WEEK 1 | INTRO
INTRODUCTION
Before you embark on LIVING ON MISSION, we must address three assumptions to ensure that we are all on the same page. These assumptions define the heart and challenge of the LIVING ON MISSION training. Take some time to read and evaluate what you believe about the following three statements.
THREE ASSUMPTIONS
1. THE GOSPEL MESSAGE IS THE SINGULAR HOPE FOR THE WORLD
The apostle Paul says it best to the Corinthian church.
1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain.
When we talk about making disciples of Jesus we are talking about the process by which people (like you and me) preach the GOSPEL, receive the GOSPEL, stand firm in the GOSPEL, and are continually being saved by the GOSPEL.
The gospel is our singular message and hope for the world. Multiplying is not about getting more people to come to church; it is about exposing more people to the message of the gospel. Multiplying is not about training people to live moral lives; it is about God opening their hearts to receive the good news of the gospel.
Multiplying is not about counseling men and women in how to be stronger and more self-confident individuals; it is about leading them to find strength in the redemptive work of the gospel. Multiplying is not about rescuing people from their poor life choices or desperate situations; it is about helping them find their salvation in the gospel.
Don’t get me wrong. You cannot separate tangible acts of love, service, compassion and redemption from the sharing of the gospel. This is not about elevating evangelism above everything else in the church. It is about making the gospel central to all ministry work that we do. But we must never forget the end goal is that every believer and disciple of Jesus, receives, preaches, stands firm in, and is saved daily by the truth of the gospel.
So if you are going to participate in multiplying disciples of Jesus, you must be very clear on what the gospel is, how it applies to your life, and that Jesus himself has entrusted you with this message so that you may bring life to others.
2. A DISCIPLE IS TRAINED TO BECOME LIKE HIS MASTER
Luke 6:40 (ESV) — 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
The second assumption is that by definition, as a disciple of Jesus, you are on a journey to become like Jesus. Do you eagerly desire to love like he loved, to share what he shared, to see people the way he saw them, to trust the heavenly Father the way that he trusted him and to allow the Spirit to lead and guide you the way he was led?
The word disciple literally means adherent. In the Jewish context, you are not a disciple if you are simply interested in knowing what your rabbi knows, or even doing what your rabbi does. A true disciple follows his rabbi so closely that it is like the disciple is literally STUCK to him. Wherever the rabbi goes, the disciple goes because the disciple’s goal isn’t just to memorize the rabbi’s teachings, or be trained in the rabbi’s methods, the disciple wants to experience what the rabbi experiences in as many situations as he possibly can. The disciple longs to become who the rabbi is. A true disciple is seeking a heart transplant, not just an education.
The assumption that we make in this curriculum is that you truly desire to be like Jesus. Do not underestimate the weight of this assumption. Naturally, we read the scripture through the lens of how the message of Jesus ministers to us. But the adherent has a secondary lens. He looks at everything Jesus does and says because he believes that Jesus is training him to do and say and live in the exact same way.
Certainly, you are not the Son of God and you probably will not walk on water, forgive sins, or miraculously fuse the spine of a quadriplegic. But each and every one of the disciples was an ordinary man that God transformed into an incredible tool for his kingdom, and I believe he wants to do the same with us. Do you?
3. JESUS “TOLD US TO” & “SHOWED US HOW” TO MAKE DISCIPLES
Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV) — 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you until the end of the age.
In chapter 28 of Matthew (the last chapter of this gospel) Jesus gives the disciples the commandment to make disciples of all nations. If you take this verse on it’s own. The methodology for making disciples is limited to “baptizing them” and “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”.
In chapter 28 of Matthew (the last chapter of this Gospel), Jesus gives the disciples the commandment to make disciples of all nations. If you take this verse on its own, the methodology for making disciples is limited to “baptizing them” and “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” If you read Matt. 28:18-20 not as a stand-alone commission, but as a summary of everything that Jesus demonstrated in his calling, teaching, and training of the Twelve, the seventy-two, and more, then you realize that Jesus has provided us 28 chapters worth of material that reveal exactly how he did ministry. He called his disciples, challenged his disciples, taught his disciples, rebuked his disciples, encouraged his disciples, and sent out his disciples to make more.
The MULTIPLY curriculum examines the methods and teachings of Jesus through the lens of disciple-making. If I were to make disciples like Jesus did in my present context, how would I do it?
THE LAUSANNE MOVEMENT
In 1974, 2700 evangelical Christians from 150 nations met to discuss and promote the proclamation of the Gospel among all people. From that meeting was born the Lausanne Covenant, a shared commitment of the global church to continue the work of reaching all unreached people. The slogan adopted by the Lausanne Movement is:
“The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world”
The whole church – means every church, every tribe, every nation, and every believer- priest. No disciple of Jesus is exempt.
The whole gospel – is the entire message of the Good News. It isn’t just a message about “how to get to heaven;” it is the message that Jesus, in his teaching, in his redemptive work, and in his ministry, saves us from the consequences of sin and death, today and for eternity.
The whole world – means that unreached people are everywhere from every culture and all around us. We mustn’t settle for the “low hanging fruit” but prayerfully believe that God wants to reach our Muslim, Mormon, atheist, agnostic, and non-“spiritual” neighbors. If the goal is reaching everyone, we may suspect, like Paul says in 1 Cor. 9., that it requires us to “become all things to all people, so that by all possible means we may save some.”
LIVING ON MISSION is an effort to equip you in your present context to participate in a worldwide movement to reach every unreached person in every nook and cranny of the world. A mission of that magnitude requires every believer and every priest to take responsibility for the proclamation of the gospel in their spheres of influence. Though scary and uncomfortable at times, participating in the mission of God need not feel like an obligation or guilt-driven drudgery, but a continuation of the joyful transformation that the Holy Spirit is doing in each and every follower of Christ.
Living on mission looks different for each of us, because of the unique nature of our spiritual gifting, contexts, and maturity. So we are not asking you to learn a methodology or be trained in a particular style. We are asking you to join us on this terrifying and exhilarating journey in order that we may rediscover how God wants to use us to multiply his kingdom TODAY right where we presently live with the people that already surround us.
Questions:
Which of the three assumptions are easy for you to believe and which is hard for you to embrace? Why?
In what ways are you continually being saved by the Gospel?
In what ways are you afraid of becoming like Christ?
Are you committed to not just talking about what it looks like to make disciples but, through this 8-week training, to prayerfully, faithfully and actively begin to make disciples of the people that God has placed around you?
THE ASSIGNMENT:
If we agree on these three things, then it would serve to reason that the Gospels are essential for our growth, knowledge, and guidance. Spend time throughout these eight weeks immersing yourself in the stories of the life of Christ. The teachings and lessons will focus on the life and ministry of Christ as well, but spend time really reading and focusing on the Gospels themselves.
Read through the Gospel of Matthew. Read it through with an eye for Jesus’ relationship with his disciples. Look for everything that has to do with him and them, and focus there. Pay attention to their interactions. How does Jesus dwell among the people he ministers to? What are the many different ways that he bears witness to the Father?
As you are reading take notes on two things and record the scripture references.
1) What is Jesus training the disciples to do? What does he want them to become?
2) How does he do that? How does he challenge their thinking? What type of questions does he ask? What mistakes does he allow them to make?