Rethinking Evangelism and Discipleship

We normally think of making disciples more or less this way:

1. We meet someone who does not know Christ
2. We pray for them
3. We develop a relationship
4. We bring up the subject of Christianity
5. We share our faith—perhaps more than once
6. At some point, they receive Christ
7. We invite them to church
8. We invite them to a group
9. We invite them to be part of a discipleship group
10. They are taught to have a quiet time and experience the Bible for themselves

At any step along the way, the ball can be dropped, resulting in someone not becoming a disciple.

What I’d like to suggest is that we start with step #10, using the YouVersion app, which makes it really, really easy to invite people to join you in reading the Word.

Disciples, not converts

Jesus challenged us to make disciples, not converts. This distinction is spelled out in a number of places, but one good example is John 8.31 – 32, “To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said…”

Note: these are believers Jesus is talking to.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Look at this familiar verse carefully. What is the difference between a believer and a disciple?

It might be clearer if we look this up in several translations:

• So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, John 8:31 (ESV)
• Jesus said to them, "You are truly my disciples if you live as I tell you to, John 8:31 (TLB)
• Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. John 8:31 (MSG)
• Jesus told the people who had faith in him, "If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are my disciples. John 8:31 (CEV)
• So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. John 8:31 (GW)
• Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; John 8:31 (KJV)
• So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; John 8:31 (NASB)

The New Jerusalem Bible is probably the most literal:

To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; John 8:31 (NJB)

The word translated by the NIV as “hold” is a familiar one to Bible students. The underlying Greek word is meno. It is translated “abide” by the ESV as it is by nearly all translations in John 15, “If you abide (meno) in me…” It means to be at home in Jesus’ words. This is how the NJB translates it. This is what it means to be a disciple: to abide in His word.

Two other quick comments. James reminded us that exposure to the Word is actually dangerous if we don’t do anything about it. He taught us to be doers of the Word, not hears only. And, the negative example of the Pharisees reminds us that this is not just about reading the Word and trying hard to do what it says. That is legalism, and it doesn’t work. Jesus said without Him we can do nothing. Stated positively, with Christ we can do all things (Philippians 4.13).

What is a disciple?

A disciple, then, could be defined as follows:

A disciple is one who exposes himself to God’s Word with a view to application in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean for making disciples?

Making disciples, then, is not about leading people to pray a magic prayer. It is about leading them into a relationship with Christ where we abide in His Word and seek to apply in the power of the Holy Spirit.

How to make disciples

In his best-selling book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg wrote about keystone habits. “Keystone habits influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything.[1] Keystone habits transform everything.

The keystone habit in Christian discipleship is the Christian Quiet Time.

There has been a good deal of research done in recent years into what transforms people’s lives. This is what researchers and students of the subject have found:

No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately.[2]

Willowcreek Association surveyed people from 1000 churches to discover what transforms the mind. Here is what they learned:

Reflection on Scripture Is the Most Powerful Spiritual Practice for Every Segment

We would love to print the header above this paragraph across the top of the program for every church leadership training event in the country. Reflection on Scripture is, by far, the most influential personal spiritual practice …

And that’s only part of the story. Because when we statistically compare the responses of those who take the REVEAL survey, of all the personal spiritual practices, we find that Reflection on Scripture is much more influential than any other practice by a significant margin. ^[3]

A survey of 70,000 Americans confirmed these findings:

Research into the spiritual lives of seventy thousand Americans—of all ages, from nearly every corner of the nation—is proving something many Christians have doubted: There’s power in God’s Word. A majority of those we surveyed showed us that consistently engaging the Bible is the key to knowing God intimately, getting unstuck, and growing spiritually.

There are significant differences in the moral behaviors and spiritual maturity of believers who read or listen to the Bible at least four times a week compared to those who read or hear Scripture less often or never at all.[4]

If you want to live the Christian life, you can’t do it by merely trying really hard. You must be transformed. You must be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You must be transformed by scripture.

If you want to make disciples, the keystone habit is to get them into the Word.

YouVersion

I have recently started doing this using the YouVersion app, and would invite you to join me. The YouVersion app has an almost limitless list of Bible reading plans on every topic imaginable. They make it really easy to invite your friends to join you.

You might be thinking, “I already have a Bible reading plan I am doing.” My response is to ask, “Does your Bible reading plan make it really easy to invite everyone in your circle of influence to join you?” If not, I’d invite you to consider trying one of the YouVersion plans. A great one to start with is Francis Chan’s plan called Multiply (based on his book by the same topic.)

Invite everyone you can think of. Schedule the plan to start about three or four days out, so you can get lots of participants. Post a link on Facebook and other social media. Send individual texts to people you know.

From within the app, it is easy to collect friends. (It is on the home page of the app, but you may need to scroll down to find it.) Hit invite, invite, invite. Collect up a couple of hundred friends and every week or two, invite them to join you in reading the Word. Rinse; repeat.

Imagine

I want you to imagine what would happen if every Christ follower did this. What if every Christ follower started their day in the Word using the YouVersion app? What if every believer invited everyone in their circle of influence to join them? We don’t want people to be a pest. We want to do all we can to “make the gospel attractive.” Plan vary in length, so invitations might go out once a week or once a month.

This would redefine what we mean when we say that we want every believer to be involved in the Great Commission. I’d guess most believers would like to be involved, but, honestly, they have no idea what to do. Here is what we want to ask them to do:

1. Read the Bible using the YouVersion app.
2. Invite everyone in your circle of influence to join you.
3. Pray that God blesses. Remember, without Him, we can do nothing.