Recently I have been spending time with a group of young leaders who are part of a large church. They have been meeting as a group to share how they can more effectively make disciples. As part of their journey I shared the following story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friend Bob once got lost in a large shopping centre. It was the height of the Christmas season and shopping was in full swing. He had some idea of what he was looking for, but, amid all the crowds and confusion, he lost his sense of direction. At that point he did what most of us would do. He found a directory and looked for the \u201cyou are here\u201d tab. Unfortunately it was gone. All he saw was a big map of the shopping centre. Without that tab telling him where he was, the directory was useless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These young leaders pointed out that they feel a lot like my friend Bob when it comes to making disciples. They don’t have a clear enough “your are here” point in their lives and so they are often confused as they attempt to disciple people, especially those who have had little or no contact with Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They all believe that a discipler is not called to make \u2018converts\u2019, invite people to \u2018church\u2019, remove people from their normal networks or even take Jesus with them into the market place. They have seen how Jesus is already there loving people, relating to people, drawing people. They are also aware that discipleship begins and builds with every single encounter they have with another person and they are careful to imprint people first and foremost on Jesus who is the only one who can change a person\u2019s life. Nothing else, no matter how important we think it is, can replace Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With those things in mind, we re-visited the basic principles on which our encounter with people is built to sure up the “your are here” point in their lives and deal with some of the confused they felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember three simple rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These young leaders had been introduced to a very systematic method of discipleship that was popular between the 1950\u2019s and 1980\u2019s. They have tried to use this method but it is obvious that it is less effective these days. They are now encountering a different discipling style that is relational, organic and missional. While still being intentional, the focus is to walk beside a potential disciple, encouraging them as they encountered Jesus and tapping into all that God had placed within that person. This approach will forever changed the way these young leaders make disciples. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently I have been spending time with a group of young leaders who are part of a large church. They have been meeting as a group to share how they can more effectively make disciples. As part of their journey I shared the following story. My friend Bob once got lost in a large shopping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n