Making Disciples isn’t so much about adding more to your day; it’s about shifting what you already do. Instead of paying at the pump, pay inside and be kind the the cashier. Instead of getting your coffee at the drive-thru, go into your neighborhood coffee shop and make friends with your barista. Instead of playing ball in a church league, play at the local community center or YMCA. Whatever you do, shift it slightly. Hang around people who don’t know Jesus. Build relationships over time. Look for appropriate times to glorify God. And always, always, search for those who are searching for the answers to their spiritual questions.
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7 Responses to Does Making Disciples Take Up Tons of Time?
Rob MacRae (South Africa / Uganda)
Replied on: August 3, 2010, 4:48 am
So true, just by changing your routine a little you never know who you will meet. You would be surprised who was standing next to you at the checkout if you just took the time to say “Hello”
Paul
Replied on: August 31, 2010, 8:53 am
Yep…a slight adjustment can make all the difference.
Catherine Savard
Replied on: September 6, 2010, 6:12 am
Where was it that you said that you lived?? That just blows my mind to think that you would walk into a local coffee shop and find anyone sitting there in the morning with their bible open, let alone several people, sitting around doing their official “quiet time”. Different realities, I guess. ( I do know where you live, Paul, and I am familiar with that reality. I’m just saying that it is far away from the disciple-making context in which I find myself, even though I might find exactly the same brand name coffee shops in my area. I guess national marketing campaigns have had better success at installing their brands at the grassroots level than the Church has been successful at anchoring the life-transforming gospel in the fabric of our local communities.)
I do understand that your point here about the coffee shop was in order to highlight another principle. That principle is about moving along to situate yourself in a place where you are more likely to meet up with unbelievers and to prioritize places where there is little evident witness to the gospel over those places where there are already enough Christians present to do the job if they were motivated to do so.
I was privileged to “grow up” spiritually in a movement where what you are talking about here with this principle was held up as a norm for movement building. In addition to being “espoused from the front”, the principle was sometimes modeled, sometimes only partially modeled and sometimes very imperfectly modeled . At different times in my life as a disciple and a disciple-maker, I have tried to put this principle into practice. I found that it worked better at certain phases of my experience than at others and that some situations naturally carried more evident opportunities than other situations, although I would not say that I never entirely abandoned the principle I learned in my early days.
Right now as I am going back to school (at a secular institution), I anticipate a period of more accessible opportunities being in evidence. Just because there are more opportunities and perhaps opportunities of a higher quality available in the current situation, it doesn’t mean that I will automatically be blessed in ministry. I still find that I have to do the hard work of intentionally thinking through my habits and choices in order to re-align priorities and be creative about folding the rhythm of my life’s activities into gospel-focused activities that will enhance evangelism and disciple-building.
I think that a blog post about this principle is needed and important because so few Christians have had the environment that I was privileged to see as “normal” when I was younger. Explicitly stating the principle becomes necessary because it is so seldom intentionally taught or modeled.
Macario Cadatal
Replied on: August 19, 2011, 1:30 pm
Perhaps 2Kings 6:17 should provide as an answer regarding the amount of time we spent for making disciples. It is really a matter of “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see” thing. If the Lord opens his eyes, 3 seconds might be enough otherwise you may spent the next 3 or more years and still he can’t see if the Lord has not opened his eyes. It’s all the work of the Lord. Who sends us to make disciple? Whom should we disciple? A Felix or a Cornelius? Figure out the amount of time spent in these two individuals as against the result. Can we use this model in making disciples ?
Paul
Replied on: August 19, 2011, 1:59 pm
Macario…thanks for taking the time to comment. You are right, the Lord is the one who sends us, directs us to the right people, and opens their eyes. I don’t think we can deny there is an obedience element on our part in all of that. We have to go…and that takes time. We have to build relationship with people…and that takes time. We have to be there…like Philip with the Ethiopian Eunich…to talk with them about what their eyes have been open to…and that takes time. I think we cannot use time as an excuse not to disciple; we often have more time than we think. I also believe we cannot say the cost of making disciples, in terms of time, is cheap. The issue is actually not as simple as it appears on the surface. My point in the video was that it is possible to structure our lives so that we don’t add things to what we already do, we just are more strategic in using our time to build relationships with lost people.
Cito Cruz
Replied on: August 23, 2011, 10:40 am
Thanks for your encouragement. I invite 30 or so foreign students from more than 20 countries to have dinner in our house each Friday to be mentored and discipled. It’s like being a foreign missionary only doing it in your home and planting the seeds around the world in one setting. Your idea of shifting one’s life is so practical,. Instead of going abroad and learning a new language and culture, I just do it without leaving my home or even learning a new language since they already speak English. The world has come to our doorstep.
Paul
Replied on: August 24, 2011, 6:55 am
Good to hear about what you are doing out of your home, Cito! Glad my post could encourage you!