by unSeminary: Welcome to this week’s unSeminary podcast. I’m excited to have David Putnam with us today. David spent many years as a church planter and executive pastor and today consults with churches as a lead navigator with Auxano. David has also founded the organization Planting the Gospel which helps transition churches from a weekend-only disciple-making culture.

David is with us to share simple tools that will help your church make disciple-making organic and accessible to everyone.

What kind of disciples are we making? // We are all making disciples, but what kind? Much of the time, without realizing it, churches make organizational disciples rather than gospel-centered disciples who in turn make more disciples. Covid has revealed to us that when our programming changes, our organizational disciples can vanish. How can we equip people so that even when there are unforeseen changes in the church, our disciples are still fully plugged into Christ and able to follow Him, doing the work of the great commission?What is a disciple? // We’ve allowed religion to take over the gospel and make it more complex than it needs to be. We need to take it back to a place of simplicity as found in scripture. There are three fundamental questions that David suggests we take a look at: What is the gospel? What is a disciple? And what is the church? David defines a disciple as a follower of Jesus who’s learning to live out the realities and implications of the gospel by living like Jesus, loving like Jesus, leaving what Jesus left behind. What did Jesus leave behind? Disciples!Living on mission. // Churches that are focused on making disciples have practical tools in place for their people. This includes life on life, life in community, life on mission. Many churches might have life on life and life in community built into their rhythms, but they neglect the life on mission aspect. How can we maximize our impact by releasing people instead of simply gathering people? We need to be equipping our people to enter the “mission field” right where they are, teaching them to be missionaries where they live, work and play.Disciple-making is evangelism. // David identifies five types of disciples: pre-disciples, new disciples, growing disciples, multiplying disciples, and catalytic disciples. An unbeliever is a pre-disciple. We need to equip people in our churches to engage pre-disciples in disciple-making by providing tools so that they can tell their story, and tell God’s story.The Gospel Disciple Life. // David has created a free resource called The Gospel Disciple Life: A Quick Start Guide for a Micro-Group Strategy for Making Disciples that Makes Disciples that will help you introduce disciple-making to your church. Consisting of simple Bible reading and meeting in micro-groups, this practical tool uses an organic method which is accessible to everyone. Who is the next person you will invite into a disciple relationship?

You can get help with disciple-making at your church by visiting www.plantingthegospel.com.

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Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

Great things happen when the right leadership is in place in a local church… lives are changed and churches thrive.

With all the craziness that has gone on in 2020, we know that many churches are beginning to ask hard questions about what their current team looks like and how ready they are to lead into our new reality. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Restructuring Playbook to develop clarity around where you need to be focusing your time, resources, and team.

Source: A Simple & Scalable Way to Reproduce Christians with David Putnam

The post A Simple & Scalable Way to Reproduce Christians with David Putnam appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Stan Rodda

A preacher stands up in front of their church and says, “We need to go out and make disciples. Here’s how we’re going to do it.” What’s your first thought?

Or maybe it’s in your small group. You have been through a study on the Great Commission and the leader decides it’s time to do something. They say, “We’re going to take some practical steps forward and begin reaching our community with the Gospel.” What’s your first thought?

If you’re like many followers of Jesus, fear has already set in just thinking about this idea. Talk to a neighbor/friend/co-worker about Jesus? Share the Gospel? But I’ve never been to Bible College. I don’t know how to preach. I haven’t studied enough. That’s the preacher’s job.

This isn’t an uncommon thought nor is it anything to shy away from. Jesus lives this out very simply on more than one occasion. It seems he makes it a regular part of His strategy to reach people. You’re going to be surprised how simple it is to take a strategic step forward in sharing the Gospel. Ready to hear the answer?

Eat a meal with someone who needs Jesus!

Let’s look at one biblical example of this.

Zacchaeus was up in a tree trying to just get a glimpse of Jesus as He walks through town. Jesus stops in Luke 19 for this encounter, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.” [Luke 19:5 CSB]

One of Jesus’ first steps when it came to introducing people to the Gospel was to simply eat with them. And in the climate we are currently experiencing in the United States, this simple step has the power to disarm and unite all of us around the message of Jesus. I was extremely encouraged by this recently while watching New Life’s livestream chat on a Sunday morning.

One Sunday Morning on the Livestream…

Each week on Sunday morning, our church utilizes a livestream to share our services with the world. That livestream comes with a chat feature where our chat hosts monitor and connect with people who are chatting back and forth during the service.

After the murder of George Floyd, many people were looking to the church for answers to their questions, to see how followers of Jesus would respond. And I want to share with you a great example of what this strategic step in disciple making looks like. One lady was asking questions and making statements about George Floyd in the chat. She was hurting and for good reason. I was so encouraged by the response of New Lifers.

New Lifer’s Response:

“I can sense you are hurting and you have a story to share. Would you be willing to get a cup of coffee with me soon so we can talk personally?”

“I am so sorry you are hurting. Would you send me a private message on Facebook so we can talk more?”

Way to go, New Lifers!! I was so encouraged by this.

Sometimes in a digital world when everyone is looking for a quick sound bite or meme to prove their point, followers of Jesus can use it to open a dialogue and share the love of Jesus. I want to encourage you by saying, “Don’t over complicate disciple making.” Sometimes it’s as simple as sharing a meal with someone who is hurting, who needs Jesus, who needs a friend. Maybe for you the first step of making a disciple happens online, engaging in a conversation with someone and simply responding, “I would like to hear your story. Can we meet up to talk?”

How do you hear God asking you to obey?

Maybe it’s the name of a friend you can hear in your ears. The face of a co-worker that is coming to mind. Pray for God to go before you, to give you boldness as you invite them to more. If you do, I’d love to hear how it goes. Please share your stories in the comments or message them to me here.

Source: When Eating A Meal Turns Spiritual

The post When Eating A Meal Turns Spiritual appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Stan Rodda: After 18 years in ministry, one of the biggest reasons why many followers of Jesus don’t share the Gospel with someone, is simply because they don’t know HOW. The paid professionals have to take a step away from knowing all the answers and how to do all the things. If we are going to see a movement of disciples making disciples, then we must train and equip the everyday believer with tools, then unleash them on their communities.

The “Three Circles” is a great tool to use to train someone HOW to share the Gospel. It gives a simple framework and puts the Gospel into everyday terms. I love this tool and have used it in many ways and in many contexts.

Watch the training below and download the graphic to fill in along the way. Then practice, practice, practice. Once you have the main parts down, you will be able to start customizing and using in a variety of ways.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

Let’s take Kingdom territory!

Source: How to Share the Gospel

The post How to Share the Gospel appeared first on Passion for Planting.

In Episode 471 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss why there has been a decline of evangelism.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

What keeps people from sharing the gospel
Some specific seminary programs worth looking into

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“We are drawn to tools and the end result is sometimes those tools can become reduced to an elevator pitch.” – @edstetzer
“Without a certainty that with Christ can we be redeemed and live with him forever, if they don’t believe that fully they won’t share it fully.” – @edstetzer
“When we walk through helping people to know, respond, and follow Christ, we need to have a listening ear.” – @edstetzer
“There are a lot of things that God calls people to do, but there is one that God calls His people to do that they always forget.” – @edstetzer
“When it comes to evangelism a lot of people are practical atheists.” – @edstetzer
“No one is going to run away from Christ because you said, ‘I don’t know.’” – @danielsangi
“People already know you are imperfect, so you might as well tell them, and them tell them about Jesus who is perfect.” – @edstetzer

Recommended Resources:

Read You Are What You Do by Daniel Im
Listen to the ImBetween podcast
Learn more about the Amplify Conference

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

This Episode’s Sponsor:

For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

The post Episode 471: The Importance of Evangelism appeared first on NewChurches.com – Church Planting, Multisite, and Multiplication.

Source: Episode 471: The Importance of Evangelism

The post Episode 471: The Importance of Evangelism appeared first on Passion for Planting.