My Papason and Grandma live in Oklahoma, in a city where there are more cows than people. There isn't much to do at their house, but they do have a pond where we spend a lot of time fishing, swimming, and racing boats. Sometimes I would stand at the edge of the pond looking at the still water, then take a small rock and throw it in the water and see how the ripples spread throughout the pond.
Jesus was fully God and fully human, but He was just one human. How can it be that 2,000 years later there are around 2 billion people saying Jesus is their savior? Jesus was one rock but started the greatest movement that has rippled across the earth. How did he do it?
Jesus did all His ministry in 3 years, which isn't a lot of time for the savior of the world to save the world. So, what was Jesus's plan in his 3 ministry years for his Good News to spread throughout Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria? We know He taught, performed miracles, invested in his disciples, and more. But which of these did he spend the most time doing?
When you read through the gospels, you'll see Jesus spent much of his time with his disciples, investing, preparing, teaching, and eventually sending them. Jesus started a disciple-making movement that has grown exponentially from 1 to 12 to now 2 billion. Jesus understood that to reach a large number of people, he had to start small.
But how do we join this disciple-making movement Jesus started over two thousand years ago to reach our community and beyond?
The How: The Power of the Holy Spirit
It all starts with the Holy Spirit. We must be disciples of Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, we see Jesus's disciples rapidly grow the disciple-making movement, not due to their own greatness, but rather to the power of the Holy Spirit working within them. The end of the chapter tells us they saw people being saved every day! This was because they were passionate disciples of Jesus who were passionate about making disciples of Jesus and the Holy Spirit was using them!
To be part of a disciple-making movement, we must be transformed by the Holy Spirit. We need to live a Spirit-filled life, seeking His guidance and strength in all we do. We need to die to ourselves and be renewed in Jesus. By praying for renewal in our own lives and our church, we can position ourselves to be agents of change.
To understand how we're living as disciples of Jesus, we can look to the portrait of a connected life as a self-assessment:
- Am I being renewed every day by going Upward with God and becoming more like Jesus?
- Do I go Backward with my Story to see how God has pursued me and use my story to pursue others?
- How am I connecting Withward with the Body of Christ?
- Have I gone Inward with my Gifting to know how to serve Jesus with the gifts given to me by the Holy Spirit?
- Am I going Outward with the Mission sharing the Gospel of Jesus with my life?
The Why: The Impact of a Disciple-Making Movement
Murfreesboro TN has almost 170,000 residents. If we disciples of Jesus want to reach our community, how do we do that? The same way Jesus did; he gave us the blueprint. We need to be disciples of Jesus making disciples of Jesus. If everyone within our church became a disciple maker, we would see a movement that would impact our whole city and beyond!
Imagine five hundred people from our church became disciple makers and each of us invested in one lost person who then became a disciple. That person could then invest in one lost person, and so on. If this kept going, our five hundred could turn into way over 170,000 in only 9 years. This multiplication disciple-making movement is how Jesus saved and is saving the world, including me and you.
Conclusion
When I was in middle and high school, I remember my youth pastor took the time to intentionally disciple me. Even though I gave him many challenges and tons of reasons to give up on me, he didn't and kept pouring into me. His investment in me is a big reason why I am a passionate disciple of Jesus who is passionate about making disciples of Jesus.
Today I get to serve as a youth pastor and disciple those younger than me. I get to do what someone else did with me! Discipleship has changed my life, and it's my prayer that it would change your life as well.
Will you join me in asking the question, "Who's Your One?" Because 170,000, or 6 billion, can seem like a lot, but Jesus may not be asking you to spend every moment preaching in downtown Murfreesboro. Rather, He wants you to pray about who is one person who isn't a disciple that God would use you to make a disciple of them for Jesus. Whether it's one, twelve, or more, Jesus wants to use you to continue His disciple-making movement. So... Who's Your One?