EMQ » April–June 2018 » Volume 54 Issue 2
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder”]Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21 ESV
The church planters filled the small building on the edge of town. Many of them were the only Christians living in their Muslim communities. More than 30 years of work in Southeast Asia had taught us that these frontline workers needed times of fellowship and prayer to strengthen them in their church planting endeavors.
Consequently, every month we gathered the church planters in a safe location where they could encourage one another with their testimonies of what God was doing through them and also give them spiritual refreshment. One church planter with 10 years of experience stood up to share his testimony. A smile beamed from his face as he began to tell of an elderly man whom he had been discipling.
As was common with this unreached people group, this elderly man had low self-esteem. He had come to faith in Christ two years ago. At first, he was afraid to enter the house where the church was meeting, so he sat outside the door. After a few weeks, he saw that he would not be rejected and entered the house during the meeting. As the church planter was relaying the process of this believer moving into the house and then becoming part of the group, his voice grew more excited and his smile broadened. It felt like the story was building towards a momentous conclusion. Everyone eagerly waited for the next part of the testimony. Finally, the big announcement came. The church planter, bursting with joy, told how this believer ended the house church meeting by leading the closing prayer!
While this church planter was bursting with joy in the accomplishment of the believer, I thought to myself, “Who are we kidding? If it takes two years just to have a new believer work up the courage to pray in front of eight other people, how will we ever reach the tens of millions in this people group?”
It was at this point that I knew something had to change. We had to overcome the problems associated with their low self-esteem so that new believers would proclaim the Good News to their family and friends. The solution to this problem was to recover Jesus’ model of discipleship to involve skill training and accountability rather than only Bible studies and character development.
Worship to Restore
The Bible story is one of worship. God desires that His Name be glorified throughout heaven and earth. Both Satan and humans fell because they wanted to be worshipped. But God did not discard His creation. Instead, this afforded God an opportunity to maximize His glory.
Redemption brings the greatest worship. Throughout eternity, Christ is worshipped as the Lamb whose blood ransomed a people for God (Revelation 5:10). Therefore, whenever sinners repent, God receives greater worship because the repentant acknowledges that they are not God and instead gives worship to the true God.
To achieve His goal of maximizing His worship, God prepared both the means and the method. In the Great Commission, we see God’s provisions for us. Jesus said, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus’ presence with us through the Holy Spirit is the means to fulfill the Father’s purpose of glorifying His Name among the nations. We cannot fulfill God’s purpose without His power. But with His power, nothing can hinder the work of God from being accomplished through everyone who believes.
God also gave us the means to fulfill His purpose. Jesus said to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). We are seeing the Kingdom of God advance in many places around the world as the Church makes disciples. Disciple-making is the method Jesus modeled and implemented throughout the Book of Acts. The Kingdom of God spread not because the Church had buildings, a mission budget, or an organization. Jesus didn’t even provide them with a boat or a horse so they could travel around proclaiming the Gospel! Rather, Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit and said, “Go do what I have been doing.”
It is a recovery of Jesus’ model of discipleship and its implementation in the Book of Acts that will lead to the Gospel being proclaimed among unreached people groups and churches established in their midst.
A Definition to Repair
We need to recover the meaning of the word “discipleship.” The term has been diluted by Western churches and has therefore led to stagnation in Gospel proclamation. The word “discipleship” often creates an image of a small group Bible study or a one-on-one meeting over coffee with your spiritual mentor to deal with your life issues. While Bible study and mentoring are certainly elements of discipleship, this understanding of discipleship falls far short of what the Bible presents.
Discipleship is not merely learning the content of the Bible and growing in Christ’s likeness. His command to make disciples is so much more; it is the method of missions. Instead of discipleship being primarily a knowledge or character focus, we see that Christ’s method of discipleship balances both knowledge, character, and skill. People need to be trained in how to present the Gospel to others and how to train these new believers to repeat the process. After all, isn’t that what is meant by Jesus’ command to go and make disciples? The underlying assumption is that you will go to someone who is not a disciple and make them a disciple. Then this person will obey Jesus’ command by going to someone who is not a disciple and making them a disciple.
Therefore, discipleship requires not just personal, individual, spiritual transformation or an understanding of the Gospel, but also the skill to minister. I believe that much of the potential of the Church lies dormant not because people are unwilling to proclaim the Gospel to the nations, but because they have never been trained. If they knew how, many would rise up and make Him known.
Skills to Acquire
It has been my experience that churches talk and train a lot about what a disciple is, but don’t have a good grasp of what it means to make disciples. The word “make” draws attention to discipleship being a process. Unbelievers hear the Good News, the Spirit works, and they repent. Now they are to obey the Word of God. Typically, churches will invest in teaching new believers how to have a quiet time or how to memorize Scripture. They may also be asked to help out in a service project. But is that enough to make disciples?
A reading of the Gospels reveals Jesus’ discipleship program. Jesus spent time teaching the Gospel to His disciples, correcting their character, and training them in outreach ministry. Many churches have lost the vision of the Church as a training center in which each person is trained to proclaim the Gospel. Jesus modeled a threefold ministry—teach the Scriptures, proclaim the Good News, and meet the needs of those who are hurting (Matthew 9:35). If we want to equip people with the skills to proclaim the Good News, we need a concerted effort. Learning the skills to make disciples is not difficult, but we must be committed and intentional to structuring our ministries to train every believer to make disciples.
The house-church life in Southeast Asia where I’ve ministered for more than 25 years consists of three main areas of focus: sharing with accountability, studying the Word, and setting goals. Each meeting starts with a time of sharing. The members tell what ministry they did over the previous week: who heard the Gospel through them and what the response was. Then they spend time rejoicing before God for the work that He has done through them. After this time of evaluation, the members will study the Scriptures together as they seek to know God more deeply and grow in understanding the Gospel. Then they end their meeting with goal setting. They make plans for the upcoming week concerning their evangelism efforts and ministry. They identify people they want to share the Gospel with, pray for these people, then commission these disciples to return to their communities to shine as lights.
Individuals in house churches that demonstrate a deeper passion for the Lord will be trained to share the Gospel widely, follow up with new believers, and start their own house church. This training is practical and is done in a one-on-one relationship. Although this approach results in fewer being trained, the impact is greater because those who are trained are active in intentionally and accountably reaching out to others.
Imagine if our established churches would develop a similar model of discipleship. Presently, many churches hold a Bible class for adults after the service. They meet in smaller groups to discuss the sermon they just heard. Some churches have mid-week Bible study groups meeting in homes. However, traditionally, these smaller gatherings mostly focus on teaching and fellowship.
Now what would happen if these churches revamped their small groups to focus on training rather than teaching. Small groups would meet and share about who heard the Gospel through them in the previous week. They would study the Scripture together and then set goals for the upcoming week. With an emphasis on training rather than teaching, church members would become equipped to minister wherever the Lord has placed them—in their offices, neighborhoods, schools, etc. Adding training to our discipleship programs would result in a greater Gospel impact.
A Message to Share
In Southeast Asia, and in many unreached areas around the globe, as new believers are trained in the skills of doing ministry, the Gospel has been breaking through. Soleh, a national church planter that I work with, was traveling through his area proclaiming the Gospel. He met two men and struck up a conversation with them. One of the men, Ahmed, had been in an accident that left him in a coma for five days. As a result of the accident, Ahmed lost 95 percent of his vision. Of the two men, it was Ahmed who came to faith in Christ.
Soleh immediately began to teach and train Ahmed. Although he was not able to read well due to his functional blindness, Ahmed absorbed the Bible stories. He was baptized and grew in His love for Christ. One of his two wives also came to faith, but his son, who was 30 years old, refused to believe. One day, his son confronted his dad. “Call Soleh here,” he said. “I don’t accept what has happened. Everyone in our family is a Muslim. You must also remain a Muslim.”
Now let me pause the story here. In my 25-plus years of working among Muslims, we have seen this story repeatedly. People respond when they hear a clear Gospel presentation. But when pressure from the community arises, many quickly fold. This time, the story has a different ending. Soleh not only had been meeting with Ahmed to share the content of the Scriptures, but he had also been training Ahmed in practical ways to tell others of the Gospel. They learned and practiced a Gospel presentation. Then they went to a market about 30 minutes away where no one knew Ahmed. There they shared the Gospel with Muslims working in the market. As a result, Ahmed grew in confidence.
This is what was missing all these years. People doubted themselves because they were not trained to master the task they were being asked to undertake. We found that once people practiced it, knew what to say, and had experience doing it with their mentor, they were willing to rise up and proclaim it. Ahmed now was filled with confidence. He had proven to himself that he could be a witness for Christ. Now, as his son confronted him, Ahmed held his ground and even turned the tables. He once again told the Gospel to his son saying, “You don’t need to meet Soleh. I can tell you why I am following Jesus. I know the truth. I don’t follow Jesus because of Soleh but because I worship Jesus.”
After overcoming the challenges at home, Ahmed continued to tell others about Christ. In this first year of His walk with Christ, Ahmed shared the Gospel with 112 Muslims, started several house churches and is training five people to start house church networks. Imagine the impact that this would have on our churches if every new believer shared the Gospel with 112 non-Christians in the first year of their Christian experience. If an uneducated, practically blind man can do it, we all can. Ahmed’s words serve as a reminder to all of us. Ahmed told Soleh, “Sure we can sit in our homes, resting or sleeping. But what of our responsibility? We have to show our thanks for our salvation by proclaiming the Good News to others.”
Conclusion
Discipleship is certainly the heart of the biblical mandate as the church interacts with the outside world, and where his people are intentionally training and developing skills to obey, the Lord is bringing fruit that remains, all over the world.
Matt Kirkas is the Southeast Asia Area Director of Partners International and has been involved in church planting in Southeast Asia for more than 20 years. Matt holds an MA in Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations from Georgetown University, and is ordained in the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia.
