Chad Hunsberger said it’s a good thing to share your faith. But he asked pastors present at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 11 to consider which one might be the more effective model.
“Let’s just say I share the gospel every single day for an entire year, and every single day someone prays a prayer,” said Hunsberger, pastor of Colonial Heights Baptist Church in Ridgeland, Mississippi. “That would be phenomenal — 365 converts in a year. If I do that, over a 30-year span … that would be 10,950.”
But he asked pastors if another method might be better — an option where he invests more deeply, maybe in only one person for a year.
“What if instead at the beginning of the year I had the privilege of leading someone to Christ, and all year long I poured myself into them?”
Instead of telling them how to have a quiet time, Hunsberger said he could invite them to his house to show them what his own time with God looks like.
“At the end of the year, I’m not going to have 365. I’m going to have two — me and that person,” he said. “But what if at the start of the next year, we each take another person. You’re going to go from two to four.”
As the years go on, it multiplies, and at year 30, instead of 10,950, you have 1,073,741,824.
“If you want to make disciples of all nations, invest in your people well,” Hunsberger said. “A shepherd should smell like his sheep. If you are going to live a crucified life and shepherd others to live crucified lives, you have to invest your life in them.”
That involves being a disciple like the one Jesus describes in Luke 9 — one that abandons all else for the glory of Christ.
He said there are two ways disciples can look to Jesus without turning back and then make disciples who do the same.
- Disciples of Jesus look to Jesus for all provisions.
At the beginning of Luke 9, Jesus sends out the disciples to preach and to heal, and He tells them to take nothing with them — not bread, not a staff and not an extra shirt.
That forces His disciples to trust Him for provision and for the protection that a staff could offer them along the way, Hunsberger said.
“The Lord has sent you without a staff because He wants you to look to Him for your protection,” he said.
At the end of Luke 9, Jesus responds to a man by telling him that to be a disciple, he has to leave everything behind without hesitation.
Hunsberger explained that possessions can be hindrances to following in the same way a duffel bag would weigh down an Olympic runner.
“Our speed of decision making is slowed because we have too many things to consider,” he said. “We have to think about do we want to live without it, or do we want to look ahead to what Jesus has for us.”
Jesus says disciples have to be unencumbered to follow Him and make disciples.
- Disciples of Jesus surrender to Jesus as Lord.
“Do you believe that Jesus really is the Christ? In order to gain the Kingdom of God, we must abandon all else and follow Jesus,” Hunsberger said. “You die to your old ways. You die to your old plans.”
You have to “confess with your mouth, confess with your death and, of course, confess with your life,” he said.
Hunsberger challenged pastors to surrender fully to God and “trust in the perfect plan of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.”
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