Who is a Disciple Maker?

In our post-Pandemic Church, many leaders are addressing the problems the church is facing in the 21st Century. At the forefront is the trend of the past 20 years in declining attendance and engagement with local churches throughout the US. The theme for addressing the decline in some areas is to re-focus on discipleship. And I couldn’t agree more!

To be totally honest, I am more worried about the decline in engagement with the church, because this is an indicator of vitality and health of the congregation. When a majority of your people are active in Bible Study, serving in the community, and volunteering in ministries, the church is usually healthy, vital, and connecting with new people. Widespread engagement indicates that people in these congregations have made a connection with the Gospel message and the mission of the church.

The COVID Pandemic shed light on the deep rooted problem of engagement, when people slowly or not all returned to worship after months of quarantine lockdowns. It meant that many of “your people” were only loosely connected to your church in the first place. Now that we have identified a solution, how then do we engage our people in discipleship relationships with the Gospel of Jesus and the Church?

There is a story in the Book of Acts that gives us a blueprint for how we make disciples in the 21st Century Church. It is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch from Acts 8:26-31.

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Acts 8:26-31, NRSVU

Even though this text speaks of ancient people, places, and things, like eunuchs, queens, and chariots, it paints a vivid picture of how we are to approach discipleship today. This scripture gives us four principles that we need to incorporate into our 21st Century Disciple Making.

Obey the Spirit. An angel of the Lord instructed Phillip to go South toward Gaza and he went. Philip had no instructions on what to pack or prepare for, he just hit the road. As Disciple Makers we have to not only be open to hearing the Spirit, but we have to act and obey when given instructions. Philip didn’t know he would meet someone on his journey, but God did! The Spirit said go and join this chariot, and Philip RAN to it!

Be willing to go outside of the church.The scripture tells us that the road to Gaza from Jerusalem was a wilderness road. This didn’t mean that it was a scenic route through a National Park. On the contrary, it implies that it was likely an unsafe route through the desert that was probably lined with dangerous animals and people. If we are to make disciples today, we must be willing to leave the safe confines of church and community to sincerely meet people where they are in life, on their “wilderness roads.”

Address the disciples problem. When Philip reached the Ethipoian’s chariot he heard him reading aloud from the Prophet Isaiah. Philip asked him one simple question, “do you understand what you are reading?” Philip didn’t rush in and tell him how Isaiah’s prophecies lead us to Jesus, and vomit church-speak all over the man. We can’t assume we already have the answers to the problems people in our path are facing, we have to first ask and then understand.

Start a relationship. When the Ethiopian saw that Philip was willing to help him understand what he was reading, he invited him into his chariot and into his life. Philip demonstrated to the Ethiopian that he was interested in getting to know him and help him understand the Scriptures. The church can’t just issue blanket invitations to Bible Study or to serve or connect. We have to be like Philip and literally run to people wherever they are on their wilderness road. We have to be willing to build a personal relationship with the disciple when they realize, “how can I understand unless someone guides me.”

It amazes me that a simple passage of 6 verses can give us such a specific formula for sharing the Gospel and living out the Great Commission. It doesn’t amaze me that God would use a seemingly benign interaction between two strangers to accomplish his mission with the world. For all we know, this interaction fueled the Ethiopian to return home and be one of the catalysts for spreading the Gospel of Jesus into northern and eastern Africa in the first century!

Here is a secret for you: these Disciple Maker Guides are already in your church. They are the Sunday school teachers, the small group leaders, the ministry and mission leaders that have made a commitment to following Jesus on their own discipleship path. And, they are the quiet and unassuming folks studying the Bible or volunteering behind the scenes waiting to be asked, “will you help others understand.”

One more thing about the Philip in this story. This is not the Apostle Philip that we meet in the Gospel of John with Andrew and Peter. No, this is Philip that along with Stephen and 5 other men were called to be the first deacons or servants in the Jerusalem Church. So you see, when Philip met the Ethiopian, he didn’t have any special education or “church skills.” He was just a man that followed Jesus, lived obediently, and loved his neighbor. We will talk more about the characteristics of a Disciple Maker Guide in a future post on this blog.

If you would like to learn more about how to implement a Proactive Disciple Making strategy based on this example in your church, we would love to help you. Simply email me at mark@churchcmo or schedule a call at this link. We are committed to helping you make more disciples now!