about the teachings of Jesus

I don’t believe that there are church leaders who are attempting to water down the message of Jesus in order to reach people; rather, we are trying to hold to the timeless truths of Christ and engage the broader culture at the same time.  And so, we are going to err on the side of engagement because we think that there’s a bigger mission out there.

The local church is the only organization in the world whose primary focus should be on the people not yet within its walls. In the same way that Jesus sent us into all the world to share the good news, we feel a unique call to reach out to our community and ask, “Hey, how can we engage the people in our community with what it means to follow Christ?” Ask the person who questions the church’s depth about how they’re engaging with that mission and what you can do to help them become more deeply involved in seeing their community be impacted by the message of Christ. This can be a good time to help people get clarity on the mission and to invite them to join in and be a part of it.

How do you respond to critics in your church? I suspect that most of the church leaders reading this have heard this criticism lodged against them at some point in time. What do you say when people say your church is not deep enough? I’d love to hear in the comments below about how you respond to this issue. What conversations have you had that have been helpful in ultimately turning a critic into a more engaged member of your church? I’m cheering for you as you tackle those hard conversations, and I’m honored that I get to serve alongside you as you attempt to reach the people that God has put in your path.

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Source: “It’s Not Deep Enough”: Responding to Discipleship Critics in Your Church

The post “It’s Not Deep Enough”: Responding to Discipleship Critics in Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Alex Absalom: In your group life, do you find that only a few people feel confident to share what they see in the Bible?
Would you like a simple viral way to train others in how to read the Bible… and wonder if Discovery Bible Study might be a way forward?
How confident are you that you can effectively read the Bible with pre-Christians?

One of the keys to healthy missional community life is having the Bible at the center. People need to be able to encounter God there – but in ways that empower each individual, wherever they are on their spiritual journey, to see Jesus for themselves and not feel pressured to merely parrot out the “right” answer.

Fresh Bread

In broad terms, one of our 6 essentials of ‘what happens’ in a missional community is about active engagement with the Bible. We call this, ‘Fresh Bread’. You know that moment when you walk past a bakery and suddenly you are hit with the wondrous aroma of baking bread? And while a moment before you weren’t even thinking about food, now all you can focus on is enjoying all that goodness!

When it comes to the Bible, as we break it open in something like a Discovery Bible Study, we should be struck by the fresh aroma of the ‘now word’ of Jesus to us as we think about how it impacts our story today. In fact, Scripture is so powerful, when we encounter God there and see how He is intersecting our life right now, that becomes all we can think about. This can be true both for Christians and also those not yet committed to Christ.

And this is where Discovery Bible Study is such a powerful tool. Globally it is having a colossal impact, especially in nations where some of the fiercest persecution of Christians is taking place. In such situations it is vital to find simple, transferable ways to train people to read the Bible, hear what Jesus is saying to them, and then obey that direction that very week.

In response to many questions, in this video we share with you all you’ll need to know to start and multiply your own Discovery Bible Study!

EXERCISE:

Who can you invite to read the Bible with you in a Discovery Bible Study?

DISCOVERY BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS:

REVIEW how you did last week in obeying the passage, and who you shared it with

READ the passage x2, and then retell it

DISCUSS
1. What did I discover about God in this passage?

2. What did I discover about people in this passage?

ACT
3. How will I commit to obey this passage this week?

4. With whom will I share what I have learned from this passage?

PRAY for one another

DISCOVERY BIBLE STUDY – READING PLAN

This is a sample list of passages that you can use if you want to read through some of the key points of the story of God. Obviously, adapt the list as you see fit!

God Creates – Genesis 1:1-25
God Creates Man and Woman – Genesis 2:4-24
Man and Woman Eat the Fruit – Genesis 3:1-13
God’s Curses – Genesis 3:14-24
God Regrets His Creation – Genesis 6:5-8
God Saves Noah and His Family – Genesis 6:9 – 8:14
God’s Covenant with Noah – Genesis 8:15 -9:17
God’s Covenant with Abram – Genesis 12:1-8, 15:1-6, 17:1-7
Abraham Gives His Son as an Offering – Genesis 22:1-19
God Spares His People – Exodus 12:1-28
The Commands of God – Exodus 20:1-21
The Sin Offering – Leviticus 4:1-35
God’s Righteous Servant – Isaiah 53
Jesus is Born – Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-20
Jesus is Baptized – Matthew 3; John 1:29-34
Jesus is Tested – Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus and the Religious Leader – John 3:1-21
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman – John 4:1-26, 39-42
Jesus and the Paralyzed Man – Luke 5:17-26
Jesus Calms the Storm – Mark 4:35-41
Jesus and the Man with Evil Spirits – Mark 5:1-20
Jesus Raises a Man from the Dead – John 11:1-44
Jesus Talks about His Betrayal and the Covenant – Matthew 26:17-30
Jesus is Betrayed and Faces Trial – John 18:1-19:16
Jesus is Crucified – Luke 23:32-56
Jesus is Resurrected – Luke 24:1-35
Jesus Appears to the Disciples and Ascends to Heaven – Luke 24:36-53
Enter into the Kingdom God – John 3:1-21

Alex Absalom

Originally posted on Dandelion Resources here. Used by permission.

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

The post How to Lead a Discovery Bible Study appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: How to Lead a Discovery Bible Study

The post How to Lead a Discovery Bible Study appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Jim Putman: Whether you a newcomer to the Church Community or you’ve been around it your entire life, you are sure to have run across some of the following terms: Sunday School, Small Group, Cell Group, Bible Study, Life Group, etc:

These are all terms that have fought for position in numerous churches throughout time and history. Many educated people have fought over and disagreed on the definition of them and where they fit in the process of disciple-making.

Today I want to take a look at the similarities and differences between two of the most common terms: Bible Studies and Small Groups.

Bible Study:

Teacher/Student
Digs deep into the Bible
Subject driven/topical
More lecture-oriented
Has a start date and finish date
No maximum number of participants
The end result: to gain a better understanding and knowledge of Scripture

Small Group:

Facilitator/Group member setting
Stories of Scripture and honest conversation
Relationship driven/based on the needs of the group
Discussion oriented
Has a start date but no finish date
A limited number of participants (3-15 is ideal)
The end result: mature disciples who make other disciples

Jim Putman, author of this blog, is one of the speakers at this year’s National Disciple Making Forum. Learn more and register here.

It is obvious that there are some similarities. Both use God’s Word intentionally, but for different purposes. The key is not to get hung up on terms, but to simply understand that the two work well together.

In my book Real Life Discipleship, I talk about the model Jesus left us for discipleship. In his time here on earth, we have examples of both his teaching to the crowds and his teaching to his disciples. The crowds learned some truth from and about him, but Jesus didn’t stop at teaching truth to his disciples, he actually walked it out with them. And with all the crowds he taught, he only raised up 12 disciples.

I use the analogy that discipleship is a journey. The destination is spiritual maturity or Christlikeness. This maturity grows best in relationships – which would be the vehicle. The Bible is the map that we follow to get to our destination. As you can see – both the relational aspect (which happens best in smaller, more relational environments – walking through life events together) and the Bible knowledge aspect which can happen in a study or classroom session – are necessary elements. If one of these elements is missing you won’t be making disciples of Jesus.

Bible Studies are intended to help us increase our Biblical knowledge. Small Groups give us a more personable environment to mature and live out our knowledge with each other. Both can work together in your growth towards becoming a mature disciple of Christ.

Written by Jim Putman

This was originally posted on Jim Putman’s blog here. Used with permission.

Photo by William White on Unsplash

Source: What’s the Difference Between Small Group and Bible Study?

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