One of the Hardest Things to Learn in Discipleship: Have a Plan But Be Flexible
One of my friends preaches from double-spaced notes. He says it is a constant reminder to allow room for the Holy Spirit to work. He has a plan. He has studied and knows where he is headed but it may not be the direction God ends up at when he steps down from the pulpit. […]
Biblical Preaching May Not Be What You Think It is
I love to preach. It is energizing…challenging…and a deeply spiritual event. There really isn’t anything like it. What can I say? It is special. But what if there was more to preaching than what we generally think of it in terms of something that is done by a single person on Sunday? What if you […]
Discipleship and Total Surrender
For many years I equated my Christianity with holding to one set of beliefs and behaviors as opposed to holding another set of beliefs and behaviors. That is part of what is going on but this view is insufficient in summing up the Christian *faith*. Faith is more than believing. Faith is trusting. Matthew Bates […]
More New Discipleship Tools!
We have three new tools to help you be a disciple who makes disciples. Here they are! 40 days of prayer templates We will continue to post new tools on a regular basis. They are found at the bottom of the home page or in the menu! There are more in there if you want […]
Time to Sound the Alarm! We Have a Discipleship Crisis in the American Church
This crisis is on two fronts. 1 – Failing to Mature Existing Disciples: How does a disciple mature? How do they go from milk to solid food (1 Cor 3:1-2)? I believe our assumptions of what creates a mature disciple are faulty and left untested, therefore, they perpetuate without question. If you think attendance and […]
What Made Jesus the Greatest Disciple Maker Who Ever Lived?
You have probably seen the question – would you rather have $1 million or double a penny every day for 30 days and get paid the result? Doubling the penny results in over $5 million! Jesus was a penny doubler. He made just a few disciples but they knew how to do for others what […]
A Startling Number on Church Growth!
Do you have any idea what percentage of growing churches are growing from evangelism and making disciples? Go ahead and get a number in your head…put it in the comments before you go on. I will put the number at the end of the article so you can’t peek! The number is abysmally low. The […]
Why Make Disciples? The Number One Reason…
There can be a lot of reasons to make disciples and the reason we have can have a large impact on the results that we get. If we make disciples out of obligation we make lack real connection with those we disciple. If we make disciples out of fear of making God angry we might […]
Disciple Defined
If we are going to be disciples and live for Jesus in this life, it is helpful to have a solid definition of what we are talking about. People can mean dozens of things when they talk about discipleship or being a disciple or making disciples. We will look at the definition of disciple from […]
How Every Christian Can Make Disciples – And Enjoy Doing It
If I told you that God wants you and every single other Christian to make disciples…what would you think is required of you to do that? Many people would disagree with this idea that every Christian is to make disciples but hear me out. When I asked the opening question, what popped in your head? […]