Disciple: A Verb

By Jonathan Engbrecht

Before departing this world, Jesus gave His followers this charge, "Go and make disciples of all nations." This call is meant for every Jesus follower. Each of us is empowered by God to not just be a disciple, a noun, but to disciple others, a verb. Making passionate, effective disciples of Jesus is the God-given, best strategy for bringing the gospel to the world. Making disciples is a messy relational enterprise that is both challenging and costly. Embracing the term disciple as a verb is one of the most important, transformative, and joy-filled things you will do this side of heaven! If you believe these things to be true or are at least intrigued by these statements, I invite you to come explore what it looks like to make disciples of Jesus. If you care deeply about people but struggle to know how to support them in their spiritual growth and journey, this book is for you! I am not offering another program, activity, or curriculum but instead a window into what it means to live a lifestyle of discipleship, of helping others become more like Jesus. Whether you're a teacher, parent, coach, coworker, student, athlete, pastor, small group leader, or friend, we will discuss principles and practical tips for being an agent of spiritual change for those you love. So again, I invite you to come along and discover how to bring radical transformation into the lives of those around you, by the awesome grace of God, the way Jesus did. By the end of this book, it is my sincere prayer that you know what a disciple of Jesus is, why you are called to make them, and how to start this adventure of answering Jesus's Commission to make disciples of all nations! Click here to learn more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098028923

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Disciple

A Verb

Jonathan Engbrecht

Copyright © 2020 by Jonathan Engbrecht

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless Otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked (NASB) is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Disciple: A Noun

A Disciple of Jesus

The Great Commission

The Problem and Answer

A Work of Grace

Getting Started

The Process

Older and Younger Brothers

Tools of the Trade

Discipleship Here, There, and Everywhere!

Introduction

Before departing, Jesus gave His followers this charge, Go make Disciples of all Nations.

This Great Commission was His strategy for reaching the world with His transformational message and power! This same charge belongs to us today, those who follow Him, just as much as when He first spoke it to His original followers. Unfortunately, many today have lost touch not only with this critical mandate but also how this commission was meant to be fulfilled, literally the strategy for saving the world! Even within many evangelical churches that regularly preach on and prioritize the Great Commission, there can often be confusion.

Some think the fulfillment is achieved through short-term mission trips or evangelistic crusades. Others think it is achieved through a never-ending flow of more and better sermons, conferences, and biblical resources. Still others see it happening through peer-facilitated weekly small groups.

Now I am not saying that these approaches and activities aren’t good or important. Quite the contrary, I believe strongly in engaging in all of these! The problem with these strategies, however, is they can easily miss the heart of the core strategy given to us by Jesus, this strategy being the one that He embodied and modeled for us with His own original disciples!

This book is meant to bring clarity and insight into this strategy not just in an abstract, intellectual way but to paint a picture of what it looks like for you and me to live this out, to not just be but also make disciples as Jesus himself did and called each of us to!

A Principled Approach

There have been several others who have developed books, trainings, programs, and tools for the purpose of discipleship over the years. Many of these contain some really good content, some of which I have recommended to others over the years, a personal favorite being Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman. This book is not meant to replace nor be a better version of some of those other great resources. Instead, I believe that this book meets an unmet need both in approach and audience.

You see, there are numerous books written for ministry leaders on how to build a discipleship program in your church through small groups or mentoring. There are other books that contain an exhaustive theological study on the subject in the abstract. There are still countless other books that are meant to help you personally in becoming a more mature disciple of Jesus through biblical study, spiritual disciplines, or evangelistic pursuits. Finally, there are yet others that provide a highly structured course or workbook for you to personally take someone else through in order to produce a disciple.

This book is different from all of those in that it is meant to be accessible not just by ministry leaders but by every committed follower of Jesus. It is not meant to be a program that gets implemented in your church, ministry, or even life. It is also not a highly structured discipleship course for you to lead someone else through. Instead, it is a model or framework for you to use in discipling others. It is a set of principles that embody the DNA or ethos of Jesusesque discipleship. This is not another program or activity for you to engage in. It is a lifestyle, mind-set, and set of values that should saturate your life. In the pages that follow, please do not view these principles as a set of boxes to check. Instead, let it be a springboard and guardrails for your own Spirit-infused creative initiatives for reaching and discipling those around you, wherever you find yourself or the Lord has you!

How to Use This Book

Fact: If you have truly been transformed by knowing and walking with Jesus for any significant amount of time, you are probably ready to play a direct role in fostering this in the life of someone else.

Some may read that last sentence and have a few immediate objections come to mind, like I don’t have time, My church doesn’t have a program for that, What if I do it wrong, or that’s not my specific calling. Truth be told, some of those are real hurdles, but none of that changes the fact that Jesus has called us to this good work—you, me and all the saints. For the moment, all I ask is that you put away any of these concerns and dream with me a little as one reason I wrote this book was to help you overcome these different obstacles, hopefully demystifying the process of making disciples. So just ponder for a moment what a lifestyle of making disciples of Jesus might look like in your life…

Are you a parent or guardian? There are unique and difficult challenges facing today’s youth, in addition to the ones they have always faced, especially with regards to their faith. There is no better place to start this process than in your own home and with your own children. What would it look like to be intentional about discipling your kids?

Are you a student or athlete? You likely spend countless hours a year with the same group of people, many of whom you know are struggling in life and faith or who don’t know Jesus yet. What would it look like to be intentional about discipling your fellow classmates or teammates?

Are you an employee? Most people spend the majority of their waking time working at their place of employment. In the United States, for example, it is not uncommon for people to spend well over two thousand hours at their job per year. Is there someone at your work you know who is broken, defeated, wandering, or without the Lord? What would it look like to be intentional about discipling your fellow employees?

Are you a small group leader or member? Do you see some of the same people in your church small group each week continually failing to understand their identity in Christ and God-given calling? What would it look like to be intentional about discipling someone in your small group?

Are you a ministry leader or pastor? You are at the tip of the spear for setting the vision and strategy for congregants to be discipled in your church. What would it look like to be intentional about discipling your staff, your lay leadership, or, even better, to help instill a reproducing culture of discipleship that ripples through your church and entire community?

Are you needing to grow as a disciple yourself? Have you been following Jesus but still wrestling with deep questions and doubts? Or struggling to have an impact on those around you or to pray or understand the Scriptures or even just trust God with the little things? What would it look like to be intentional about having a more mature believer disciple you?

Hopefully this short introduction has got you intrigued and excited about all the potential opportunities for impact all around you. By the end of this book, it is my sincere prayer that you know what a disciple of Jesus is, why you are called to make them, and how to start this adventure of making disciples right where God has you!

Part I

The What

Disciple: A Noun

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. (Jesus, Luke 6:40)

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak at a church men’s retreat. I was given complete freedom on subject matter for two one-hour sessions, which for me was a kid in a candy store type experience. For years, the content within this book had been stirring in my soul, having been field tested extensively in my own life. Now was the perfect providential opportunity to see if it would translate to others during this weekend event.

I didn’t have to stir myself up to preach this message. Devotion to these truths had been a labor of love for more than a decade. Standing in front of the pulpit, I laid out clearly the biblical call and mandate for us to not only become mature disciples of Jesus but to radically walk alongside others and support their pursuit of this goal, that disciple was not simply a noun we are called to be but also a verb we are called to do!

I remember at the end of the second session I was talking to an older gentleman, maybe late fifties. I could tell that the truth in these messages had impacted him deeply but also that he seemed a little distraught. I asked him what God had been doing in his life that weekend, and he began to explain that he had been a believer for thirty years. He had faithfully gone to a good Bible-believing church, prayed, read the scriptures regularly, and tried to live a godly life. I could tell from the sincerity and humility in his words that he simply wanted to follow Jesus, wherever and whatever that meant.

At numerous times in the past three decades, he had been confused with deep, profound questions and feelings of abiding isolation, a wandering nomad in this struggle. He was faithfully doing everything he was taught for living the abundant life, but these abstract concepts and religious duties had not translated well for him. As I had been sharing, the reality had gripped him that in the past thirty years not a soul had come alongside him to truly model and support him in his quest to become like Jesus.

He wasn’t critical nor was there any sense of blame. He simply was lamenting the fact that Christianity, done the way Jesus had intended, didn’t have to be the isolated, confusing experience he went through for literally decades. At the same time, I saw a sense of relief that there was a better way as these struggles had clearly weighed on and strained his faith over the years. Looking into this man’s eyes broke my heart, thinking of the unnecessary confusion and pain he had suffered for years like the victories that were never won, the gifts that were never unleashed, all amongst a backdrop of genuine love of His Savior and King.

In my experience, this is far from an isolated example and very likely the majority position. Too often, we celebrate spiritual births with great fanfare only to leave these spiritual infants on the side of the road with a bottle, box of diapers, and business card for the local spiritual nursery. That day confirmed for me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had to do something alongside the many others passionate about this call to make disciples the old-fashioned way, Jesus’s way.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I encounter ideas in the Bible that I find difficult to understand. I am guessing you might be in the same boat. This confusion can come from so many places, but it’s often because we can’t personally relate well to what is being said. Sometimes we lack the shared cultural or historical experiences and ways of viewing the world needed to clearly grasp the biblical meaning. This can be for reasons as straightforward as not being a first-century Jew living in Jerusalem when reading the Gospels.

This experience of struggling to relate is not unique to the Bible though as