Sunday, October 16, 2016

MAKING DISCIPLES & DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL LEADERS

One of the things that spiritual leaders get confused about (or, maybe not even confused if we don’t consciously think about it) is the difference between making disciples & developing those disciples as spiritual leaders.

It’s really important to know what our job is as pastors & spiritual leaders. What is it? We could use Ephesians 4:11-13 as a basic description: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

Notice in the Book of Acts how Paul worked with Timothy:
·       When Paul met Timothy, he was a young disciple, whose character & faithfulness were already recognized by those who knew him (16:2)
·       Paul recognized this, & wanted to bring him along (16:3-4)
·       Paul apparently trained him, & left him with Silas to continue the work (17:14-15)

It’s not totally clear, but it my understanding is that Timothy’s mother & grandmother raised him to know the Lord & discipled him in the faith (II Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15). Paul then selected him & trained him for ministry.

From this we learn something very important about our work as pastors & spiritual leaders: Making disciples & developing workers or spiritual leaders are not technically the same thing.

Here are a few observations about these 2 things & how we need to understand the relationship between them:

The ultimate task of the Church is to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:46-49)
·       If I work hard as a spiritual leader to evangelize & make disciples, I will win some people to Christ & make some disciples
·       If I train & develop others to do these things, many more will be won & discipled
·       If their disciples can be empowered to do ministry, the Great Commission will be fulfilled much more effectively

What are the practical differences between making disciples & developing leaders?
·       Discipling:
o   Primarily about helping people be conformed to Christ’s image
o   Looks for the same general result in all disciples
·       Developing workers:
o   Primarily about equipping, training, empowering people to do ministry tasks effectively
o   Looks for the specific tasks that God has created them to do
o   May change over time as people become more aware of God’s plan for them

How are these 2 things related?
·       We make disciples so that we can develop them as spiritual leaders
o   Discipleship without development = lack of effectiveness, problems in the congregation
o   Development without discipleship = legalism, activity but no spiritual power
·       This is why the Bible has requirements for spiritual leaders in the local church (I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9)
·       It is true that both of these things can happen simultaneously

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