Recently a disciple asked his group leader, “How do I put it all together? I hear it at church and I read it in the Bible, but how do I do it all? Maturity, multiplication, ministry, missions and more! It sounds like a bag of M&Ms!”
For too many years the church has compartmentalized the discipleship process to the point that many believers feel that they are being sliced and diced — or divided into different colors. It is not evangelism plus discipleship plus missions plus ministry. Just as Christ taught and modeled the Christian life for the 12 disciples, everything fits together — it’s the whole bag of M&Ms! It is the discipleship process.
All disciples begin at different places and travel at different paces to reach the same destination — to be more like Jesus.
Different ages, different backgrounds, different stages of development — no matter where you are on the journey, when you love God and love others you will show it outwardly. It is the normal Christian life.
As a healthy disciple, you will want to minister to others and serve others by using the spiritual gifts and abilities the Holy Spirit has graciously given to you (1 Cor. 12, Rom. 12, Eph. 4). You will want to help others along the journey so they will be growing, maturing disciples, too (2 Tim. 2:2).
You will want to tell others near you the good news of Jesus (2 Cor. 5:2). And you will want to pray and give and go so that other people in other communities and around the world will also hear the good news (Acts 1:8). You will want to be a Great Commission Christian.
What’s the purpose? Jesus came to earth for a purpose. He has called His disciples to be on mission with Him. Jesus stated it in many ways, but the focus of His teaching and living is expressed in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
It’s not about you. It’s all about Him. It’s about others seeing Christ in and through you as you live life every day. It’s about glorifying God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength — with everything you are and everything you do.
George Barna, in his book “Growing True Disciples,” found that disciples have good intentions, but few are compelled to lead a life that truly honors and serves God.
But if you love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength, you will love your neighbor (Mark 12:30) by honoring and serving God as you let Him love others through you.
In the previous article about healthy disciples, we briefly explored three spiritual disciplines — quiet time, prayer and Bible study. As the Holy Spirit works in you during those times, you develop a new mind-set, a new attitude toward life (Phil. 2:5).
When you have the mind of Christ, you will begin to walk like Him, talk like Him, think like Him and behave more like Him. “Love one another” will take on a new meaning. You will want to share and serve for the right reasons.
Lifestyle takes practice
It takes time and practice to develop an intentional, systematic lifestyle of sharing and serving. It takes encouragement, teaching, mentoring and coaching from your church in the same way that Jesus encouraged, taught, mentored and coached the 12 disciples. It requires your availability and willingness. It takes transformation by the Holy Spirit to become spiritually mature. Let’s take a brief look at that bag of M&Ms.
Multiplication will encompass both evangelism and discipleship in our discussion. Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, often says that evangelism and discipleship are like two wings of the same plane.
You cannot fly the plane without both wings. The Great Commission clearly commands disciples to bring people to Christ and to teach them to know and obey God’s Word — to live it out to the degree that they go and teach others to go and teach. That’s multiplication, maturity and more.
Evangelism should always be followed by discipleship. Herschel Hobbs always preached that the work of evangelism is never complete until the evangelized becomes an evangelizer. That’s discipleship. That’s multiplication. It is also the mark of spiritual maturity. It all fits together and it takes every color in the whole bag of M&Ms.
Verbal witness was stressed by Jesus when He told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15). As you go and tell, you will make disciples. Always be ready to share your testimony and use the Bible to show a person how to be saved.
Take advantage of witness training in your church or find a mentor or coach to equip and encourage you. Practice writing and telling your testimony so that you are ready to tell the good news of Jesus to anyone in any place at any time.
In John 20:21, being on mission is evident in the commission when Jesus met with the disciples on the day of His resurrection, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” The same message is echoed when Jesus told the disciples to wait for the coming power and then preach of His death and resurrection and His forgiveness of sins to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:46–49; Acts 1:8). When you go beyond your Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit empowers you as He empowered the disciples for Pentecost.
Men and women, boys and girls will believe the good news and begin following Jesus as His disciples on the lifelong journey.
Jesus’ life is the pattern for making disciples that you need to study. Jesus lived what He taught.
He lived by serving others. He demonstrated how to make disciples by caring for the needs of others — grieving with them and healing them and seeing them even when others ignored them — and in the process of ministry, pointing them toward the gospel.
Witness out of ministry
Ministry is involved in the multiplication process, too. Jesus lived to serve others.
Intentional evangelism, the emphasis of the Alabama Baptist State Convention for the next three years, focuses on building a relationship with a person through a ministry that addresses a need or an interest with the intention that you will share the gospel. When others see Christlikeness in you, you become a witness just because of Whose you are. You are the evidence of Christ in you.
It is interesting to note that ministry and missions often lead to evangelism and discipleship opportunities. And, of course, discipleship should involve growing disciples in evangelism, ministry and missions. Every disciple must accept God’s call to share the message of salvation.
Jesus provided a Great Commission internship experience for the 12 disciples — even before He gave them the Great Commission.
At the beginning of the disciples’ public ministry, Jesus instructed them to search out and spend time with worthy persons ready to follow up on their ministry after they were gone (Matt. 10:15, Mark 6:10). When you disciple a person through a mentoring, coaching relationship, you are equipping them to do as you do — to follow in your footsteps. That’s multiplication.
Are you becoming a multiplier in your ministry? As a multiplying disciple, are you involved in evangelism, discipleship, missions and ministry plus modeling, mentoring and equipping (2 Tim. 2:2 and Titus 2:2)?
It’s the whole bag of M&Ms — you will be a mature multiplier, minister, missionary, mentor and more. You will bring others to know and follow Jesus. You will be on mission with Him. You will bring glory to God.
At the same time, the Holy Spirit is working in you to produce Christlike character, the fruit of the Spirit. Find out more about fruit of the Spirit in article four of this series on healthy disciples.
Editor’s Note — Sonya Tucker is an associate in the discipleship and family ministries office of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
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