by Eugene L. Madeira
Here is a novel idea for follow-up training that perhaps many missionaries have overlooked. It has been used with success in inner city work and is applicable in a wide variety of cultural situations.
Here is a novel idea for follow-up training that perhaps many missionaries have overlooked. It has been used with success in inner city work and is applicable in a wide variety of cultural situations.
The present great ingathering of new believers represents for the church a unique opportunity for discipleship. The indigenous movements must not be stifled by an unprepared establishment.
The establishment has two assets in meeting the challenge of discipleship: the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The lack of teachers and Christian workers is not a problem as long as the above two assets are utilized. However, many existing materials used for discipleship and follow-up are inadequate for the following reasons:
1. They are too expensive for use by the masses.
2. They are not self-teaching or self-correcting.
3. They make the Word of God difficult and hard to understand.
4. They don’t give the student a feeling for the books of the Bible and the thrill of discovery for himself.
5. They lack relevance to today’s needs and problems.
6. They require a great deal of intellectual sophistication and previous knowledge of the Word to use.
I have been working with Puerto Rican converts for the past ten years, and I have found that translated materials produced by Billy Graham, the Navigators, and others are too difficult and complicated for new Christians. Most do not even know the books of the Bible and are unable to look up Scripture references.
This places the new believer at a great disadvantage when it comes to discipling. Bible studies based on proof texts and verses scattered all over the Bible tend to confuse the believer rather than establish him. Few are able to jump from verse to verse, chapter to chapter, and book to book with any real understanding of the doctrine given.
Now is the time for us to develop a feeling for the message of the whole book. The Scriptures are beautifully simple and easy to understand. The logic and progress of truth revealed in each book from the early Christian letters is both fascinating and instructional.
One group that has had a wholesome approach of studying the Word of God book by book is Neighborhood Bible Studies (Box 222, Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. 10522). Two young women organized this movement and it is now growing world-wide. The Holy Spirit is the teacher. Generally speaking, there are no ministers or clergymen there to dampen the Holy Spirit.
Some years ago I attended a movie that I wouldn’t take my children to see. I had always maintained that if a movie wasn’t good for a child, it wasn’t good for a Christian either. Yet there are some issues of life that adults face that make it difficult to stay in a child’s world all the time. So I went.
When I got home I began to read First Thessalonians (the whole letter) for my devotions. I had recently started reading whole books of the Bible at one sitting for devotions -just like we are accustomed to do when we read any letter that comes in the mail. In education we are told that students lack motivation to do well in courses when they aren’t given an opportunity to see the whole course in advance so that they’ll know what to expect. If effective education begins with the whole, I reasoned that it would be well to try and apply this principle to the study of the books of the Bible. Much of our devotional life has traditionally been only in studying the parts of verses of scripture.
In the context of the movie I had just seen, the word purity stood out all over the pages of First Thessalonians. Then it dawned on me – a life that is pleasing to God is a life that is dramatically different from the world. The world has no standards – in the theater, in the arts, in literature or in the movies that are produced. Yet if Christians are to be Christians, they must hold to God’s standard.
Paul’s first letter (I Thess.) was written to new Christians, who lived in a culture much like our own without any standards of morality. It was written toward the middle of the first century (52 A.D.). He was in Corinth, a wild and perverse city. He was concerned about the welfare of the believers in Thessalonica, because he knew they were suffering persecution. He wanted them to live lives that would be worthy of God (1 Thess. 2:12). So he wrote them a letter to follow up Timothy’s report .
If letters were a valid means of follow-up by Paul with new Christians, should not these same letters serve today in the discipling of new Christians? Discipleship should not have to be complicated, difficult, or expensive. A proper use of the Word of God as the chief textbook and a reliance on the Holy Spirit will do wonders!
Paul’s letters to new Christians are ideal for use in preparing a new Christian for what God wants to do in his life. The Holy Spirit can use the same word for the edification and instruction of new believers that he used twenty centuries ago. I believe that Paul’s letters should be printed in booklet form and distributed systematically to new believers-in the order of his writing-as part of mass follow-up programs.
The Pauline method of follow-up is particularly applicable when working with marginally literate people. We must remember that his letters were read to the congregations and listeners got an overall impression of the thrust of the letter. They did not have time to go over it with a fine tooth comb verse-by-verse the way we do. In fact, verse markings (numbers) were added later.
An outline I have used in follow-up with marginally literate Puerto Ricans in the inner city is as follows:
Called by Christ to Grow. (1) In purity – 1 Thessalonians; (2) In faithfulness – 2 Thessalonians; (3) In spirituality – 1 Corinthians; (4) In grace – 2 Corinthians; (5) In liberty – Galatians; (6) In security – Romans.
Thus the apostle provided the new Christians with information that would meet their basic needs. My experience in the inner city is that Puerto Ricans are able to-comprehend the thrust of each letter when studied as a whole, and to see what God has in store for them.
The prison epistles are beautiful for dealing with the problems of older congregations. They are ideal for dealing with those who are stagnate, inflexible and closed to new insights. My use of these letters help broaden Christians by showing that:
We are Enabled by Christ. (1) To be objective – Philemon; (2) To develop personality – Colossians; (3) To practice equality – Ephesians; (4) To be mature – Philippians.
Paul’s final letters should bring joy to every missionary concerned with church growth. They provide guidelines for equipping Christians to do his work.
Commissioned by God. (1) To preach – I Timothy; (2) To organize churches – Titus; (3) To fight the good fight (spiritually) – 2 Timothy.
I have found many advantages in using Paul’s letters to follow-up new Christians: (1) They cover the whole spectrum of Christian doctrine from personal character to Christian work. (2) They are relatively short and can be read quickly. (3) They give the student a view of the whole, and allow him as much time as he needs for the study of the parts. (4) There is a natural development of truth, not a forced doctrinal outline. (5) They increase in depth as the person grows in Christ. (6) They help the new Christian see the whole as his relationship to Christ, and the parts as his relationship to other Christians. (7) A dynamic element is maintained in which Christ in us is the hope of glory. (8) They face the problems of the real church, not the problems of theologians.
In our efforts to instruct new Christians, let us not overlook the fundamental significance and usefulness of reading and studying New Testament epistles as a whole.
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