Mark Gainey said disciple-making would be simplified for many people if they could think of it as one daily act — moving the people around them one step closer to Jesus.
“I was trained to think of evangelism as an event where I have one conversation and at the end of it I am hoping they come to Jesus,” said Gainey, Alabama Baptists’ lead discipleship strategist and pastor of Fultondale First Baptist Church.
The Bible portrays something different, he said during his breakout session at the Alabama Baptist State Evangelism Conference on Jan. 27 at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham. “In the Bible, we see evangelism as a path to take.”
Lowering the anxiety
Gainey said he now sees evangelism and disciple-making as exactly the same — evangelism is discipling someone to Jesus, and that process continues after conversion as they mature into disciples who make disciples.
Disciple-making evangelism aims to move people who don’t know Jesus toward Him, Gainey said. “If I spend some time with someone over coffee, I’m going to think about that conversation afterward and evaluate it after not as, ‘Did they give their life to Jesus?’ but ‘Did they take a little step toward Jesus?'”
Gainey said disciple making doesn’t happen by accident or from a distance — it happens when you intentionally enter someone’s life.
“When you enter into someone’s life, you’re doing life together. It’s not a class, it’s not a seminar, it’s a very informal process that is more life on life,” he said.
Gainey said taking the path one step at a time “lowers the anxiety for all of us.”
“Every conversation we have isn’t do or die, because this is a process,” he said.
He suggested followers of Christ look at their calling as a path, not a destination. Referring to the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, he said sometimes the important part isn’t the place we’re walking toward as much as the people God might mean for us to meet along the way.
Gainey encouraged followers of Christ to remember these truths:
- When we follow the Holy Spirit, He leads us to the right people.
“Philip wasn’t just walking; he was walking with his eyes open,” Gainey said.
The Holy Spirit showed him where to go, but he didn’t tell Philip how to start the conversation when he met the Ethiopian man. Gainey said the passage has some clues as to how he did it, though.
“First, Philip got to know this man — we know that because we know details about the eunuch, such as where he’s from and what his position was,” Gainey said. “Philip took a genuine interest in this guy who was a stranger before.”
- When we show genuine interest in others, it makes an impact.
Sometimes that can simply mean listening well and asking good questions, Gainey said.
- When we’re in the right space, opportunities do arise.
“If we’re always in our Christian church bubble, we’re not going to be in the right space and we’re not going to have opportunities to disciple people to Jesus,” Gainey said. “We’ve got to be around people who don’t love Jesus yet in order to have an impact.”
He said he believes God has prepared the hearts of the people that followers of Jesus come in contact with every day.
“Philip did something simple — he asked the man a question,” Gainey said. “We can ask simple questions too, like ‘What do you think about the craziness in our world?’ or ‘Where do you think our world is headed?’ Asking leads to discovery.”
- The good news of Jesus holds the power.
In Acts, Philip wasn’t sharing from a gospel tract, he was participating in a give-and-take conversation, Gainey said. “We get so afraid of talking about Jesus because we’re afraid we’re going to wreck the conversation. It’s good for us to remember that the good news of Jesus holds the power, not our conversation.”
Gainey said that “discipling people everywhere you are can change everything.”
He also offered these principles on how to disciple someone to Jesus:
- Avoid arguments.
Gainey said it’s easy to get in an argument, especially in the season around an election.
“We need to avoid those arguments because they don’t get people any closer to Jesus,” he said.
He challenged followers of Christ to listen well and instead of engaging in an argument, talk to them about what really matters — the gospel of Christ.
- Give the seed time to grow.
“Conversations can add water, they can add fertilizer, but we have to wait for the harvest,” Gainey said.
- Be patient with deep hurts that can lead to bad theology.
Gainey told a story about someone he met in a local store who shared with him that her mother had gotten sick and no one from their church had checked on their family. When her mother died, her dad took their Bibles out and burned them.
“She said, ‘We were so hurt,'” Gainey said, noting that he now seeks her out intentionally each time he visits the store. “She believes in God, but she has problems with the church and hasn’t been back.”
Working through hurt like that can take time, he said.
- Remember we aren’t alone.
“Our partner in this process is the Holy Spirit,” he said, noting that friends and fellow church members are also partners in the work.
Gainey said he believes if followers of Christ can make the shift into this kind of disciple-making, “I think the fear and stigma of evangelism will disappear.”
“I believe we’ll see less ‘converts’ who pray a prayer and are baptized and we never see again, because we are discipling them to Christ, not just selling them fire insurance,” he said.
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