A father was sitting watching television, when his little boy came running over.  “Daddy, can you play with me?” Dad enjoys playing with his son, and plans to give him plenty of time, but not just yet. “Soon, son, soon” says Dad.  “When the game is finished.” Five minutes later the little boy returns. “Daddy, can we play now?” “Soon, son, soon. When this game finishes.” Two minutes later the little boy returns again. “Daddy, is it time to play yet?”

Dad realises he’s not going to get any peace, so he decides to set his son a task that will take some time. He notices a picture of a map of the world on the front page of the newspaper lying in front of him. He tears the picture out then rips it into small pieces. “Now son, I’ve got a game for you. Take the pieces of this picture of the world and put them back together again and then we’ll play together.”

The little boy eagerly takes the pieces away with him and sets to work.  Dad’s relieved he’ll get to see the last half hour of the game. But, to his amazement, his little boy is back in less than five minutes. “I’ve finished daddy. Can we play now?”

The father is stunned when he turns around to see his son holding up the picture of the world, each piece sticky taped into the right position. Dad begins wondering whether he has a child prodigy on his hands. “How did you get it done so quickly?” he asks. “That would’ve taken me a good 30 minutes and I’m an adult.” “Oh, it was easy daddy. On the back of the world was a picture of a person, so I put the person together and that’s when the world came together.”

How do we understand the world around us? How do we do what Jesus commanded us to do in the world? Jesus is the face on the other side of the puzzle. He enables us to make sense of life and our world and to find a path through it. (Source: unknown)

When I’m working with Church leaders I often ask the question, “What is your disciple making process?” After listening for some time I find that most people answer the question in one of the following ways:  

• They have copied someone else’s system and there is no heart involvement
• They have given it a lot of thought and prayer and are clear about the process but they don’t follow it because it is complex and hard to manage
• They don’t have a process and don’t think it is important

An effective discipleship process must connect the disciple to Jesus, who is Life.

The photo on the other side of the discipleship “map” is Jesus. When he takes His rightful place as the centre of the process, then the pieces of the discipleship puzzle come together more easily. When the disciple is led by the Life-giver, he or she will be both self-perpetuating and self-propagating.

• Self-perpetuating: If a disciple is healthy, they will continue to live without needing any outside props or infusion of resources.
• Self-propagating: They will reproduce themselves by producing life in others and will naturally start making disciples who will in turn do the same.

With the right DNA, the right person giving shape and direction to the process, you will grow the real thing. When everyone and everything is gone the disciple is left with nothing but Jesus

Discipleship is not complicated, it begins in our every day encounters with people. It happens in (super) natural ways, not in artificial or manufactured ways.(Mark 4). Just as God breathed life into all living creatures (Genesis 2:7), He also breathes His life into the disciple. (John 21:21-23; Acts 2) Disciples, like all living entities, are to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.(Genesis 1:28; Acts 1:8)