Practical Discipleship Pt. 1 and Pt. 2

There is an amazing chain of multiplication that has been described by many who discuss discipleship. It goes something like this. Edward Kimball was a Sunday school teacher who led D.L. Moody, a shoe salesman to Christ. Moody became an outstanding evangelist. He encouraged F.B Meyer, a British evangelist, in his ministry. Moody even invited him to come and minister in the U.S. Meyer ended up profoundly impacting Wilbur Chapman, at a conference here in the U.S. Wilbur Chapman ended up discipling Billy Sunday, a baseball player who had recently come to Christ. Billy Sunday went on to impact Mordecai Ham for Christ. Billy Graham ended up coming to Christ during a Mordecai Ham crusade in 1934.

This encouraging example of multiplication is one that can be true of anyone willing to do discipleship. Many feel unable and unequipped for the task. Jesus commanded you to make discipes (Matt. 28:18-20) and His Holy Spirit will empower you to do it! Follow these simple and practical steps to make disciples (both part one and two are vitally important)!

Part 1 (Mp3 here or just listen below). 

Part 2 (Mp3 here or just listen below). 

These notes come from our Great Commission Leadership notebook (get the rough draft here). 

Growth Resources for New Believers

We just put 11 semesters of basic training online on our FLC college ministry site. This is a huge tool for discipleship and a great link to share with anyone you're discipling. Check it out here: 

http://connectflc.blogspot.com/p/grow.html

Congrats Malcolm and Leah!!!

Many of you know that Leah, a former student and intern, joined our staff and had an AMAZING rookie year on full time staff this year. You've probably also heard us share stories in the past about Malcolm, a fearless student evangelist (here's a story about Malcolm and 4 spiritual generations of discipleship). The 2 of them have become an amazing ministry team - get one great story about that here. Anyway, Malcolm recently graduated and the 2 of them will be getting married Friday! We've all been getting more excited for this wedding as each month passed and now it is finally here. We did Malcolm's staff interview last week (we didn't get done till after 9 pm) and he has been officially accepted to come on staff with us here at FLC! We are thrilled this wonderful young couple will be joining us together to reach students for Christ, disciple them into strong, multiplying believers and send them into the worldwide harvest. Congrats Malcolm on joining the team and congrats to both of you on your upcoming wedding. As we have gotten to know you these past 5 years, discipling you on investing our lives in yours, we are absolutely thrilled to see you multiplying to the next generation. We love you! 

Radical!!!

Thanks Jeff Dobesh for challenging your congregation to read Radical because many of them challenged me to read it and it was one of the best books I've read in a while! Thank you! I don't want to do a review of this book but rather wanted simply to write a quick post mentioning it. It was right on the money, well written and very challenging. I was encouraged by David's graceful approach, "no backing down from the truth" perspective and practical advice about fulfilling the great commission. Get the book and more info at http://www.radicalthebook.com/. I think this book got me more fired up to put everything on the line than almost any I've ever read. If you feel the same way you will want to read The Fuel and the Flame by Steve Shadrach - it will provide a realistic strategy for accomplishing all the hopes, dreams and vision of "Radical." You can get The Fuel and the Flame here. Finally, for some quick and easy ideas on sharing your faith, click here.

Be an Online Missionary!

Ever wish you could be a part of what God is doing all around the world? You can! God has obviously put you wherever you live to reach that location for Him (Acts 17:26-27) but that shouldn't stop you from also being a part of the international revival happening right now!!!

That's right, 174,000 people are coming to Christ every single day; that includes 34,000 South Americans, 30,000 Chinese, 25,000 Africans and more than 16,000 Muslims who put their trust in Jesus every single day! While those numbers are staggering, those people need follow up and discipleship.

That's where you come in! You can sign up to be an online missionary. Global Media Outreach needs your help! Click here to see live decisions for Christ through this ministry and you'll quickly realize how much they need your help. Then, click here: http://www.globalmediaoutreach.com/online_missionary.html and register to become an online missionary. You'll have the opportunity to help disciple people that have come to Christ all over the world! It couldn't get easier than that!

How to Disciple a Younger Believer Pt. 2

Here is the Ministry Leadership Training Class video from last night on how to do basic discipleship and specifically, how to use the discipleship packet. You can get last night's notes (all from the teachers edition of the discipleship packet) here. You can get the MP3 here. Get all our MLTC classes here - they are some of the best Great Commission training classes you'll ever get! Hope it helps.

How to Lead a Bible Study (MLTC 8)

Acts 2:42 gives us a great picture of the early church Bible Study ideal - "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." There are Bible studies everywhere but few fulfill their purpose. If you want to begin leading effective multiplying Bible studies, check out these notes and the video below!

How to Make Disciples

Here is the Ministry Leadership Training Class from last night on "How to Make Disciples." All of this comes from Russ' discipleship packet, developed after 40 years of intentional discipleship. I know it will encourage you a ton. The notes (included here) also have the entire teacher's edition of the discipleship packet. Get the MP3 below the video if you want it. I know these resources will revolutionize your personal ministry!

The video:

The MP3:

Evangelism idea: Follow up!

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Get our evangelism follow up training here. We've been sharing evangelism ideas, resources and stories for about 6 weeks now. I'm sure you've applied many of the ideas listed so far. The idea for today is very simple. God has undoubtedly been working on peoples' hearts since you last shared with them. I would encourage you to re-connect with someone you've shared with in the past and ask them some follow up questions. You could ask, "have you thought any more about what we talked about," "have any new questions come to your mind since we last talked" or "what would keep you from putting your trust in Christ?" You could invite this person out for coffee or lunch and talk more about Jesus. We've had students take up to 4 years of these conversations before trusting Christ. One guy I shared with, "B," met with me every week for 8 weeks before trusting Christ and it usually takes someone 6 or more times hearing the gospel before they trust Christ. So find someone you've shared with and try to do some follow-up with that person! If you know of anyone that has trusted Christ recently or if the person you share with does, take the next follow-up step and begin doing some basic discipleship with them. You can get discipleship ideas, resources and tools at our discipleship resources page. Our favorite tool on that page is our discipleship packet (we hope this tool will be a great resource for you). One last note, nearly every time someone comes to Christ they will be immediately attacked (Satan doesn't like to loose). I remember one guy we led to Christ who lost something very important to him and got into a car crash the afternoon after he trusted Christ. He needed to be encouraged that he had made the right decision regardless of opposition. For a good article by evangelism.net on that click here. Have a blast doing follow-up and sharing the Good News today!