Share the Gospel & Your Life

by Jonathan Dodson

Discipleship happens not just by sharing the gospel, but by sharing our lives with others. 

Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul comments: “So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thess. 2:8).

Paul and Silas shared the gospel and their lives with these men and women. Paul lived with Jason, worked with the Thessalonians, ate meals with them, had an affection for them. They shared life in the rhythms of working, eating, suffering, and serving, like a family.

So how do we go about making disciples?

Mentor Discipleship

Paul describes discipleship through two primary relationships: brother to brother and father to son. Perhaps most people are familiar with brother discipleship relationships, where you have shared life and the gospel with your peers. All too often, however, these Christian relationships stop at sharing life. They don’t go deep into the gospel, mining grace through conflict, suffering, and mission.

The other disciple relationship God has given the church is the father to son or mother to daughter. This relationship is not peer-based but mentor-based, sharing not only life but also gospel wisdom.

I’ve had the privilege of sharing life and wisdom with some great mentors. There was a couple who shared their lives and the gospel with my wife and me our first year of marriage. We lived on the first floor of their home, and we would pop in on one another, talk in the front yard about life, and occasionally share meals. This couple gave us an example of marriage during our first year, praying for us and sharing wisdom with us. The husband taught me that husbands should be students of our wives’ needs, hopes, fears, and dreams. We should know them intimately, not just provide for them financially. This insight has compelled me to love my wife over the years by asking her questions about her joys, fear, concerns, hopes, and dreams. I’ve passed it on to many.

How to Speak Wisely

Mentors speak wisely in a variety of ways. There’s not a one-size-fits-all way of sharing wisdom. Paul discipled through speech by exhorting and encouraging. He wrote to them saying, “You know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:11–12). A fatherly mentor observes his disciple and takes time to exhort, encourage, and charge others in the faith.

That husband exhorted me to understand my wife as a display of the gospel to the world. I had another mentor who encouraged me in seminary. We met together regularly, but he also took the time to attend the Sunday School classes I taught, in both my first year and my last year. Then, after each class, he would pull me aside specifically to tell me how I had improved. When I began writing, there was a published author and mentor who encouraged me to keep writing even when my articles were turned down. He insisted that I had a voice and something to say, and that one day I would get published. Exhorting and encouraging can and should happen in peer discipleship relationships too, though exhortation and encouragement from a mentor carries a particular weight. Use it wisely.

The discipleship crisis can be redressed if we will simply take the time to be disciples who share the gospel and our lives with others. If this kind of discipleship had stopped with Paul and Barnabas, Christianity would have gone nowhere. But Barnabas discipled Paul; Paul discipled Silas, who discipled the Thessalonians, who discipled others. Four generations of disciples. The church grew, in depth and number, through the multiplication of shared life and wisdom.

What if this kind of discipleship had stopped with the Thessalonian church? Where would we be? If it had stopped with me, my now-friend and fellow pastor would not be discipling others. When I first met him, he was a burned-out musician and recovering alcoholic in need of shared life and gospel wisdom. After taking in some gospel steroids, sharing life, and devouring wisdom, he’s discipled others. Now he’s not only a peer disciple but also a mentor to others.

Life and Gospel

What would happen if you and your community took the opportunity to share life and the gospel, not just as peers but also as mentors to one another?

Good discipleship relationships share life and the gospel. Sometimes they take the form of brotherly relationships, and other times they take the form of mentor relationships: father to son, mother to daughter. Everyone needs a mentor, but not everyone is promised a mentor. However, everyone can be a mentor to others. If you know Jesus, you know more than enough to disciple someone.

It is these discipling relationships that cause the gospel to spread, for disciples to multiply. Who has God placed around you? Are you being intentional about making disciples? Who could you deliberately share life and the gospel with? Jesus gave you life so that you could go and share that life with others.

This post originally appeared on Gospel-Centered Discipleship. 

Better Discipleship: 5 Broken Views of Discipleship and How to Fix Them

Ed Stetzer

There is a lot of talk about discipleship these days—and it is about time. Jesus seemed to think discipleship was a big deal, putting it as the heart—and the verb—of the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations.” Yet, it seems discipleship has fallen on hard times in many churches in the West—for example, English-speaking places like the U.S., Canada, Australia, and England where there are Christians who are just not as desperate and committed as their sisters and brothers in the Two-Thirds World.

I would go so far as to say that our discipleship model is broken. I would like to suggest some areas where we are broken and hopefully provide some solutions about how to fix them.

1. We equate discipleship with religious knowledge.

While I don’t think one can appropriately grow without seeking more biblical knowledge, many times believers reduce the discipleship process to, “Read this. Study this. Memorize this. Good to go.” This is unfortunate.

Instead, discipleship is to be more like Jesus. Christ-like transformation is the goal, as we are “to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). The point is not information, but Christ-like transformation. And, that means it is not about knowledge in general, but about knowing Jesus better. Trying to be like Jesus, without the power of Jesus, dishonors Jesus.

2. We try to program discipleship.

Discipleship is not a six-week course. It requires both the pursuit of knowledge and intentional action. Too many offer a book or a class when what is needed is a life.

Instead, when Jesus made disciples, He brought them along as He ministered to people. I’m currently discipling a new believer, and we’re actually doing ministry together—instead of me just telling him about it. The good news is that the research tells us people want this. In fact, in a recent LifeWay Research study, we found that a large majority of those who have previously attended a small group of some kind, but who are not attending now, would consider attending a new group, but they want to meet with their group more often than just once a week for bible study. People are looking for meaningful, shared-life relationships, not just a discipleship class.

3. We equate discipleship with our preaching.

I’m just going to say it: Pastors, move beyond your arrogance and stop thinking your preaching is enough to be the church’s discipleship strategy. This is not just my opinion. Recent research done by LifeWay Research indicates that 56% of pastors surveyed believe that their weekly sermon, or another one of their teaching times such as Sunday evenings/Wednesday evenings, was the most important discipling ministry in the church. While it is great to see the recent renaissance of Bible-based preaching, along with it we have to jettison the idea that “If people just listen to my sermons, they will grow spiritually.”

Instead, discipleship is a daily process. Pastors, we have to develop more robust discipleship plans than just our weekly messages. Discipleship is not a Sunday event, it is a daily commitment.

4. We think that we will grow without effort.

For many, they think that God saved them and now they should just go to church and maybe stay away from the really big sins. They are unintentional in tending to their spiritual growth. Sadly we have not done much to change this.

Instead, we need to understand that the scripture teaches that each person is to not be a passive spectator, but rather to “work out your own salvation” (Phil. 2:12). Discipleship takes every believer’s intentional effort. Yes, effort. Believers must take steps to grow, and that is in line with grace.

Notice that this passage does not say “work on your own salvation” or “work toward” it. You cannot. It is by grace and through faith. However, as a believer, you do take effort to grow—but that does not earn you a relationship with God, it just puts you in the right place where God can grow you as a believer, saved by grace. As Dallas Willard has explained, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.”

5. We don’t offer practical steps.

Changing a church’s consumer culture requires an intentional discipleship plan and strategy. We are often intentional about our preaching schedule; why, then, are we not intentional about a discipleship strategy?

Instead, be unapologetic that you want to encourage people to get 1) grounded in their faith, 2) consistent in the word, 3) in a small group with others, whether that looks like a weekly Bible study group, a missional community, a Sunday School class, or something else altogether. Give people steps and people with whom they can take those steps.

Conclusion

Assuming your discipleship plan is biblically grounded, the specifics of your plan are not nearly as important as implementing one and communicating it well. Heralding a strategy as the way to become a disciple would be arrogant, but each church should explain its discipleship strategy as “our church’s way of discipleship.”

Identifying the challenges of genuine discipleship and committing to a process that works through them are the first and necessary steps to cultivating a church filled with on-mission disciples.

Posted at www.Christianitytoday.com on 8/2013. This article first appeared in the April/May 2013 issue of Outreach Magazine

Uniquely wired, uniquely placed

Matt Chandler

You have been uniquely wired by God. And not only that, but the Bible says you’ve been uniquely placed by God.

Here’s what Acts 17:24–26 says: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”

In other words, you might have surprised Mom and Dad, but you didn’t surprise the Lord. God has uniquely wired you and uniquely placed you. If we went on to read in Acts 17, here’s what you would read: “That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

Placed within the context of God’s command to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18–20), this idea should eradicate boredom from the Christian mind and heart.

Lockering next to Jeff

For no reason whatsoever, I was drawn toward athletics growing up. I don’t have the body for it. I don’t really have the temperament for it. I don’t have the coordination for it. I would have probably done great at writing poetry or painting, but my heart wanted to play ball.

I joined a football team when we moved from California, and I ended up lockering next to a guy named Jeff, who also loved football. He actually starred on the team and went on to play college ball. I got to just be on the team and run scout stuff: “This is what the other team is going to do. Chandler, stand there.” We were the dummies the starters practiced on.

You didn’t surprise the Lord. God has uniquely wired you and uniquely placed you.

Both of us loved athletics, but Jeff saw past football into the kingdom of God, and playing ball for him wasn’t an end in itself. He understood it to be the avenue by which he could share the gospel with others. Sure enough, he turned to me one time and said, “I need to tell you about Jesus. When do you want to do that?”

Just as in Paul’s Acts 17 sermon, aptitude, allotted periods, and boundaries collided, and God got his hooks in me.

Today I’m a pastor, and I preach the Bible. If anything good has happened out of that, it’s because a seventeen-year-old kid saw past high school football and into eternity. He treated his football period and practice as a mission field for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It brought a meaning to playing football that transcended athletics.

Beyond home and work

If Acts 17 is true, it means the meaning of our living in our neighborhood goes well beyond us simply living in that neighborhood. Our neighborhood is transformed into the place we were put by God. It turns into a mission field. It turns into the very place we are commanded to make disciples.

Who is in the office or cubicle next to you? Who do you share a workstation with? This also monumentally transforms our work into a place we connect with people and introduce them to Jesus.

Our neighborhood is transformed into the place we were put by God. It turns into a mission field.

Embracing God’s call on our life to herald the good news of the gospel transforms every arena of our life. For instance, I work out not because I have any hope of ever being “swole.” I go and work out because it enables me to encourage other believers. It helps me build relationships with people who don’t know Jesus. Would I like my power clean numbers to come up? Sure, but that’s not what’s motivating me to get up and go. What’s motivating me to get up and go is I work with a bunch of Christians.

My daughter loves to ride horses, so she goes out and rides horses. God has put me in that arena now with her. When I’m with her I have the opportunity to meet people I probably would never have met. My son is playing flag football. When I’m at practices or games, I get to meet all of the parents. My youngest daughter is in gymnastics. Now, I’m at these little gymnastics meets. I’m meeting people I wouldn’t meet otherwise. In all of this, I want to see through these lenses: God is near to them because he has put me there.

God is not far from any of us

The unique place God places us in transforms everything we do. The place we live, work, or the activities we’re involved with become less about us and more about God. He has uniquely designed us, uniquely wired us, and uniquely placed us so that men and women would seek him and find him. He is not far from any of us because he has put us in their life.

God met me in a football locker room. That’s what Paul meant when he said that God is not far from any of us. God is not far from your neighbor—because you’re next door. God is not far from your coworker—because you’re next door.

We should never be bored. There’s an eternal significance to every aspect of our lives. I want to see the world through these lenses.