Below is a resource from 6/15/17.
The End of Discipleship is Evangelism
Our church has spent a great amount of time talking about discipleship. There is excitement and eagerness among our people to start discipleship groups where men and women are meeting together to help one another grow in Christ. After reading through some feedback from one of our recent trainings, I feel it's important that we keep the end goal of discipleship clear and in front of our eyes. Our desire is to have a church full of people who can take the gospel into our city and the world to reach lost people for Jesus. As Paul says in Colossians, we want to present every person mature in Christ. (Col. 1:28) That maturity includes loving God, loving people, and joining Jesus in His mission to seek and save the lost. This is the aim of a D-Group. So when we are talking about multiplying disciples out of D-Groups, we are actually talking about multiplying disciple makers. The end goal of someone going through a D-Group is that they have the maturity and tools to reach a lost person and show new converts how to be mature in Christ. D-Groups are our equipping courses, our training for front line laborers for the harvest field. They help us prepare and send our people into where they live, work, and do recreation with their "head on a swivel" looking for someone to invite to follow Jesus and repeat the process. We want people who are able to make a difference in the world they live in. In theory, this would mean our future D-Groups would be with new Christians who currently are unchurched, but at some point were brought to faith by someone who was equipped through a D-Group. As I have heard it put, the end of discipleship leads to evangelism, and the end of evangelism leads to discipleship. So the purpose of a D-Group is growth and equipping for believers. Here are a few things to keep in mind that will help you lead D-Groups to this end.
- Keep the vision before yourself and your group. Constantly talk about how they will one day be a disciple maker. A disciple maker is constantly asking who around me is an unbeliever that I can share the gospel with AND who around me is a newer believer that I could show how to be mature in Christ. Many times that person ends up being the same.
- Model personal evangelism with your D-Group as much as possible. Your group needs to hear you talk about your personal evangelism efforts, they also need to be included with you as you do it. See "Modeling Personal Evangelism" on www.highview.org/discipleship.
- Train them to do evangelism and discipleship. This is something that, as you get into the latter months of your group, you can begin entrusting individuals with responsibilities in the group to prepare them for facilitating groups on their own in the future.
The end goal of someone going through a D-Group is that they have the maturity and tools to reach a lost person and show new converts how to be mature in Christ.
Grace & Peace, Scott