In this part 2 post, we’re answering the question: “How do we REALLY make disciples “ in today’s church? This series of posts is intended to encourage and challenge church and ministry leaders across the country, but I pray God uses it in the lives of those of us at Mountain Lake, as well! Yesterday I said that if we really want to know hot make disciples in the church today, it behooves us to look at Jesus’ disciple making process, because He made pretty good disciples! Yesterday, we said that in Jesus’ disciple making efforts, Jesus focused on fruit, not meat. But also, in His disciple making efforts:
Jesus focused on the unqualified, not the qualified.
Who were the types of people Jesus picked to make disciples out of them? People like Levi? Matthew? Are you kidding me? If you were looking for a gut to build eth Christian movement on, it would NOT have been Levi! He was a crook that worked for the government, partied a lot, and hung out with the wrong crowd! the very fact that Jesus was hanging out with him during the early days of His ministry got Jesus a bad reputation! Rumors swirled about Jesus just he was hanging out with Levi! What’s funny is that when Jesus heard these rumors, here’s how He responded to them:
Mark 2:17 (NLT) 17When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough.”
In other words Jesus was letting the religious people of His day KNOW that He was not hear to hang out with people who already thought they were QUALIFIED to hang out with Jesus, but those who knew they weren’t!
Levi was just an example. None of the other disciples were qualified for ministry BEOFE they met Jesus. Jesus really didn’t pick any qualified people for his movement! They were all unqualified!
If this was the case with Jesus, why is it that in Jesus’ church today, most of our discipleship efforts seem to focused on the already qualified? If Jesus qualified the unqualified, why must people be “qualified” spiritually to serve in our churches?
So…If we want to make disciples like Jesus, the focus of our discipleship efforts need to be on the same types of people Jesus focused on: unqualified people! Can I just tell you that At MLC, we actually believe that qualifying the unqualified makes better disciples! In fact, our best disciples and leaders are often formerly unqualified disciples?!
For all of us, however, if we’re honest, our churches need to rethink the focus of our discipleship efforts from time to time, and ask ourselves some hard questions:
- Can “unqualified” people easily enter our spiritual growth process?
- Are there places for “unqualified” people to serve in our church?
- Are the people we’re focusing all of our discipleship efforts , the types of people Jesus focused on?
- Are the people we LISTEN to as we design our discipleship process qualified, or unqualified?
- Understanding that qualifying the unqualified is not just an event, but a process, how am I going to help formerly unqualified build an ongoing, personal relationship with Jesus?
Hope all of this helps! Give me your thoughts!
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