By Doug Holliday: John 14 concludes with Jesus and the disciples leaving the Upper Room, so Jesus’ teaching and prayer in John 15-17 happens somewhere between the Upper Room and the Kidron Valley opposite the Mount of Olives. On the walk down toward the valley, before crossing over and entering the olive grove in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, Jesus stopped, perhaps at a vineyard, to teach.

“’I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.’”

??John? ?15:1? ?NIV??

Who was with Jesus at this moment? Just the Eleven? Judas had already left during the Last Supper. Additional disciples? John Mark was there when Jesus was later arrested in the Garden, fleeing as the crowd grabbed his cloak to leave him running away naked. Women followers? They were there as He was condemned and crucified.

On the walk toward Gethsemane, Jesus identified four levels of fruit-bearing for those who are “in Him.” Why was Jesus obsessed with fruit at this particular moment?

1. No Fruit

“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit…”

John 15:2a NIV

Though some might think this refers to the unbeliever, Jesus specifically said that this branch that bore no fruit was in Him. Is it possible for some who belong to Jesus to go through seasons where they bear no fruit? Evidently so.

2. Some Fruit

“…while every branch that does bear fruit…”

John 15:2b NIV

Though there might be seasons where those who are “in Christ” bear no fruit, the norm is clearly that Christ-followers do live fruit-bearing lives.

3. More Fruit

“…he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

??John? ?15:2?c ?NIV??

In order for most Christ-followers to move toward a more fruitful spiritual life, some “pruning” will be required. Pruning doesn’t sound fun, right? Pruning can be painful, but pruning is necessary. Pruning is the removal of those things that would diminish our fruit-bearing capacity.

4. Much Fruit

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

??John? ?15:5, 8? ?NIV??

The progression of Jesus’ metaphor shows the Father’s desire for our lives. He will always be at work in us to glorify Himself by accomplishing His plan through us.

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He is responsible for our fruitfulness. He grafts us into the vine. He cultivates, cares for, and prunes us. He produces the spiritual fruit.

We have one responsibility. Abide. Remain. Stay connected to.

Not “connected to” in the sense of salvation, but rather connected to in the sense of relationship. Abide, as in “be with.” As we spend time with Him, in His Word and in prayer, we are abiding in Him. Our daily time alone with the Father is our spiritual lifeline.

Abiding cannot be separated from the work of the Holy Spirit. The two chapters in the Bible that record Jesus’ most significant teaching on the Holy Spirit are John 14 & 16, and Jesus’ challenge to abide is sandwiched right between them. This is not by coincidence.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, who would not just be with them but would actually live in them. 

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

??John? ?14:16-17? ?NIV??

Abiding with Jesus would be possible after Jesus departed because He would send the Holy Spirit, who would be a permanent fixture in the disciples’ lives. This is how Jesus would fulfill His promise to the disciples to “never leave you or forsake you.” He promised to not leave them as orphans.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…. When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”

??John? 14:18, ?15:26? ?NIV??

Abiding with Him is accomplished as we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us (Word) and guide us (prayer).

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will TEACH you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

??John? ?14:26? ?NIV??

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will GUIDE you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

??John? ?16:13? ?NIV??

Spiritual fruit is produced by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “The fruit of the Spirit…”

How does the Holy Spirit manifest this fruit in our lives?

1. Supernatural Power in Answered Prayer

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

??John? ?15:7? ?NIV??

2. Supernatural Joy in Loving Obedience

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

??John? ?15:11? ?NIV??

3. Supernatural Love through Great Sacrifice. 

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

??John? ?15:12-13? ?NIV??

4. Supernatural Friendship through Divine Intimacy. 

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

??John? ?15:15? ?NIV??

5. Supernatural Impact through Divine Appointment

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

??John? ?15:16? ?NIV??

The kind of fruit Jesus is speaking of here in John 15 is the spiritual harvest, disciple-making fruit. “Go and bear fruit” is the same message Jesus would later give, “Go and make disciples.”

6. Supernatural Strength to Endure Hardship

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”

??John? ?15:20? ?NIV??

Here in John 14-16, on the night before Jesus would go to the cross, He revealed His “Spiritual Secret” to His disciples. Jesus’ spiritual secret is this: Abide

Abide in Christ.

Abide by walking in the Spirit.

Abide by being filled with the Spirit.

Abide and glorify the Father by bearing much fruit.

By Doug Holliday

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Source: The Supernatural Fruit of Abiding in Christ

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by Stan Rodda: Many followers of Jesus have heard at some point in their life about something called the Great Commission. This command of Jesus is among the final sentences He would share with His disciples on this earth.

If I asked you, “What is the Great Commission,” I imagine you would start by saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” And there is so much truth in that. Making disciples of all nations is the mission disciples of Jesus are commanded to live out. Yet, it’s not where the commission of Jesus begins, nor is it the foundation. The foundation of the Great Commission is given before Jesus tells us to “make disciples.”

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. [Matthew 28:18 CSB]

I have no authority.

You have no authority.

The church has no authority.

The world has no authority.

If we are going to change the world by making disciples of all ethnic groups on the planet, we must first begin by surrendering to the One with all authority in the entire universe. Jesus is the King. He was given all the authority in heaven and earth by the Father. Changing the world begins with absolute surrender to the cross of Jesus

The Cross of Salvation

We all begin at the same place: we are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. When we come to that realization we are all called to say “Yes” to Jesus and surrender to His atoning work on the cross. The work of Jesus on the cross is all sufficient to save.

Yet sometimes we give our lives to Jesus and we don’t experience everything we thought the pastor promised. Where is the joy, meaning and purpose you said I would have if I was baptized? Why haven’t all my problems gone away? Why is my husband/wife not acting better yet?

Sometimes we get stuck in what’s known as the land between two crosses. The issue is not that Jesus saving work on the cross wasn’t enough. The issue is 100% my level of surrender to picking up the second cross.

Before you label me a heretic talking about the need for two crosses, note Jesus identified the second cross first.

Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after  me, let him deny himself,  take up his cross daily,  and follow me. [Luke 9:23 CSB]

Change and transformation begins to take place in my life when I pick up my own cross…

The Cross of Surrender

In order to take greater steps of surrender and experience change in my own life, there are four things I must do to pick up my own cross.

Pray – Psalm 139:23, 24

We pray and ask God to reveal to us anything wicked that might be getting in the way. Father reveal to us anything that might offend you. Then spend time listening for God to reveal areas of your heart that need to surrender more.

Recognize/Acknowledge – 1 John 1:8, 9

When God reveals areas of my life that need more surrender, I must recognize and acknowledge it. I can no longer act as if hiding sin in the corner of my heart is going to be good enough. I will remain stagnant as long as I am not surrendering more fully to King Jesus.

Decide – Romans 12:1, 2

The trouble with a living sacrifice is we have a tendency to get up and walk off the altar. Change happens in me when I’m aware of what God is calling me to change, I admit that it is sin and I get back up on the altar to live out greater levels of surrender and obedience.

Kill the Root – Luke 9:23

Whatever that thing is I just climbed back up on the altar for (addiction, immorality, pride, sins of the flesh, etc), I must kill the root of that sin. The concept is that I want my heart to beat in alignment with God’s. I want to hate the sin God hates, love what God loves and share what God is doing in my life with people who don’t know Him yet.

This is how we move out of the land between two crosses and begin to experience transformation in our lives as disciples of Jesus.

Watch the Two Crosses training video below.

Change Starts Here Sermon

Two Crosses Graphic

Source: Change Begins with Absolute Surrender to King Jesus and His Mission!

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By: Stan Rodda

It’s amazing the places you can learn truths about disciple making when you are aware enough to pay attention. I was reminded of a disciple making truth recently when I was watching my 15 year old son workout. He has been wanting to get bigger, faster, stronger. He’s a high school boy and made JV lacrosse at his high school. He wants to grow as an athlete and I’m sure wants to look good for the girls at his school as an ulterior motive. We don’t have a lot of weights at our house and I don’t have a gym membership anywhere, so I encouraged my son to get creative. And creative he got.

He has been making weight plates out of concrete mix and five gallon buckets. He is using zip ties and small dumbbells to tie to a barbell for shoulder and bench press. He’s watching everything on YouTube he can to learn about getting stronger and faster. He implements everything he sees and gives it a try. Over the last year or so of watching him do this, I am beginning to see the signs. He is a little bigger. He’s gotten a lot stronger. He’s definitely faster. The results are starting to show up. But it has taken a year to even begin to see.

That’s where the disciple making truth comes in…

When it comes to disciple making, you must think marathon, not sprint!

Hebrews gives us a glimpse into this truth.

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer an perfecter of our faith. [Hebrews 12:1, 2 CSB]

I get it. You want results…TODAY! You’re direct. You’re hard charging. You have goals and a vision for your church or ministry. You want to take your neighborhood, city, state and globe for God by tomorrow afternoon. I want results too. Results show you that you’re headed in the right direction and that you’re doing right things. I’m with you.

Unfortunately, like many things, disciple making doesn’t work that way. When I want to lose weight and get in shape, I must plan for the long haul. I can’t eat right for one day, do a few pushups, run around the block and expect my body to respond the next morning. I won’t wake up with chiseled pecs, six-pack abs and rippling biceps. I’ll wake up sore and hangry. I must get after it again that day, and then the next day, and the next day, and…you see where this is going.

You won’t have a disciple making movement tomorrow after one day of talking about it. You aren’t necessarily going to win your city to Jesus by this afternoon just because you talk about making disciples one time. As with most things, results simply don’t show up that way. You have to push again today, and then the next day, and then the next day, and…you see where this is going.

After six months, a year or five years of this constant pushing toward movement, you will start seeing results. It might take time, but the effort expended to get to this level of spiritual maturity and depth will make a much healthier disciple making movement in the long run. In order to get there, I must constantly be asking God, “What’s my next step? What step of obedience can I take today?”

Obey Today

When you spend time with God in your secret place, in the quiet, early morning hours (or whenever you spend your time with God), ask the question, “God, what step of obedience would you have me take today?”

What sin do I need to confess?

What attitude do I need to change?

What in my life must I change to walk in better alignment with You?

When God gives you the answer…obey! Confess your sin. Change your attitude. Make amends where needed. Love your spouse differently. Love your kids well. Change how you lead. Whatever it is that God is asking you to do in your own discipleship, take the step of obedience.

You can only lead a disciple making movement as far as you are willing to obey God in your own personal life!

Help Your Disciples Obey Today

Share with your disciples what God is telling you to do. Share your plans for obedience and ask for accountability. Then ask them how God is speaking to them.

What next step is God calling them to reach?

Who is God asking them to share with?

When is God asking them to do it?

Help them hear God’s voice and obey in their own life. As you are moving toward obedience, growing spiritually and reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus in your own life and as God does the same in the life of your disciples, you will see depth and growth. You will see the movement beginning to form and grow. It will take some time, but it will absolutely be worth it.

The journey toward a disciple making movement looks so much more like a marathon than a sprint! May you hear God’s voice today and obey. May you help someone you are leading do the same.

Let’s take Kingdom territory!

Source: Think Marathon, Not Sprint!

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by Discipleship.org: Obeying Jesus means living a holy life. The term holiness has fallen on hard times these days. Just try avoiding something that might be morally questionable and wait for it. People will say you have a “holier than thou” attitude or will call you a “holy roller.”

The word “holy” itself is often misunderstood. What does it mean to be holy? First, you need to understand that God is holy. Holiness is His primary attribute. While the Bible says that God is love or God is merciful, only one attribute of God is repeated three times. In (Isaiah 6.3 ESV) the angels shouted in antiphonal praise, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” God declares Himself to be holy in (Ezekiel 39.7 NIV), “I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel.”

What is holiness?

Holiness means to be completely separate and sinless. The Scriptures tell us that God is sinless and cannot tolerate sin. “He is perfectly pure,” (Habakkuk 1.13 ESV). “He is not like any petty or tribal god, rather He is altogether great and matchless,” (Psalm 40.5 ESV).

Holiness pervades all of His attributes. His love is a holy love. His mercy is a holy mercy. His justice is a holy justice. His wrath is a holy wrath. Holiness is what sets Him apart. It is the essence of His complete “otherness.”

While it’s hard to wrap our minds around, holiness is the character and nature of God. Therefore, when God called the Israelites out of the bondage and decay of the pagan Egyptian culture, He called them to be holy like Him. “For I, the LORD, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy,” (Leviticus 11.45 NLT).

They were to be set apart, separate, different, special and distinct from all the other nations of the world. They were set apart to worship and serve God and Him alone. He called them to be different than the pagan culture around them and to obey and serve Him only.

Over time, the Israelites disobeyed God and slipped back into the dark culture around them. But in Christ, God called a new community — His church — to live holy lives. The Apostle Peter writes, “Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, ‘You must be holy because I am holy’,” (1 Peter 1.14-16 NLT).

Commit to a life of holiness.

When you came to Christ, He called you to follow Him. Following Him means living a holy life. Actually, the moment you were saved, the sacrifice of Jesus made you perfect. He washed you and cleaned you. From God’s perspective, you are already holy. But now as you live your daily life, you strive to live out in practical ways who you already are in God’s eyes. (Hebrews 10.14 NLT) says, “For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.”

Did you get that? By the offering of Jesus, you were made perfect, but now by the Spirit’s work in your life, you are continually being made holy. That happens one step at a time as you daily obey Jesus and follow Him. In the words of bestselling author Jerry Bridges, “Obedience is the pathway to holiness.” The more you choose to obey Christ and say no to the allurements of this world, the more you grow in holiness. The more you disobey Christ, the more you fail to live a holy life.

Craig Etheredge, author of this blog, wrote a short eBook, which is available to you as a free download. Access Invest in a Few here.

Why holiness?

You might ask, “Why should I pursue holiness?” First, you should pursue holy living out of gratitude for all Jesus has done for you. When you are truly overwhelmed with the price Jesus paid to redeem you and pull you out of your sin, why would you ever want to go back?

Second, pursuing holiness is motivated by your love for God. Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” (John 15.10 ESV). Loving Jesus leads you to holy living.

Another reason to pursue holiness is usefulness. Only when you are obeying and following Jesus can God use you to your fullest potential. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, his young trainee, that just as there are nice dishes in the cupboard that are set apart for the finest occasions, God wants you to be holy and set apart to be used in a special way. He concludes with this charge; “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts,” (2 Timothy 2.21-22 NLT).

Obedient living leads to holy living, and it all comes down to a choice. It requires choosing to run away from things that are not pleasing to God and choosing to run full stride toward those things that are on God’s heart. When you do, God will transform you from the inside out and use you to reflect His love to the world around you.

This blog is an excerpt that comes from the book “Walk With God” You can learn more about this book and about discipleFIRST at discipleFIRST.com. Blog used here by permission.

The post Living a Holy Life appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: Living a Holy Life

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by Tom Planck: The narrative that is unfolding in the Church today is not a good read. There are 355,000 plus churches in the United States and better than 80% of them are either in plateau or decline1. These churches are not only declining numerically, but they are also seeing a decrease in influence and impact in their community.

There is only one hope for the Church today. It is for a remnant of Christ-followers to re-engage with the mission of Jesus to make disciples who make disciples. The Church today greatly needs disciples of Jesus who help an individual walk toward and across the line of faith and then help them become a disciple who does the same for another.

This was and is Jesus’ Plan A for reaching the world and there is no Plan B.

Do you have a handful of people in your life that are far from God that you are intentionally helping walk toward a relationship with Jesus? Do you have a few Christ-followers that you are intentionally helping live with the attitude and posture of Jesus? Are you helping those disciples of Jesus intentionally repeat the process for others?

If you are still reading this blog entry and are a follower of Jesus then the answer to these questions should be a clear yes!

If you cannot answer these questions with the names of real people in your life that you are pouring into then let me challenge you to integrate a few principles into your life sooner rather than later.

1. Renew your commitment to be an obedient follower of Jesus.

Jesus’ words in John 14:15 are simple and profound:

“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15

If you love Jesus, you will live His commands.

This is NOT:

a rule to follow.
jumping through a set of religious hoops.
behavior management or simply adhering to a set of tacit religious behaviors.
about being a good churchgoer.

This IS about:

being in a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus.
having the attitude of Jesus.
having the posture of Jesus.
intentionally living the way Jesus did.

Being Jesus’ disciple is not merely gaining knowledge about Him, but integrating and living what we are learning about following the way of Jesus. He isn’t asking for perfection, but He is clear that His followers live a life patterned after His.

Where do you need to be more obedient to Jesus?

2. Re-engage in fishing for Jesus.

The call on the life of a follower to help people find their way back to God is made clear multiple times and in multiple places in the New Testament. Jesus said it this way in Matthew’s account:

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Matthew 4:19

My heart grieves over how few people who occupy a spot in a church pew on a weekly basis or serve on the staff of a local church have never helped someone walk to and across the line of faith. I am confident God’s heart breaks for the few numbers of Christians today that have helped someone find their way back to the Father. Know this, there are people in your life right now who God has strategically placed there so you can help them find their way back to God. Will you partner with Him? I hope so!

Walk across the room. Extend a hand. Build a friendship. Throw a party. Go to lunch. Invite them into your golf foursome. Get intentionally connected to those who are disconnected and see what God might do!

Take a moment right now to develop a short list of disconnected people that you will invest in and help walk toward a relationship with Jesus.

3. Refocus your time to be a disciple-maker for Jesus.

When the first followers of Jesus were given the challenge and strategy of making disciples who make disciples of all nations, this was not a foreign concept. They had lived it. It was key to their spiritual formation as His followers.

When Jesus began His public ministry, He called twelve to follow Him. He encouraged the masses but poured His life into a few. He made an even more intentional investment in three: Peter, James, and John. They had some unique experiences with Jesus that the other nine didn’t have. Jesus was preparing them for future leadership in the church. We see this clearly in the person of Peter who would become the foremost voice for spreading of the Gospel in the early days of the birth of the Church.

We also see this lived out in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. We see it most clearly in his discipling of young Timothy. Notice how Paul describes that in his second letter to Timothy:

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”2 Timothy 2:2

I love this verse because we see four generations of reproduction!

So the question to wrestle with is this: Who has God placed in your life that you can help become an obedient follower of Jesus who is fishing for people? How can you invest in them to ensure that the process gets repeated to multiple generations of reproduction?

Do not hesitate. Make the necessary changes. And, go make disciples!

More Resources

Here are a few suggested resources to help you build some intentional next steps.

Read “The Art of Neighboring” by Dave Runyon
Explore disicpleship.org
Hire a discipleship coach with Gravity Leadership

Note 1. Statistics adapted from “The Great Opportunity.” We highly recommend you download “The Great Opportunity” report.

The post Disciples Who Make Disciples appeared first on Healthy Growing Churches.

Source: Disciples Who Make Disciples

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The following is a guest post by Barry Smith of YouChoose.Community, a friend, veteran church planter, assessor, coach, author and nonprofit founder.

We’ve all heard it, and it can be paralyzing: “I’m just not getting fed anymore!”

It’s a dagger to the heart. It’s the comment that breaks the pastor’s back. The phrase that makes the most pious planter want to cuss like a sailor. It’s the excuse, if repeated, that can make us want to quit.

It could be a façade they’re hiding behind. But you know you’ve been preaching your best stuff and nothing has changed. Let’s assume they legitimately feel this way. What’s the basis for this ridiculousness?

1. The pastor and/or preaching has changed

They’ll say something like, “Things just aren’t the same. It used to be so exciting and interesting. The pastor was so passionate. It’s like everything he said spoke directly to me. But now I just can’t relate as much. I’m just not getting fed anymore. I want deeper teaching.”

A bad way to respond: “Every pastor knows that a person’s discipleship is their own responsibility. To give credit to or put blame on a weekend service is shortsighted, if not ludicrous. Grow up, parishioner, and take responsibility for your own growth!”

2. The church got too big

“It’s like no one notices me anymore. I don’t know anybody. And when I miss a service, nobody calls me.”

What you might think to yourself: “Are you flippin’ kidding me? Too many people are getting saved and growing in their faith? How horrible. We’ll immediately kick some people out so you can be more comfortable. You’ve probably already disconnected, stopped tithing, or never even got involved in growing in the first place.”

3. The focus has changed

“I’m just not sure I buy into the vision anymore. It’s turned into a big show. And all you do is ask for money and tell us to invite our neighbors. It seems like you only care about unchurched people. What about me? Don’t you care about me anymore?”

Your flesh reacts: “Of course we care about you, fool. Think about it… it was all of this horrible outreach mentality and concern for people outside the walls of our church that actually connected you to our body. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even know Jesus if it weren’t for our church.”

A More Spirit-Led Response

There is a solution to all this insanity: start a 3/3 (three thirds) group. These groups have been called many things over the years:

faith community
house church
missional community
small group
discipleship group

It doesn’t matter what you call them. What’s most important is what happens in the group.

The Three Thirds

The top of the fraction stands for the 3 topics of the group:

Sharing
Knowledge
Application

They are like the 3 legs of a stool: if one is short or missing, the whole stool is off kilter.

The bottom of the fraction represents that 1/3 of the total time is spent on each topic. They are equal in importance. Too many discipleship settings spend time exclusively in Bible study, memorization, and prayer. Obviously, those things are important. But they miss inviting the Spirit to lead them in applying what they’ve learned, and then sharing at the next meeting how they did at obeying what God told them to do.

The 3/3 group gains further success by its being made up of their 11 closest family and friends. They never have to birth, split, branch, or multiply. These 12 gather on a weekly basis and spend time studying Scripture, applying it to their lives, and holding one another accountable in a loving environment. And when you get each of them to have a top three list of people they’re praying will meet Jesus, AND to help other groups form as well – that’s going to produce disciples who make disciples.

When everyone spends an equal amount of time in each of these three legs, they will consistently obey what the Holy Spirit leads them to do.

Nobody can be “just not getting fed anymore”! Growth is all but guaranteed! And this type of discipleship group eliminates most weekend service complaints because everyone is getting fed by God and not a weekend service. This is humbling to the primary communicator… but it is effective.

I’ve known Barry for almost 20 years and love his heart for reaching people and starting new things. He’s the founder of YouChoose.Community – an online ministry where you choose when, where, how, and with whom you do faith. YouChoose has communities in California, Indiana and India. You can learn more at www.YouChoose.Community, www.barryonline.com and Family With Purpose, a company through which he and his wife serve families.

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Source: How to Feed Those Who Are Just Not Getting Fed Anymore

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The following is an excerpt from the download, “Three Keys to Making Disciple Makers”, written by Dave Buehring, Founder & President of Lionshare. Download the rest of these keys through their website here and look for “3 Keys to Making Disciple-Makers!”

Key #1: Obedience is the Engine of Transformation

Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll obey my commands” (John 14:15). When I was younger, I believed that to mean, “Prove that you love me by your obedience to Me”. However, over time I learned that it actually looks more like “as you continually encounter My love, obeying Me becomes a delightful must of your heart.” In other words, obeying Jesus is not done just because I should, or because He’ll love me more, or even because it advances His Kingdom. No, it’s much simpler and even richer than that — my heart has become entangled with His and obeying Him has morphed into a must mission of my heart!

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissions His disciples to “go, make disciples…teaching them to obey…” Now, I know that’s not where it ends, but that’s right where the Holy Spirit stopped me… “teaching them to obey”! Jesus learned obedience (Heb. 5:8), He taught His disciples how to obey Him, and then He asked them to disciple others to obey Him as well. Question: are you deliberately discipling those Jesus has put around you to obey Him?

The consequential gap between something revealed by Jesus to us and the actual transformation intended by that revelation, is obedience. Obedience is the engine of transformation! Obeying Jesus yields good fruit, fruit that remains. Disobeying Jesus results in a thinness of soul, habits of doing what we think is best, and fleshly attempts to bring forth spiritual fruit that masks our spiritual impotency.

Jesus gave His disciples a command to obey: make disciples. Because of the reproducing DNA implied in this command, it means making disciple makers. Their must mission of obedience—as seen in the book of Acts—caused people, religious structures and society to be flipped upside down! Making disciple makers was a must mission of Jesus’ life and ministry—is this a must mission of yours? Practically speaking, who did you disciple last year that is now effectively reproducing this year? Is your church currently, fruitfully functioning in this must mission of Jesus?

Keys #2 and #3

Download keys 2 and 3 through Lionshare’s website here. Look for “3 Keys to Making Disciple-Makers!”

This post was provided by Lionshare, which is a multi-denominational and multi-generational community of Jesus followers committed to discipling four-generations deep. They walk alongside pastors and churches, as well as societal leaders, to help reproduce disciple makers. We ignite disciple making through our two-day d4 gatherings that are hosted throughout the country. We also have a scripturally sound, proven and practical resource we’ve used for over a decade to aid the disciple making process. Contact Lionshare at info@lionshare.org or through their website www.lionshare.org.

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Source: 3 Keys to Making Disciple Makers

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