Making disciples is the main event

"Making disciples is the main event - that is what we are called to do as His body." You know, I'd love to be so wise as to be sharing all of my own thoughts, but it's more important to share the heart of God. I believe our new friend Arlin has said it so well again, I find no need to re-write it into my words. Technically I don't believe these are Arlin's words either. I believe these are the words of our Lord as stated in Scripture. Read the following and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

In the book I started on my plane ride down here, “Hole in the Gospel” author Richard Stearns writes “in our evangelistic efforts to make the good news accessible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down to a kind of fire insurance one can buy”. He calls it the “bingo card gospel” where folks are led to make a choice to pray the sinners prayer and then left to figure out how to be a Christ Follower on their own, or as often happens, to go back to whatever life they were living after getting “their ticket to the next life”. Oh how that strikes a chord with me. Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. That does not mean go and make baby Christians and then leave them to fend for themselves. Salvation is only step one of the process of disciplemaking. It is not the end game – it is the start. Jesus wants us to take these new believers under our arm and lead them into a deep walk with the Savior, not just to introduce them so they can find salvation and leave them on their own. We shouldn’t be creating orphanages of baby believers – we should be creating school yards of believers that are being taught how to move toward godliness and holiness – mentored by those who are further down the road. Making disciples is the main event – that is what we are called to do as His body. How does the process work? The same way it did when Jesus showed us – by spending time with and investing in people. He did it with the 12. That is probably more than we can handle, but we sure should be doing it with someone. I don’t think it coincidence that Sunday night our small group studied John 15 which was all about bearing fruit – the purpose of which is to reproduce – and then this book is the one I grab to read on the plane. God is trying to get my attention to get more intentional about pouring life into folks and being an example of how to walk with Christ. I have a whole lot to learn, and certainly am not the greatest example in the world, but to disciple another we simply need to be one step further down the path with the Savior. We should not wait until we achieve it – because we never will. We just need to lead another down our own journey. Are you in the game of making disciples and helping people change their life – or just in the fire insurance business? Or have you taken the approach that all you want to do is attend church once in a while and not do anything with your spiritual calling. God calls us to be a lot more than an insurance salesman or a pew filler. We are to make a significant difference by being intentional in making disciples – helping others live a life pleasing to God as we do so ourselves. That is our call. Are you going to answer? Quoted from Arlin Sorensen Thoughts from the Farm

That's the question at hand. Are you going to answer? Do you need some help or encouragement? That's what we're here for. Let us know if we can help. Contact us at tcm@treasurechestministries.org