How to Disciple Well

and Discipleship Assemblies of God Christian Education

Description

What does it mean to "disciple well"? Discipleship is not one moment that takes place during a salvation experience. Instead, it's an ongoing process in by which your ministry shows believers how to live the lifelong commitment to share Jesus with the people all around them. This guide is designed to help the everyday leader successfully disciple believers in their church through three areas: (1) systematic study(2) effective teaching(3) excellence in leadershipEmbark on a journey where you can enrich your faith, equip your ministry, and, most of all, learn to disciple well.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Gospel Publishing House
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781607316459
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOW TO DISCIPLE WELL
A Discipleship Guide for the Everyday Leader
Copyright © 2021 by Gospel Publishing House, 1445 N. Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in an form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The material for this project was developed by the staff of the Christian Education and Discipleship Department of the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NJKV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Produced in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Introduction
Section One: Disciple Well through Systematic Bible Study
Chapter One: Context and Genre
Chapter Two: Doctrines
Chapter Three: Avoiding Fallacies
Chapter Four: Application
Section Two: Disciple Well through Effective Teaching
Chapter Five: Learner-Centered Teaching
Chapter Six: Establishing Credibility
Chapter Seven: Choosing and Using Material
Chapter Eight: Learning in Action
Section Three: Disciple Well through Excellent Leadership
Chapter Nine: Leading from a Full Cup
Chapter Ten: The Importance of Mentorship
Chapter Eleven: Creating an Intergenerational and Diverse Atmosphere
Chapter Twelve: Staying on Vision, Goal Setting, and Evaluation
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
In a 2015 Barna study, only 1 percent of church leaders described their churches as “doing very well at discipling new and young believers.” 1
Take a moment to read that statement again and think about how it relates to your church. Would you describe your church as doing well at discipling believers? Are you working to accomplish the task Jesus gave His church? He said, “Go … and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18–20). What does it mean to disciple well?
Craig Blomberg wrote this about Jesus’ command:
The verb ‘make disciples’ also commands a kind of evangelism that does not stop after someone makes a profession of faith…. Making disciples involves: ‘baptizing’ them and ‘teaching’ them obedience to all of Jesus’ commandments. The first of these will be a once-for-all, decisive initiation into Christian community. The second proves a perennially incomplete, lifelong task. 2
In other words, discipleship is not a one-stop shop with the initial salvation experience. Discipling believers is a lifelong commitment to teach people about Jesus with the primary text being the Bible.
After reading Blomberg’s definition, ask yourself again, How well is my church doing at discipling believers? Are you helping believers move beyond the initial act of profession of faith to participate in the lifelong task of discipleship?
We have created this discipleship guide to help the everyday leader, whether a pastor, Sunday School teacher, or small group leader, experience success in discipling believers in their church. Our goal is to enrich your faith, encourage your gifts, and equip your ministry to engage your world. We want to help you disciple well.
This guide will help you learn how to disciple well through three key areas: (1) systematic study, (2) effective teaching, and (3) excellence in leadership. At the end of each major section, we include suggested resources for deeper study in that particular area.
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1 https://www.barna.com/research/new-research-on-the-state-of-discipleship/ (accessed 12/7/2020).
2 Craig Blomberg, “Matthew,” vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 22:431.
SECTION 1
DISCIPLE WELL THROUGH SYSTEMATIC BIBLE STUDY
It is true that increased access to information through social media has helped to spread the good news of the Bible. Yet the sheer amount of voices and information we have at our fingertips has also brought challenges. The church faces what L. V. Orman coined the “information overload paradox.” 3 In essence, we have a Google problem. The current information saturation allows people to find sources to justify every idea.
This is a problem for the church: Such widespread inferior and even false information about the Bible creates a distraction from the true good news of the gospel. The solution? Disciple people through the systematic study of God’s Word. To produce Christ-centered, biblically literate disciples with high-quality information, we who are discipling must know how to study and teach the Bible.
Though the Bible is made of many different books written in different styles across different time periods, it is one story with a beginning and an end. “The Bible is one epic narrative about how God has appointed humanity as His partners to oversee this amazing world. It is about how we ruined that partnership and how God is restoring us and His world through Jesus…. The Bible is one unified story that points us to Jesus.” 4
If we want to learn about Jesus through our primary textbook, the Bible, we must know how to study it and interpret it correctly. This is referred to as hermeneutics . To practice good hermeneutics we must read and study the Bible systematically. That means we consider in an orderly way the full breadth, depth, and majesty of God’s grace, Jesus’ redemptive work, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance through the entire Bible. If we attempt to teach the Bible in a haphazard and piecemeal way, we risk teaching misguided truth and missing out on the unified story of Jesus.
For example, when we read Genesis, we might be tempted to look up to Abraham who was called the father of many nations and credited by the writer of Romans with great faith. Although Abraham did have many admirable qualities and great faith in God, he also slept with his wife’s servant, effectively breaking his marriage covenant and imitating the ungodly culture around him. Similarly, we might hold King David in high esteem as a man after God’s own heart who defeated the vengeful King Saul, ruled the Israelites generously, and wrote many beautiful, intimate psalms. Yet, he committed adultery and murder.
Sometimes people read these stories and feel a disconnect with individuals like Abraham and David who were exalted by God though they committed sinful acts. People wonder why they should believe in a God who permitted such atrocious behavior.
Unfortunately, these questions and doubts arise when we read and interpret the Bible in a selective way rather than as one full story of God’s redemption as told from Genesis through Revelation. The story of the Bible illustrates the repeated failure of humanity, as well as God’s love and care for humanity despite our failings. It illustrates humanity’s great need for a Savior, pointing toward the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The stories of Abraham and David illustrate God’s desire to use humanity in spite of our blatant sins. It illustrates that no one, no matter how great, can save themselves. Only God, in His amazing mercy and through Jesus’ atoning death, can forgive our sins. That is the good news of the gospel that we learn by systematically reading and understanding the Bible as one unit.
We want to help church leaders understand the Bible as a unified story so they can teach this to others. We want to give them the necessary tools to study the Bible and teach others to do so as well. The next section will focus on some of these tools, specifically context and genre, doctrines, and avoiding fallacies.
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3 L. V. Orman, Information Overload Paradox: Drowning in Information, Starving for Knowledge (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016).
4 Timothy Mackie, The Bible Project , www.thebibleproject.com .
CHAPTER ONE
CONTEXT AND GENRE
To effectively and systematically study the Bible, we need to understand context and genre . Context means we need to understand what was happening in the lives of the people who wrote the text and the people they wrote it for. They lived in a much different time and culture than our own. To understand what they wrote, we need to understand their culture. Think of it as crossing a bridge from our modern world to the ancient world of the Bible. The Bible was also written in a variety of literary forms, styles, or genres . For example, the style of writing in a poem is much different from that in a story or a text about history. The style impacts the meaning of the text. To understand the correct meaning of a Bible text we need to understand the style or genre the author used. Genres include history, law, songs, poetry, prophecy, and apocalyptic imagery.
We want to consider several types of contexts and genres within Scripture to better understand the Bible’s unified story. (Additional study tools to help with this are at the end of section 1.)
CONTEXT
Historical-Cultural Context —If we want to understand the true mean