By Jim Putman:

A few months ago I sent out an email to my readers asking them to share their number one problem when it comes to making disciples. I received many, many emails. A number of different themes came up as I read through them, but one thing in particular stood out.  A large number of you feel personally responsible when the people you are discipling either lose interest in, or turn away from God.

While it is very important to recognize that we do have a part in the discipleship process, it is equally important to recognize that we don’t carry the full responsibility for it alone.

Don’t let Satan try to tell you that you are not good enough, smart enough, or spiritual enough to disciple someone – it’s a lie.

The truth is there are three roles in the discipleship process. There is our role, their (the disciples) role, and God’s role. The Key Truth that I want you to take away from this is that we can and should only take responsibility for our part.

Now, I am certainly not saying that we can’t grow and become more skilled at what we do. We can. But there are a number of possible reasons for why a person might not respond positively to the gospel message, or to our encouragement or direction. For instance – in the case of witnessing to a lost person, perhaps we were trying to force something on the person that God was not in on. I’m not saying that God wants anyone to be lost – he doesn’t. But He does know each person’s heart. We may be only one in a series of steps they will go through before they surrender to God. Or it could be that God IS working in their heart, but they are the one holding back and refusing to respond.

We even have an example in the Bible of this happening to Jesus. In Matthew 19:16-22, a rich young man came and asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, knowing the young man’s heart, responded to him with truth and love, putting his finger right on the problem. The young man didn’t respond to the offer to become a disciple of Jesus. He chose to stay with what he knew and was comfortable with, rather than follow Jesus. Had Jesus failed because the man didn’t follow Him? Had he done His part perfectly? I trust you know that answer to those questions.

God is not dependent on our perfection to win someone He is working on. He is also not dependent on us to disciple someone perfectly.

God is not dependent on our perfection to win someone He is working on. That is so important I want you to read it again! God does not need us to perform perfectly in order to win someone to Him. He is also not dependent on us to disciple someone perfectly. This is where we go wrong every time. We forget that the people we disciple are not our disciples; they are Jesus’. And He will never stop working on them.

We forget that the people we disciple are not our disciples; they are Jesus’. And He will never stop working on them.

Don’t let Satan try to tell you that you are not good enough, smart enough, or spiritual enough to disciple someone – it’s a lie.  We can’t do the other persons part and we certainly can’t do God’s part. But we can only do our part- and God has, and will continue to, equip us for our part and for the work He has called us to do.

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By Jim Putman. Used with permission.

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by Jim Putman: It is both the job and privilege of every Christian to be a disciple of Jesus. And part of that job is the call to disciple others.

You can disciple someone without holding a Bible degree – Jesus did a good job of demonstrating that by the men he chose to be his disciples. You may say – “But they were discipled by the Son of God, he didn’t need a Bible degree!” and that is true. But they went onto disciple others, and the people they discipled went on to make more disciples.

Discipling others may not require a degree, but it does require a process. And as the greatest disciple-maker in history, Jesus left us with a great example to follow. As I study Jesus’ approach, one of the keys to his success was that he was an intentional leader.

Discipling others may not require a degree, but it does require a process.

Disciple-makers must become intentional leaders – When I use the term leader, I am thinking of people who lead by example wherever they are, I am thinking of people who have influence in the life of someone else.

That basically includes all of us.. . And if we are disciples of Jesus, we are also called to disciple them.

So – now that you know you are a leader, how can you become a more intention alone?

Jim Putman, author of this blog, has written with Chad Harrington a primer called The Death of Discipleship about the danger of pride and importance of humility in disciple making. Download this free resource here.

Here are three simple things you can do to become a more intentional leader:

Be an intentional planner (prioritize your schedule)

Make a weekly time to get together with the person you are discipling.

Whether it is for coffee, a workout, or a bible study – having a consistent weekly time ensures you are keeping up an awareness of each others lives and what is happening.

Connect often

Put an alert on your phone a few times a week to remind you to send a text or make a phone call just to say hi and check in.
Add them to your social media accounts, tag them in something that reminds you of them, be sure to comment on or like their posts. This may seem superficial, but it is one of those small things that can have a big impact on someone.

Put their important dates on your calendar

Birthdays, their kid’s games, their anniversary… etc – It will only take a moment of your time to text or message them about it, but It is amazing how much it means to someone when you remember the things they have going in their life. It shows a deeper level of care.

Be an intentional presence (listening, self-awareness)

When you do spend time with the person you are discipling, be sure you are really there. Put away or mute your phone, make eye-contact and listen when they are talking, ask them questions about their life, family, walk with God, feelings, struggles..and then listen for the purpose of understanding. Be sure you aren’t just waiting for them to pause so you can give them a response. And whatever you do – don’t interrupt them when they are sharing.
Try to keep an awareness of what your body language may be saying about your level of interest in the conversation. Lean in, keep your eyes on them, don’t fidget and look around – that indicates boredom and disinterest.
Commit the things they are sharing to memory, then bring them up in conversations later during the week. This shows you care and want to follow up, it also leads the way to accountability, which is a necessary component of disciple-making.

Model intentional transparency (lead by example)

This is key, and it is not easy – but in order to develop a relationship that goes deeper and that allows room for accountability, you will need to lead the way by being open and transparent.
When you share things you struggle with it can have a huge effect on the person you are sharing with. It lets them know that you are not perfect. It lets them know that they are not alone. It makes them feel safer about sharing their struggles with you.
Trust is very important as you enter this depth of relationship with the person you are discipling. Be certain you do not share the things that are said in confidence to you. This is a very important piece of being an example that cannot be overlooked. Trust is slow to be earned but can be lost very quickly.

Written by Jim Putman

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

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by Jim Putman: If you have read my books or posts or listened to my sermons, there should be no doubt in your mind that I believe discipleship begins with and is sustained by relationship. However, disciple makers also must be ready to give an answer, defend the faith, and teach their disciples the truth of the Bible in a world determined to provide a culture that is dramatically different than the one Jesus left for us.

The Bible needs to be our starting point, and it needs to remain our compass and guide for every step along the way. We live in a time when we have access to unlimited resources for spiritual growth- but we need to be wise in what resource we choose and make sure it is aligned with God’s word.

I have put together some resources that I believe are both helpful and aligned with the Bible’s teaching – you won’t know everything when you begin to disciple people, but the following resources are a good starting place.

I have listed several books for different topics below.

Sharing with the Spiritual Dead:

Unbelievers often have serious questions about complex issues. Many times our best answers will be our stories of how God has changed our own lives – we also need to be ready with answers to some of the tough questions spiritually dead people might ask us about faith and life itself.

(I am linking the books to Amazon – however we are not affiliated so feel free to purchase them wherever)

Defending the gospel:

I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist. 
The Case For The Resurrection Of Jesus
The Reason For God; Belief In The Age Of Skepticism
Know Why You Believe 
Evidence That Demands A Verdict
The Case For Christ 
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense 

Authority of Scripture:

God Wrote a Book
The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God

How Christianity Differs from Other Faiths

So What’s the Difference?
Basic Christianity
Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

Dealing with Past Hurts

Healing is a Choice
Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts
Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy
Where Is God When It Hurts?
Sharing with Spiritual Infants:

Spiritual infants need a disciple maker to share life with them, to help nurture and protect their new spiritual life. They will need help to see two key aspects of their new faith.

The spiritual realities behind the world they see (a Biblical Worldview)
How spiritual transformation happens

Developing a Biblical Worldview:

How Now Shall We Live?
Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today’s Competing Worldviews
The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog
Can Man Live Without God

Spiritual Transformation

The Purpose-Driven Life
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ 

Jim Putman, author of this blog, has written with Chad Harrington a primer called The Death of Discipleship about the danger of pride and importance of humility in disciple making. Download this free resource here.

Connecting with Spiritual Children

Children are generally eager to learn, and a wise disciple maker will help connect them with teaching that will help them grow. Spiritual Children should not be spoon-fed – this is a time where they are beginning to learn how to feed themselves. Offer suggestions and guide them, and if necessary, help them digest the bigger pieces of what they are learning.

Who They Are in Christ

The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness
The Ragamuffin Gospel

How to Have a Relationship with God

Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God
Power Through Prayer
The Pursuit of God

Maintaining Healthy Relationships

The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts.
Love and Respect
The DNA of Relationships

How to Spiritually Feed Themselves

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
Bible Study Methods

The Importance of Connection:
A Growing Understanding of the Church

The Safest Place on Earth: Where People Connect and are Forever Changed
The Emotionally Healthy Church
On Mission with God

Ministering with Spiritual Young Adults

At this stage of spiritual growth, disciples generally have a circle of influence in their ministry. As you disciple spiritual young adults, you may find that many of the previously selected resources continue to be helpful now a deeper level of study and discussion.

Doctrine and Theology:

Heaven
Bible Doctrine
Mere Christianity
More Than a Carpenter
Knowing God

Church History:

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
What if Jesus Had Never Been Born
The Rise of Christianity

Life Management:

Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say no to Take Control of Your Life
Your Money Counts
Rich Christians in a Age of Hunger
Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives

Doing Ministry:
Leading Small Groups, Identifying Spiritual Gifts

Lead Like Jesus
The Master Plan of Evangelism
Soul Talk: The Language God Longs for us to Speak
Truth That Sticks
Masterlife: A Biblical Process for Growing Disciples

Dealing with Gender Issues:

Out of a Far Country -A Gay Son’s Journey to God
Holy Sexuality and the Gospel

Written by Jim Putman

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

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by Jim Putman: As a senior pastor of Real Life Ministries and a board member with the Relational Discipleship Network, I am passionate about the importance of a relational environment to making disciples of Jesus. Small Groups are one such relational environment that works well when trying to create a culture of disciple making in your church. Because we talk about them so often, sometimes people mistakenly get the idea that Small Groups are the goal – that if you are a church that has developed Small Groups you have hit the target.

However, the target is not a relational environment. A relational environment is the vehicle we travel in to get to the destination. A church is successful when everyone in the church is in the game, maturing into disciples who can reproduce other disciples. The purpose of the church has been, and should always be, to make disciples of Jesus.

You can have small groups and not make disciples – small groups exist throughout our society. From regulars at a neighborhood bar to a sports team that plays in a league, small groups are all around us. They are not a new concept by any means. However, small groups formed for the purpose of making disciples of Jesus are a less familiar concept – but that is the method Jesus used when making his 12 disciples during his time on earth.

It is not something that just happens by chance – there must be a combination of specific components that are used in conjunction with a small group in order to make disciples. I like to use the analogy of a road trip to explain the different components and the part each one plays:

An Intentional Leader: A car doesn’t get very far unless there is someone in the drivers seat with a key. This leader is driving the group towards the destination, or purpose. It helps if the leader has already made the trip and is familiar with the route!

A Relational Environment: The driver has to have something that drives – and something that accommodates passengers. Relationships are what God uses to communicate His truth and help people grow. Without relationships, the journey of discipleship can be boring and ineffective. Motivation can die because no one is there to celebrate a breakthrough or support us when we struggle. Relationships create the environment where discipleship happens best.

A Map – The Reproducible Process: The third component for this successful journey is a map. Using a map helps eliminate the risk of getting lost or off track from your destination. The road map for making disciples is the reproducible process. This process allows us to measure a disciple’s progress – to figure out where they are in the journey so we have a better idea of what they need. And it teaches the disciple the route, so that they in turn can share it with others.

The entire discipleship journey has a biblical foundation. In other words, these three elements of the discipleship journey are modeled in Scripture, especially in the life of Jesus and in the early church. You can make a disciple without a biblical foundation, but you won’t be making a disciple of Jesus. When people talk about Real Life Ministries, we love to be known as a Disciple Making Church, rather than a Small Group Church. Small Groups are a core essential to us, but they are the vehicle we use to reach our destination – which is being a Disciple Making Church.

Written by Jim Putman

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

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by Jim Putman: With the rise of technology and social media platforms in the past few years, people now have a 24/7 window to look into the lives of those around us or in our world at any given time. Because of this, the temptation to compare our lives to others is one that is hard to avoid.

Comparison is not inherently a bad thing – when we are trying to learn some new ability we can compare ourself with someone who does it well to determine our progress. Sometimes seeing someone else accomplish a goal can even inspire us to work harder towards our own goals.

The problem comes when we are comparing ourselves with others and then berating ourselves because we feel we are coming up short. And most of the time it isn’t even an accurate comparison, because we are comparing our own behind the scenes view of our life, with someone else’s carefully crafted highlight reel.

Comparison generally produces one of two results. Either we come away feeling inferior and somehow less than, or we walk away with an attitude of superiority or better than thinking “at least I’m not as bad as he is.”

This tendency humans have towards comparison also shows up in the Christian walk. Even as far back as the 1st century, Paul was addressing those caught up in the  ‘Comparison Trap’.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul uses the image of a body to illustrate the relationships we are to have with others in the church. He wants us to see that the church is like a living body, and we are each like limbs or organs of that body.

Some in the Corinthian church were saying, “Since I am not like you, I have no value.” Others were saying, “Since you are not like me, you have no value.” Paul wanted them to understand that some of us are eyes and others are feet, and both are valuable to the body’s functioning.

By working together, we can each contribute with the gifts we have been given.

The way we get involved in ministry is to look for ways to serve others. We see a need, and if we can help, we do.

For instance, men who can fix an engine help those in the church who can’t afford to pay a mechanic.

Single moms can help each other with child care.

Families and singles help each other move.

Everyone can do something.

Everyone’s contributions are valued.

Each one of us has a vital and important role in the body of Christ – and when we get focussed on comparing our role with the roles of those around us, we generally end up losing focus on the work God calls us to do.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Eph. 2:10.

Written by Jim Putman

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

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by Jim Putman: “Too many Christians have accepted an improper definition of spiritual maturity, rather than understanding God’s definition. And this improper definition is only causing frustration, disappointment, and chaos in their lives, not to mention the lives of those they are discipling.”

I’m sure some of you may consider this a bold statement, and wonder how I came to make it, or if it is even true. Allow me to explain:

To be clear, I believe strongly that Christians need to know the Bible. Christians need correct doctrine. We need to obey God’s directions for behavior and use the gifts God has given us. We teach those principles, and we stand firm on God’s truth in our church.

Yet the Bible is also clear that Bible knowledge or even obedience to God’s laws or using our spiritual gifts is not the compete definition of spiritual maturity. These things are important, but they are pieces of a bigger picture.

The entire Bible is about relationship. Remember, in Matthew 22:40 Jesus said that all the law and the prophets hang on loving God and loving others. Every law God gives expresses His desire to build and protect relationships.

Jim Putman, author of this blog, is writing a new book called The Death of Discipleship about the dynamics of pride and humility in the discipleship process. Download the free primer for this book here.

Being spiritually mature means we understand the heart of God and seek to love what and whom He loves. It causes great difficulty for the team (the church) when leaders miss the point. In many Christian circles, spiritual maturity has become about rule following, gaining knowledge (which puffs up rather than builds up- 1 Corinthians 8:1) and elevating high skilled charismatic personalities.

Knowing Scripture and listening to good teachers are both good things, but these alone do not make a person spiritually mature or create a body of mature Christ-followers.

Going back to the Matthew passage – if all the law and the prophets hang on loving God and loving others, we should pay close attention to what God’s Word has to say about love.

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul, being led by the Holy Spirit, lays out the definition of love. According to the latter part of this passage, Christians can have all sorts of gifts and abilities and do all sorts of wonderful things, but if we don’t have love, then everything else is worthless. He speaks with hyperbole here to drive home a point. We can do some great things, he says, but without love those great things don’t amount to anything. We can follow the rules, give away all our money, offer our bodies to the flame as martyrs, move mountains with our faith, fathom all knowledge and all mysteries, get doctorates in theology, and win every single game of Bible trivia every invented.. But without love, it’s all for nothing.

In 1st Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul calls the Corinthians “infants in Christ”. Notice what he says marked them as such. It was not lack of skills, or gifts. What marked them as immature believers was lack of love. Paul chastised them for quarreling and jealousy. Spiritual maturity was tied directly to their ability to be in relationship with one another.

Back to what I said at the beginning of this post, I believe strongly that Christians need to both know the Bible, and know correct doctrine. These are important components of Spiritual maturity, but they are part of a bigger picture. As our faith in God grows deeper, we gain a deeper understanding of God’s heart to restore relationship with Him and with others. The Holy Spirit begins to change our hearts toward others. As we grow up Spiritually we begin to love what God loves. And God loved people enough to give His son in exchange for them.

Written by Jim Putman

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

Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash

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by Jim Putman, The word accountability has been subtly stolen from us by our enemy. He’s happy to distort accountability by either of two errors. Many call their small groups “accountability groups”, but all they do is share their struggles. They don’t do anything to help one another change, usually because they don’t know how and they don’t want to risk losing the relationship by interjecting difficult truth. These people would say they’re acting in the interest of “relationship” and “grace” toward each other. But without the courage it takes to be honest and even challenge, change is just a nice idea. Without the willingness to allow others to speak into your life, you don’t experience what life-changing relationship can be.

Or, from a different angle, many “accountability” partners genuinely want to put the emphasis on “truth,” but they do so at the expense of grace and relationship – usually because they’ve never learned the importance of love as the necessary motive and method for everything we do. In our God’s universe we live falsely when we speak without love.

Real discipleship requires the disciple-maker’s ownership of his authority—and the disciple’s recognition of that authority—to lead the new disciple to biblical answers, to life change. Equally important is the understanding that we are called to submit to our leaders and to one another. Even if we are not being discipled by another, we still understand that humility is part of spiritual maturity. When a person challenges us, we can either become defensive or we can seek to discover if God is trying to speak to us through that brother or sister. We test their words by the Word of God, and we know God uses people in our lives.

Jim Putman, author of this blog, is writing a new book called The Death of Discipleship about the dynamics of pride and humility in the discipleship process. Download the free primer for this book here.

Real accountability requires honest sharing from a disciple with the disciple-maker and then going to Scripture for right beliefs, as well as right actions and attitudes, guided by the Lord’s Word. It requires the disciple both to desire change and to receive feedback and support as part of the process. But there is more to it than that. Real accountability has teeth to it. It has power because we give it power — we allow people to ask us hard questions and expect change from us. This is especially true when it comes from the authority God has instituted in the church, home, or world, but again, even friends must be allowed to hold us accountable when they speak God’s truth to us. The one who seeks accountability is willing to submit, and the other must be willing to speak truth in love.

Written by Jim Putman

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

Photo by Luke Southern on Unsplash

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by Jim Putman: If you feel like you are not qualified to be a disciple or a disciple-maker, welcome to the majority – good disciple-makers don’t start out ready – we become ready as we start out. In my post Six Habits Of An Effective Disciple Maker I talk about the importance of establishing habits in your life that will move you forward as a disciple.

The truth is, if you don’t cultivate your mindset you will walk through your life in reaction mode. You will be responding to your day as it plays out, rather than intentionally incorporating actions and decisions that will lead you towards your core values. To cultivate means to prepare the ground. When we prepare the ground of our mindset for the seeds of discipleship, God will be able to plant and harvest so much more from our days!

With that in mind, I have put together some questions and prompts to help you intentionally frame your mindset and lens for the day towards discipleship.

Ask God for wisdom and insight:

We can’t even begin to direct our mindset towards spiritual things without the help of the Holy Spirit. The default human mindset does not automatically think of others and their needs first – we have to intentionally renew our mind with Gods word and through prayer. In the book of James we are told to ask God for wisdom, and he will give it to you. If we start every morning off by asking him for wisdom and insight we have a much better chance of viewing things throughout our day through a spiritual lens rather than the lens of flesh. Ask God to show you who he wants you to serve, who he wants you to invite, who he wants you to pursue. And then be sure to watch and listen for His direction.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you”. James 1:5

Jim Putman, author of this blog, is writing a new book called The Death of Discipleship about the dynamics of pride and humility in the discipleship process. Download the free primer for this book here.

Who is missing?

Sometimes we get so caught up in our busy lives that people we care about may fall off the grid without our noticing. When people go through struggles or trials, an automatic response is often to withdraw and isolate. This response may be automatic, but it is seldom what is best for the person involved. When we isolate ourselves from others, there is a greater chance that we start making up stories in our head not based in fact. For instance – even when we are the ones in withdrawal, we begin to think that no one cares, or that we have no value because no one is reaching out to us. In some cases, depression can even set in. Take time every day to think through the people you are connected with and in relationship with. Determine the last time you touched base with them and how they were doing. This simple action each day may prompt you to send a text or make a phone call that could be a literal game-changer in someones week.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Luke 15:4

How/Who can I serve?

As you go through your day, look around and try to take notice of who you could serve through your actions or your words. It may mean returning papers at work to someone who left them behind at the copy machine. It could be telling the barista at the coffee shop that her smile brightened your day. Maybe you let someone with fewer items take your place in line at the store – (or maybe even someone with more items and a crying child!)

It takes so little sometimes to make a difference in someones day – and we never know what a small seed we plant can grow into in the Kingdom of God. If we can just take our eyes off of ourselves and our own agenda sometimes and look around with intention, God will show us a number of ways he would like us to step in and be Jesus for the people around us. And that is the starting place of Real Life Discipleship.

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10

Who can I invite to go with me?

When Jesus was here on the earth, he was always inviting his disciples to go places with him. To weddings, to funerals, to impromptu picnic’s where he provided the food – Then when he began to send his disciples out to do ministry without him, he sent them in pairs. Discipleship is really better caught than taught. Every time we go ‘do’ something it is an opportunity to either model some aspect of discipleship to someone we are leading, or to go deeper in relationship with someone we are getting to know.

Think through your calendar – are you signed up to take a meal to a small group member who had surgery? Take a new small group member with you – you will have time to connect during the drive and the new member will get a better idea of what it means to depend on and support each other as a body. Are you spending family night at home playing games? Invite one of your kids teen friends who has a dysfunctional home life. Give that friend love and acceptance and a look at what family the way God intends it to be looks like. Volunteer to go pick up coffee’s for everyone at your office and ask a co-worker you’ve wanted to connect with to come along and help carry them.

People often talk about not having time for discipleship, not realizing that we can layer so much of into what we already do by just inviting someone to go along.

“Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.” Mark 6:7

Who can I tell about my life with Jesus?

It can sometimes be intimidating to think about sharing “The Gospel” – but the meaning of that term in the Bible is actually “Good News”. And I don’t know about you, but most people don’t have a problem sharing good news with each other. That is much of what social media is populated with (along with a lot of complaining and arguing…) I once heard someone say: “People can argue with your theology, but they can’t argue with your testimony.” and it really resonated with me. I have no problem telling someone that I wasn’t such a great person before God came along and changed me. Or mentioning that He took care of me when I was sick by sending my Life Group to help. I love telling people about how God has used tough circumstances to bring me closer to him, and I also have no problem telling someone I will be praying for them when they are struggling. I have found that even people who profess unbelief will accept prayers on their behalf when they have hit bottom.

Even if you don’t feel confident in your Bible knowledge, you are probably pretty certain about what God has done in your life. When we share those things with others, we are sharing the good news about our relationship with Jesus and what he has done for us – and that is the core of the Gospel. Sometimes even something so small as an offer to pray for someone can open up a conversation that might not have happened otherwise. And that is a start. Make it a goal to share something every day about what God is doing in your life.

“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Luke 8:39

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” Peter 3:15

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes reach the end of the day and realize there were opportunities that I walked right by that would have been more important long term than the things I was walking towards. I think spending a few minutes every morning going through questions like this will help us to walk through our day with a heightened awareness for the opportunities that God may be placing in our path.

Written by Jim Putman

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

Photo by Bryan Minear on Unsplash

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by Jim Putman: Recently I sent out an email to my readers asking them to share their number one problem when it comes to making disciples. I received many, many emails. A number of different themes came up as I read through them. One thing that particularly stood out to me was the number of people who felt personally responsible for the people they were discipling either losing interest or turning away from God.

It is important that we recognize and own ‘our part’ in the discipleship process. But it is equally important to recognize that we alone don’t carry the full responsibility for it.

The truth is there are three roles in the discipleship process. There is our role, their (the disciples) role, and God’s role. The key truth is that we can only take responsibility for our own part.

Now I am certainly not saying that we can’t grow and get better at what we do. We can. But there are a number of possible reasons for why a person might not respond positively to the gospel message, or to our encouragement or direction. For instance – in the case of witnessing to a lost person, perhaps we were trying to force something on the person that God was not in on. I’m not saying that God wants anyone to be lost – he doesn’t. But He does know each person’s heart. We may be only one in a series of steps they will go through before they surrender to God. Or it could be that God IS working in their heart, but they are the one holding back refusing to respond.

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

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by Jim Putman: Jesus modeled relationship by being with His disciples. Being an intentional and relational leader means making time to spend with those you are discipling. Disciple Makers are more likely to accurately evaluate their disciples growth stages and aptitude if they spend time together. If Jesus had interacted with His disciples only once a week for an hour, His impact on them would have diminished greatly.

Some people believe that evaluation is done best through questionaries or aptitude tests, but none of these can replace face-to-face interaction. The only way intentional leaders get to to know their players is to be in relationship with them.

By spending time with the disciples, Jesus was able to respond to where they were in their growth as His followers. As they walked along to different destinations – He could observe their behavior and listen to their discussions. This allowed him to understand their motives.He could call out their arguments and give them a lesson that fit the situation perfectly. (Like in Mark 9:33-37 when he tells them the first shall be last!)

While He was with them, Jesus listened to what the disciples were saying so that He could teach them what they needed to learn.

Jim Putman, author of this blog, is writing a new book called The Death of Discipleship about the dynamics of pride and humility in the discipleship process. Download the free primer for this book here.

Here is something to think about – Jesus had a limited time to fulfill his mission here on Earth, and yet he chose to spend a very large portion of it simply spending time with twelve men. Hanging out with them, eating with them, walking beside them while going from place to place. Listening…

He obviously placed a high importance on the value of relationship. And after 3 years in relationship, those men went on to be disciples of Jesus who made other disciples of Jesus, and because of them and because of you – the world gets the chance to know Him.

I want to ask you a question and I would encourage you to answer it in the comments – don’t worry, there is no right or wrong. I honestly want to know the things you struggle with to help me better identify the things I can do to help you.

You and I may not have the opportunity to walk alongside each other and discuss things, but you get the opportunity to get to know me through my posts, and I would love to have the opportunity to get to know you through your comments!

Written by Jim Putman

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

Image Credit: Aron

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Source: How to Gain Discipleship Impact with Limited Time

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