The Biblical Model

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The Biblical Model
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Dreaming the Impossible Dream

• What is it impossible to do in your business
  (read church or ministry) but if it could be
  done, would fundamentally change it? (Joel
  Barker, Future Edge Discovering the New
  Paradigms of Success)
• Paradigm Shift Question How can people be
  motivated to become self-initiating and
  reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ?

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Disciple-Making Seminar Focus

• Problem
• How can people be motivated to become self
  initiating and reproducing disciples of Jesus
  Christ?
• Solution
• Follow the Biblical pattern for disciple-making.

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Personal Motivation forDisciple-Making

• Negative Experience
• Not assisted in my growth after conversion
• Positive Experience
• Discipled and given responsibility for ministry

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Reflection Exercise

• Who has had the major motivating or shaping
  influence on your Christian life? What was it
  about them that you admired and wanted to be
  like?
• Have you had someone who has intentionally guided
  you, like Don, into a deeper relationship with
  the Lord? If so, describe that relationship.

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The Biblical Model of Disciple-Making

• Jesus called his disciples (Luke 612-13)
• What were the strategic reasons for the selection
  of the twelve in the light of
• Why would Jesus risk the dynamics of jealousy?
• Why not just expand the crowd?

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Reasons for Focus on a Few Internalization

• Distrust of the populace
• John 223-25
• Palm Sunday to Good Friday
• But for the twelve, the doctrine, the works, the
  image of Jesus might have perished from human
  resemblance, nothing remaining but a vague
  mythical tradition, of historical value, of
  little practical importance.--A. B. Bruce

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Reasons for Focus on a Few Internalization
b. Disciples not mass produced

• This careful, painstaking education of the
  disciples secured the teachers influence on this
  world should be permanent that His kingdom
  should be founded on the rock of deep and
  indestructible convictions in the minds of a few,
  not on the shifting sands of superficial
  impressions in the minds of the many. -- A. B.
  Bruce

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Reasons for Focus on a Few Internalization
c. Causes of Superficiality

• Diverted leaders from equipping
• Focus on programs
• Unwillingly to call people to discipleship
• People have not been discipled

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Reasons for Focus on a Few Internalization
Characteristics of Programs

• Content or knowledge based
• One preparing for the many
• Regimentation or synchronization
• Low Accountability

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Reasons for Focus on a Few Internalization

• Disciples cannot be massed produced. We cannot
  drop people into a program and see disciples
  emerge at the end of a production line. It takes
  time to make disciples. It takes individual
  personal attention. (Leroy Eims, The Lost Art of
  Disciplemaking)

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Have Enough Vision to Think Small
Reasons for Focus on a Few Multiplication
A. Jesus had a heart for the multitudes Jesus
it must be remembered, restricted 9/10 of His
ministry to 12 Jews because it was the only way
to reach all Americans. --Eugene Peterson
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Three Years of Ministry

• Perhaps todays pastor should imagine that they
  are going to have three more years in their
  parish as pastor--and that there will be no
  replacement for them when they leave. If they
  acted as if this were going to happen, they would
  then put the highest priority on selecting,
  motivating, and training lay leaders that could
  carry on the mission. The results of three
  sustained years of such an approach would be
  quite significant. Even revolutionary. --George
  Martin

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B. Jesus Gave His Ministry to His Disciples
Reasons for Focus on a Few Multiplication

• His ministry became their ministry
• Leadership base expanded
• Jesus concern was not with programs to reach the
  multitudes but with men the multitudes would
  follow. (Robert Coleman)

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Jesus Manner of Making Disciples

• How did Jesus train the disciples?
• What was His curriculum?
• What was the nature of the school in which the
  disciples enrolled?
• life on life

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The Challenge of the Twelve

• Lack of credibility because of social status
• They were poor men of humble birth, low station
  and mean occupations, who never felt the
  stimulating influence of a liberal education or
  the social intercourse with persons of cultivated
  minds.--Bruce
• Came with the prejudices of the day
• They were exceedingly ignorant, narrow-minded,
  superstitious, full of Jewish prejudices,
  misconceptions and animosities.

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The Difference Jesus Made

• Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
  John, and perceived that they were uneducated,
  common men, they wondered, and they recognized
  that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 413)

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Rabbinical Model

• The rabbis were considered the living Torah
• Became like his teacher (Luke 640)
• Modeling is the most important factor in education

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Four GenerationsII Timothy 22
Paul
Timothy
Faithful ones
Teach others
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The Conclusion

• Jesus plan has not been disavowed it has been
  ignored.--Coleman

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Reflection Exercise

• What does Jesus model of forming disciples teach
  us about how disciples are made?
• How does this differ from the common church
  practices?

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Transforming Discipleship

• Companion book to Discipleship Essentials
• Dramatizes the need and causes of the low state
  of discipleship
• Lays out Jesus and Pauls strategy of
  disciplemaking
• Lays the foundation for effective disciple-making
  strategy in your ministry