We are re-releasing older posts to continue stirring vision and tools as you practice the Great Commission. Below is a post from 2/2/2017
Life-on-Life Demonstration
My daughter is getting to the age where she likes to learn how to help her mom around the kitchen. Among the many lessons she is learning with mom is how to bake. Since my expertise is in eating baked goods rather than baking them, I simply observe these lessons in the kitchen. As I observe, here's what I don't see. I don't see my wife give a 45 minute lecture on baking. I don't see my wife have her read a book on baking. I don't even see my wife do all the baking herself, while my daughter sits by and watches the "master at work." What I see is a life on life lesson. My wife pulls up a stool beside her and begins prepping. She then says, help me gather all the ingredients. As she is "doing her thing" mixing the ingredients, she explains to my daughter what she's doing, and why she's doing it. She then gives my daughter a try. There's some coaching involved as she sees things that need correcting, maybe she even grabs hers hands and shows her the proper mixing motions. I love to see the excitement on my daughter's face when she has me taste what her and mommy made. She feels empowered! As these lessons go on, there's going to come a time when my daughter gets more and more of the work, and my wife will do more watching, coaching, and celebrating. I can imagine a day FAR FROM NOW, when my daughter is able to throw down some baking in the kitchen herself and has her daughter pull up a stool and learn from her, life on life. This is discipleship. Kennon Vaughn says that discipleship is truth transference and life transference in the context of relationship.
In John 13, Jesus teaches His disciples the importance of love, sacrifice, and humility. He teaches this lesson while they are eating a meal together in the context of everyday life. He also teaches them by doing an act of service for them (washing their feet), which powerfully demonstrated the principles He was communicating. In verse 14-15 Jesus says:
"If I then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you."
Jesus demonstrated what He taught. He gave them a life on life example. He also did this in various ways for prayer, scripture memory, evangelism, healing the sick and demon possessed. The classroom was his life, which his disciples were always in, and along with most everything he taught them, He also modeled for them. This simple strategy is why anyone who has a growing relationship with Jesus can disciple others. All it really boils down to is investing the things you do to know and follow Jesus into them. If you have some core principles of discipleship that you are committed to, you can lead a D-Group.
As you invest in your D-Groups don't forget the importance of life-on-life demonstration. When you teach a formal lesson on evangelism, plan some time where you and your group can go practice evangelism together. In fact, I would argue that the only way to effectively train someone else to do personal evangelism and mission is that they come with you and see you do it. When you teach a lesson on loving your spouse well, make sure that there are some informal times that the people in your group can see how you interact with your spouse. In the same way that we are intentional to schedule formal meeting times for training, you also want to schedule times just to do life-on-life. Because life is insanely busy you could even develop a rhythm of 3 weeks formal, 1 week life-on-life to make sure you get this time without adding another thing to the schedule. Check the resource webpage for an example of scheduling life-on-life time with your D-Group, as well as some ideas for connecting.
Grace & Peace, Scott