WikiChurch: Making discipleship engaging, empowering, and viral - eBook

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Most Christians agree that discipleship is important, even essential for Christian maturity; few understand biblical principles and even fewer apply a biblical process when it comes to discipleship. Discipleship isn’t complicated, but it can at times be difficult. The difficulty lies in applying the following four principles to your specific context. Simply put, here’s how anyone—young or old, male or female, pastor or entrepreneur—can make disciples.

1. Engage culture and community—When Jesus told His original twelve to go and make disciples, they did not interpret His command to mean, "Find people who are already following Me and help them become better followers." They interpreted His "great commission" to mean that they should go and find people who were not yet followers and help them know and follow Jesus. The starting line of the disciple-making process must be evangelism that engages both our community and culture.

2. Establish spiritual foundations—If we want our disciples to survive the storms of life, we must help them establish strong biblical foundations.

3. Equip believers to minister—The biblical job description for professional ministers is to equip the "non-pros" for ministry, then get out of their way.

4. Empower disciples to make disciples—Jesus expected all of His original disciples to make disciples. He empowered them, knowing they would make mistakes. Because Jesus expects all His disciples to make disciples, we must not only equip them, but we must also empower them.

Steve Murrell is the senior pastor of Victory Metro in Manila, Philippines; a director of the Real Life Foundation; and the cofounder and president of Every Nation, a worldwide family of churches and ministries. Victory Metro Manila meets in thirteen different locations and has planted churches in forty other Philippine cities and a dozen nations. Real Life Foundation is a social and educational advocacy organization that exists to serve the poor and improve their lives through educational assistance, character development, and community service. Steve and his wife, Deborah, first went to the Philippines in 1984 with Rice Broocks for a one-month summer mission trip that never ended. They live in Manila and have three sons. Steve is the author of The Reluctant Leader and The Accidental Missionary blogs. He is also a regular contributor to Evangelicals Today, a monthly Philippine publication, and his messages can be heard at the "Every Nation Podcasts" site.