What Stops You?
Making disciples of Jesus seems to be the prime directive to believers in the New Testament. We should each be striving to become more and more like Jesus throughout our life time. We should also be working intentionally to pour our lives into others to help them become more like Jesus too.
Jesus last words before he ascended into heaven were instructions for those who follow Him to be about developing disciples everywhere they go (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8). As you read the story of Jesus' life in the Gospels, you will see Him continuously helping women and men to follow Him and His examples in life. The Epistles (the letters found in the New Testament) are full of instructions, examples and admonishments for every believer to be about the focus of living for Jesus and leading others to live for Him as well.
If you believe that the chief end of man is to glorify God (Westminster Shorter Confession Question #1) and that we are to keep the greatest commandments (Love God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself) and the great commission (go and make disciples of all the nations...), then what better way of expressing this than through intentional reproduction of Jesus' life in others?
We should be asking ourselves if what we are doing as church or as followers of Jesus is actually accomplishing the task Jesus left us here to accomplish - to make disciples? Do our Sunday morning worship times make disciples? I would say they do. But are we satisfied with the disciples that we are seeing raised up and if we are not, what needs to be changed?
Over this past year, I have spoken to many believers in Jesus who are simply not concerned about really making disciples. Many are concerned to be in church as often as they can, but not so concerned about making disciples. Most people I talk to do not believe they are ready to do this or they don't have enough time and energy or they have no idea how to go about helping people become like Jesus. Somewhere in their faith walk, they learned there is a certain or prescribed way or standards that needs to be applied in making disciples and somehow they missed the classes or were not invited to learn how to do it.
When I proceed to tell them of a very simple way to go about making disciples (LTG's) they listen with hope until they hear that although simple, it requires discipline, an investment of time, effort, risk and energy along with a faithfulness to the process itself. It really is hard work to walk side by side with people, helping them to become more and more like Jesus.
Recently, I had a conversation with a younger church leader who was full of excitement, vision and energy. This younger leader was employing Life Transformation Groups (LTG's) in his ministry but finding that they were not reproducing nor were most of the people reading more than five chapters of the Bible in a given week. When I pressed further, these LTG's were not really taking seriously praying for lost people nor connecting to those people. As our conversation continued, it became apparent that each of the LTG's had a dominant leader who really directed the flow of the meeting. All of these things pointed to the collapse of these LTG's in the near future.
LTG's consist of very basic Christian disciplines; reading the Bible, having honest conversations about areas in our lives where we struggle with temptation or sin and a time of prayer for people who do not yet know Jesus. This sounds simple to do...but then there is life :-) I'm curious as to why people want Jesus and to be like Jesus but do not want to spend the time to know Him and learn and imitate His ways? I'm curious when people tell me what stops them from actually doing or participating in LTG's.
Is there something stopping you from participating in an LTG with one or two others? I would love to hear about what those things are so they can be addressed in my next blog or two (e-mail me). If we are not about the work of making disciples, we are disobeying the prime directive Jesus left us to do. Let's stay on task so that rapid multiplication can occur and then the world will be impacted with the truth, love and values of Jesus Christ.
Here are a few of the reasons why some people do not do LTG's that I would like to discuss next week in my blog along with any comments you may make on what stops you;
LTG's are a program and I want to be more organic.
I don't retain things when I read 20-30 chapters of the Bible in a week.
I don't have the time to meet with another person for an hour or two.
I can't trust people with private information that I may share in an LTG.
I don't want to get close to people only to have to multiply and leave them.
The bottom line is that we all need to be making disciples. Jesus said it IS your responsibility. There are many ways to accomplish this and LTG's are only one way - but LTG's are proven to reproduce, to make strong disciples and to work in many, many cultures around the world.
Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.
P.S. Here are a list of very helpful books on Life Transformation Groups;
Cultivating a Life For God (Neil Cole)
Search and Rescue (Neil Cole)
Click HERE to buy LTG cards to use in your ministry!
Jesus last words before he ascended into heaven were instructions for those who follow Him to be about developing disciples everywhere they go (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8). As you read the story of Jesus' life in the Gospels, you will see Him continuously helping women and men to follow Him and His examples in life. The Epistles (the letters found in the New Testament) are full of instructions, examples and admonishments for every believer to be about the focus of living for Jesus and leading others to live for Him as well.
If you believe that the chief end of man is to glorify God (Westminster Shorter Confession Question #1) and that we are to keep the greatest commandments (Love God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself) and the great commission (go and make disciples of all the nations...), then what better way of expressing this than through intentional reproduction of Jesus' life in others?
We should be asking ourselves if what we are doing as church or as followers of Jesus is actually accomplishing the task Jesus left us here to accomplish - to make disciples? Do our Sunday morning worship times make disciples? I would say they do. But are we satisfied with the disciples that we are seeing raised up and if we are not, what needs to be changed?
Over this past year, I have spoken to many believers in Jesus who are simply not concerned about really making disciples. Many are concerned to be in church as often as they can, but not so concerned about making disciples. Most people I talk to do not believe they are ready to do this or they don't have enough time and energy or they have no idea how to go about helping people become like Jesus. Somewhere in their faith walk, they learned there is a certain or prescribed way or standards that needs to be applied in making disciples and somehow they missed the classes or were not invited to learn how to do it.
When I proceed to tell them of a very simple way to go about making disciples (LTG's) they listen with hope until they hear that although simple, it requires discipline, an investment of time, effort, risk and energy along with a faithfulness to the process itself. It really is hard work to walk side by side with people, helping them to become more and more like Jesus.
Recently, I had a conversation with a younger church leader who was full of excitement, vision and energy. This younger leader was employing Life Transformation Groups (LTG's) in his ministry but finding that they were not reproducing nor were most of the people reading more than five chapters of the Bible in a given week. When I pressed further, these LTG's were not really taking seriously praying for lost people nor connecting to those people. As our conversation continued, it became apparent that each of the LTG's had a dominant leader who really directed the flow of the meeting. All of these things pointed to the collapse of these LTG's in the near future.
LTG's consist of very basic Christian disciplines; reading the Bible, having honest conversations about areas in our lives where we struggle with temptation or sin and a time of prayer for people who do not yet know Jesus. This sounds simple to do...but then there is life :-) I'm curious as to why people want Jesus and to be like Jesus but do not want to spend the time to know Him and learn and imitate His ways? I'm curious when people tell me what stops them from actually doing or participating in LTG's.
Is there something stopping you from participating in an LTG with one or two others? I would love to hear about what those things are so they can be addressed in my next blog or two (e-mail me). If we are not about the work of making disciples, we are disobeying the prime directive Jesus left us to do. Let's stay on task so that rapid multiplication can occur and then the world will be impacted with the truth, love and values of Jesus Christ.
Here are a few of the reasons why some people do not do LTG's that I would like to discuss next week in my blog along with any comments you may make on what stops you;
LTG's are a program and I want to be more organic.
I don't retain things when I read 20-30 chapters of the Bible in a week.
I don't have the time to meet with another person for an hour or two.
I can't trust people with private information that I may share in an LTG.
I don't want to get close to people only to have to multiply and leave them.
The bottom line is that we all need to be making disciples. Jesus said it IS your responsibility. There are many ways to accomplish this and LTG's are only one way - but LTG's are proven to reproduce, to make strong disciples and to work in many, many cultures around the world.
Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.
P.S. Here are a list of very helpful books on Life Transformation Groups;
Cultivating a Life For God (Neil Cole)
Search and Rescue (Neil Cole)
Click HERE to buy LTG cards to use in your ministry!
It seems to me LTGs are in effect the church simple I can see them in the book of Acts. yes they very in numbers but the dna is the same if indeed the Lord has raised them up and set each member as He pleases in these local LTGs. They are in reality a church from house to house and in public with other local LGTs (aka The CHurch)
ReplyDeleteRex Sheeley 574 518 2727
On the subject of reading the bible ,wow what did the early church read if they could read at all, a little OT ,maybe a hand written copy of some apostle blog that was never included in the NT of today. NA... maybe some dear spirit inspired poem and or thoughts of some dear brother or sister who had been taught a great revelation as they walked with Jesus that day or hour. These letters we call the bible are with out argument Gods written record made alive today to us by the Holy Spirit buttt... Jesus still speaks today plainly by The Holy Spirit (reason for the Acts 2 gift to all of us)
ReplyDeleteHe speaks also threw each born again member of the LTG (AKA the church)
Seriously The Early Church was planted with out a bible
Hi Debbie and thanks for your comments. You are right that the early did not have the written Word - not even the OT was accessible to them. They did devote themselves to the Apostle's teaching (Acts 2). Your point is well taken that until the printing press (and then it took a long while before the Bible was available to common folks), few ever had any portion of the Bible to read. There was a real dependence upon the oral Word passed down. Today, however, we do have the written word easily accessible so using it as our guide is vital in my opinion. I do believe Jesus speaks to His children today through His Word, in their hearts and through the community.
ReplyDelete