BY DAVID DIXON
EASTERN PA DISTRICT TEAM
“Until you let Jesus deal with this issue in your life, you’re not really going to grow much spiritually.”
When I heard these words from a friend and mentor of mine, my heart dropped. I knew he was right but hearing him say it out loud hit me square in the chest.
At the time, I had been out of college for several years, was recently married, and had just started a family. All great things, but I had hit a wall spiritually. I was angry and frustrated with some things that had been going on in my life. I had experienced some big ministry frustrations and was struggling to adjust to being a new dad. It was in that frustration that I turned to my friend to get advice about what to do.
But instead of giving me some good advice about trying harder to be a loving husband and good father, he pointed me to Jesus. We read Scripture together, he asked deeper questions about what was going in my soul and challenged me to consider what Jesus wanted to do in my life.
This was a pivotal moment in my life.
It was a discipleship moment in my life.
Out of that conversation, I confessed my sin of unbelief and Jesus began to change my heart. The change didn’t happen all at once, it happened over the next several months as I continued to meet with other men to discover Jesus in the Scriptures and learn to nurture our hearts in the Gospel and live out our faith with obedience and power.
Similar to my story, there are people in our churches who have hit that proverbial wall. For them to continue growing in Jesus, they don’t need more Bible knowledge or classes. They need someone to walk alongside them in life so that together they can grow as disciples of Jesus. They are needing to experience Jesus in life-giving discipleship relationships.
I believe that if our churches are going to experience Gospel transformation then we must get back to the basics of making disciples that make disciples. We must learn to build a culture where people grow to obey and follow Jesus, seek to be changed by Jesus, and join unified in the mission of Jesus.
Making disciples cannot be left to chance. We must create healthy disciple-making patterns or habits in our churches and give ourselves to this as a primary work. The good news of Jesus is life changing, and He has given us to each other to help navigate the trials of life so that we might grow to be more like our precious Savior.
I am so glad that my friend discipled me that day, and I know there are people in your church that are longing for that as well, even if they haven’t realized it yet.
If you are hungry to see a culture of discipleship grow in your church or area of ministry, then I would like to encourage you to join our upcoming multiplication track. We will be asking Jesus to change the habits of our church toward greater discipleship. What a joy it would be to see waves of disciple making coming from our churches.
Learn more about the Disciple-Making Rhythms track. If interested in joining the multiplication track in 2022, please submit an interest form. Currently, this track is only available for official workers and spouses.
