{"id":538,"date":"2020-06-23T11:53:47","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T01:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2020-06-23T12:15:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T02:15:36","slug":"learning-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"Learning from the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Too many people in the Western World believe ANYTHING OLD IS OLD-FASHIONED.&nbsp; But this is not true for disciples of Jesus. This generation of disciples, as with every generation, has a fresh opportunity to reclaim the pattern of ministry that Jesus laid down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, we are here because the first disciples took Jesus at his word.&nbsp; They made Jesus\u2019 last words their first work.&nbsp; What would happen if we did the same?&nbsp; I believe we would rediscover what it means to be a New Testament church.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Jesus and his disciples kept the main things the main thing.&nbsp; We also need do this, and stop majoring on the minors, so we become far more effective in our ministry efforts.&nbsp; Until disciple-making becomes the ministry of the church and not a ministry in the church, we will never see our efforts impact the world the way that Jesus envisioned.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Jesus could have told us about the Great Mission, something he would do alone. Instead, he enlisted us to join him in what we call the Great Co-Mission.&nbsp; As believers, we cooperate with him in a synergistic manner \u2013 working together.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Jesus taught incarnational principles, not duplicate processes for people to implement. Jesus\u2019 plan for reaching the world was not through massive evangelism conferences, though they have their place, but by investing in people who would then invest themselves in discipling others.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today\u2019s church leaders can\u2018t be like the generations immediately preceding them. Church in a box is out-dated, canned sermons are frowned upon, and leaders need to understand and apply a comprehensive disciple-making strategy \u2013 the crux of the Great Commission.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IN the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai, British prisoners of war in Burma during World War II are building a bridge for their Japanese captors.&nbsp; They devote enormous amounts of time constructing a bridge that serves as more than a channel for passage; it becomes something beautiful and wonderful for them.&nbsp; At the end of the film, there is a challenging moment when another group of Allied commandos force the captives to consider blowing up the bridge to keep Japanese trains from using it.&nbsp; It\u2019s a very difficult decision for the men because of the extraordinary effort they have expended in building the bridge.&nbsp; The men have become so focused on the intricacies of their effort that they have forgotten the larger mission of winning the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In John 14:12, Jesus explained to his disciples the extent of their ministry: <em>\u201cI assure you: The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.&nbsp; And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp; Some have wrongly interpreted this verse to mean that the disciples would do greater works in <em>significance<\/em> than Jesus.&nbsp; Yet this is clearly not the case, for nobody can do anything superior to what God has done. What Jesus meant was that the <em>scope <\/em>of their ministries would be far-reaching.&nbsp; The works Jesus has in mind were of greater quantity, not quality.&nbsp; He was referring to the expansion of his ministry beyond the reach of one man.&nbsp; While Jesus\u2019 ministry was essentially restricted to the regions of Judah and Galilee, those after him would go separate ways and proclaim the gospel to all nations of the world.&nbsp; Discipleship is a means to expanding the ministry of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This would and did happen because the providence and presence of God bookend the Great Commission: \u201cAll authority has been Given to Me\u201d\u2026\u201dI am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"line-height:1.5\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a lifetime of making disciples and raising up leaders, I\u2019m enjoying applying my experience and insights to the area of discipling especially in the current postmodern context. I have always tended to experiment with different ways of discipling but have become aware that greater adjustment is needed as we relate with potential disciples in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aim of our blog articles is to continue the process of looking at the area of discipleship through the lens of the major contextual changes confronting us in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century. If this spikes your interest, you can go to the above URL and register to receive regular blog notices via email (click on Blog Subscription).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We would also encourage you to pass the URL on to friends who are expressing an interest in looking at how best to engage potential disciples in our current cultural context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>You are receiving this email because you have purchased one of our books, attended one of our seminars or shown some other interest in the area of Discipleship in the Postmodern Era.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Too many people in the Western World believe ANYTHING OLD IS OLD-FASHIONED.&nbsp; But this is not true for disciples of Jesus. This generation of disciples, as with every generation, has a fresh opportunity to reclaim the pattern of ministry that Jesus laid down. For example, we are here because the first disciples took Jesus at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Learning from the Past - Discipling As You Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=538\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning from the Past - Discipling As You Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Too many people in the Western World believe ANYTHING OLD IS OLD-FASHIONED.&nbsp; But this is not true for disciples of Jesus. 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