23_03_30 -Ep.305 - Run With Horses Podcast – Multiplication in the Essential Church
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Go forth and multiply! It is the last command that Jesus left with His disciples and one of the main concerns of the church today.
Welcome to Run With Horses! My name is Norman and my goal is to help you thrive as a follower of Jesus. The spiritual life is both incredibly simple and potentially the most difficult part of your life. God invites you to live intentionally and on His mission. It’s very cool that we can do that together!
Last week we looked at maturity the essential church. The main point is that we have to be changing if we are maturing and becoming more like Jesus. He is working a wonderful transformation in our lives.
Quick review:
MY WORKING DEFINITION OF CHURCH
A CHURCH is a group of Jesus’ disciples who worship Him in spirit and truth, humbly offering their lives as living sacrifices, together living out the mission of Jesus as His witnesses to the world, by sharing the gospel and making disciples through teaching obedience to His commands as they edify and equip others to join them on His mission.
It is my view that this process embracing the mission of Jesus and becoming a disciple maker is an important part of how God transforms you.
We started session one with the topic SEEDS: What’s our Disciple Making DNA?
Matthew 4:19: "Follow me," Jesus declared, "and I will make you fishers of men." Jesus doesn't just call disciples, He equips them to make more disciples.
We moved on to session two with the topic TREES: What is your vision of Maturity?
Hebrews 5:11-14 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Stages of Spiritual Growth – Dead, Infant, Child, Young Adult, Parents, Grandparents
And Today we are ready for Session 3: Forests: How Do We Multiply?
Big Idea: Multiplication is the result of putting disciple making into practice.
Disciple making is contagious! As we mature as disciple makers, we equip others to do the same, resulting in a multiplication effect: the growth of the local church and planting new churches near and far.
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Starting an Evangelistic Bible Study
Make a list and pray for it
Make your list of who you want to talk with and pray for them
Find a partner and make a plan
Try to find a partner to do this with, and make a plan for the next few steps
Schedule it and reach out to people
Come up with a schedule for your meet-ups, make contacts with people using the conversations checklist and invite them to the meetup.
Start meeting and improve it over time
Start meeting and keep it going, improving what you started and making it better. It doesn’t need to be perfect right away–or ever really!
Be faithful and try to be fruitful
Just faithfully keep meeting with people and having conversations, and pray that there is fruit of people growing closer to Jesus. Your job is faithfulness and intending to be fruitful, but God provides the fruit.
Be consistent
Consistently keep having intentional conversations and a regularly scheduled and communicated meeting, and that consistency will over time be part of your success.
6 Questions for Leading a Bible Study
THANKS - What are you thankful for?
CHALLENGE - What challenges are you facing?
→ PRAY for challenges
→ READ & RETELL passage
GOD - What does this passage tell us about God?
PEOPLE - What does this passage tell us about People?
DO - What should I do in response to this passage?
SHARE - Who should I share it with this week?
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Thanks for joining me again today! How is your church doing at fulfilling it’s biblical purpose? I’d love to hear from you, write me at norman@runwithhorses.net or leave a comment on the Run With Horses Podcast facebook page. Take time today to pause and thank God for His work in your life and keep running.
