P R E F A C E

An Ever Growing Story

There is probably nothing more satisfying than knowing that God is using you to encourage another person to grow as a Christian. In the last twenty years literally hundreds of people have discovered the significance, joy and satisfaction of helping another person grow in their Christian life using these Discipleship Encounters.

Marvin Ladner, a business man who first discipled me at the university, planted a seed that continues to grow. First in Ecuador, then more significantly in Mexico, the simple and yet dynamic discipling process set forth here took on a clear focus as we trained lay leaders to start churches and pastor them. The process continues. It began in Spanish, and then English, and now there are translations in French, Japanese, Korean, Lingala, Swedish, Tagalog, Russian, Swahili, and Tenyidie (also known as Angami Naga for use in Nagaland, India). In process is a Bulgarian version.

As we watch the dynamics of discipleship encounters in many different contexts we have discovered people using the outlines that make up the Discipleship Encounters in different ways. The following pages are designed to help the discipler have a positive experience in discipleship.

Narrow-Band or Broad-Band Discipleship?

The term discipleship in some circles has become synonymous with teaching or Christian education. The meaning of discipleship in these cases is broad-band and inclusive. The focus of these Discipleship Encounter outlines is narrow-band or that of an intensive relationship between an experienced person and one, two, or three others. This could also be called a mentoring relationship in which wisdom, knowledge, experience, insight, and vision is transferred from one to another.

Multiplication of Leaders

This form of discipleship works well in any area of church life and ministry. Lucy Baig, in using her spiritual gift of mercy, used the Encounter outlines to train other women to minister to elderly women in Mexico City. In the same way, the outlines that make up the Encounters may be used by Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, church planters or anyone who has a vision for multiplying their kind.

Unity and Care Within the Church

While interviewing disciplers with more than twelve years of experience in Mexico City, I was pleasantly surprised by Sara's observation that discipleship had produced the wonderful by-product of bringing people together in the church so that they really became friends. Pastor Roberto Gonzalez, one of the most experienced disciplers I know, said that in his church the discipleship ministry was impacting mutual care among his members. He told of a member who had known another for sixteen years and was no more than an acquaintance. Now (because of Discipleship) they are close friends and caring for one another.

More Than One-on-One

People err when speaking of this dynamic discipling process as a one-on-one discipleship approach. While it is true that often we do have one-on-one discipleship encounters, this must be seen as an accommodation to a better approach. Ideally two or three disciples in a group provide the best dynamic for discipleship. When there are two or three together the mutuality of being part of the Body of Christ is more easily experienced. Body life can more easily be learned in this context. There is also an implicit kind of accountability present when there is more than just one disciple in the "encounter."

Discipling or Teaching? (Encounters or Classes?)

A special note to those who might use this material -- before you start "discipling" people you need to make a decision. The decision is one of focus. Do you plan to teach the content of these Discipleship Encounters or are you going to disciple a few people using these outlines to help you in the discipling process? If your focus is on teaching the content of this material I would strongly urge you to do so without calling the process discipleship. Discipleship is much more than just teaching content. If you are looking for a title to use in the case of teaching this material you could call it Training in the Christian Basics. In this case you will have "classes" and not "encounters" when you meet. An "encounter" is the meeting together of you, and your disciple(s) with the Lord for growth through prayer, fellowship that encourages, and the study of the Bible in the context of daily living.

Formation or Information?

It is this dynamic approach to discipleship that is encouraged with these outlines. The focus is on Christians growing into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The intent is the formation of a godly life and character along with a basic knowledge of the Bible. By way of comparison, in the classroom context, knowledge or information is the focus, while in the discipling context, formation, i.e. principles, values, vision, and goals, along with knowledge becomes the focus. On the one hand, the teaching approach tells us that Jesus is Lord. On the other hand the discipleship approach helps us to experience the Lordship of Jesus in our daily lives.

With this discipleship model, life is shared with others. There is growth together. Vision and ministry is both shared and taught. Dependency on the Lord Jesus increases and fruit is born. Thus discipleship can involve nurture, evangelism, church planting, prayer, worship, and justice and peace issues all at the same time.

The Ideal Context For Vision Casting

Leaders must have a vision -- a mental picture of what tomorrow will look like. They see a future in ministry and its exciting possibilities. However, most vision casters have found that their followers (disciples) will probably forget the vision within a month unless that vision is repeated over and over in different ways. These Encounters provide a context for casting a vision and reinforcing it over a period of months.

One Life Impacting Another Life

An illustration may help to show the dynamics of one person impacting another through the discipling process. As Suzy approached her old doll house on the back porch she remembered how her Daddy had transformed the looks of the garage door earlier in the day. He had taken a can off the shelf, opened it, added some water, stirred and begun painting. So Suzy decided she would paint her doll house. She found a can, added water, stirred and with a small brush from the garage began painting one end of the doll house. When one end was finished she stood back to see how nice it looked. To her surprise it looked the same. Nothing had happened! When her Daddy came to see what the problem was he discovered that she was painting with water.

Suzy had gone through the motions of mixing and painting but there was no change in the final product. She lacked just one thing -- the pigment, the color. And so it is with discipleship. Simply using the outlines as material for teaching is the same as painting with water. For true discipleship to take place we need to share the pigment of our lives. Pigment represents such things as our passion, our vision, our hunger for more of God, our feeling weak and casting ourselves in dependence upon the Lord, our seeking the fullness of the Holy Spirit, our honesty, our search for purity -- all of this and more. These things are more easily caught than taught. That is why we say that the Encounter outlines are a pretext for meeting together.

Time and Multiplication

The fruit of discipleship is seen after you have invested time in a relationship and let the pigment of your life impact the life of your disciples (as you depend on the infilling Holy Spirit). There are no short cuts. This is more than a ten week process. Six months to two years is realistic. I find that nine months is usually adequate for a discipleship relationship to bear fruit. By the time the disciples have come to step five in the process they should be selecting the people they will each be meeting with on a regular basis for their own "discipleship encounters."

This means that you will still be available week after week to encourage and help your disciples to have a positive and lasting impact on the next generation of disciples. Ideally, by the time you have finished step ten and some "Study the Scriptures" Bible studies (pp. 30-31), your disciples should be doing well in their own "encounters" and you can begin again with another small group of two or three people.

I have also had failures in discipleship. Sometimes early in the process and other times later, someone drops out. I have worked with those who never reproduced themselves. These cases throw me back on the Lord in dependence and weakness. Yet the successes far outweigh the failures. Discipleship is worth the risk of some failure along the way. We are always learning.

This Preface should serve as a guideline and not a hard and fast rule. But there is one rule of thumb that should continually be applied in the discipling process: Is what I am teaching, showing, and demonstrating easily transferable and "pass-on-able?" We hear many good sermons, and there are many good seminars and classes available which help build up our knowledge, but most are not designed to be easily transmitted to others. Keep it simple.

A Pretext for Meeting Together

Since the discipling process depends on the dynamic factors mentioned above, we make every effort to avoid the subtle traps that could make it just another class or time consuming effort. Thus the Discipleship Encounter outlines become the pretext for meeting together and growing together. All the people involved in the process grow together. We offer a list of practical helps on pp. 19-20 that will answer the most common questions and provide guidelines for those who are just getting started.

Whom Shall I Disciple?

The question always comes up, "Whom shall I disciple?" There are five options that I shall mention:

1. New Christians. Initially the Encounters were written for new believers so that they could immediately share their new found faith in Jesus Christ with their family members and friends. Basic to the process was the vision that these new Christians would soon begin to disciple their own friends and relatives as soon as they came to know Christ.
   
   
2. Fervent Christians. Without a clear sense of direction and purpose, younger fervent Christians easily lose the freshness in their walk with the Lord Jesus. The Encounters provide the context and focus for continued growth and purposeful ministry.
   
   
3. Vintage Christians. The Encounters provide the framework for helping seasoned Christians (vintage Christians) organize their knowledge so that they can pass it on to others -- especially to those new Christians that they are praying for. Also the outlines provide the very exciting possibility for renewal among those who desire more of God in their lives. In discipleship we grow together - both the disciples and the discipler.
   
   
4. Pre-Christians. The Encounters may be used to help pre-Christians (non-Christians) explore the meaning of being a Christian. If this is the case the table of contents will guide you to various themes or starting points that you might find useful in your encounters together. Pages 21-23 in the Appendix will be helpful in this case.
   
   
5. Your own children. Taking each of my teenagers out for breakfast once a week before school was a wonderful time to "check in" with them. We inched our way through the outlines as we talked about school, friends, etc. Having their best friend join us worked out especially well. For the younger child in grade school - once a week after school for ice cream works well. In this case we suggest an abbreviated, more easy going approach using the graphics to help communicate the basics.

Acknowledgments

The discipler will readily discern that these outlines contain little that is original. My wife, Nancy, and I compiled the initial outlines in Ecuador, South America. We used the Navigator's Wheel Illustration to determine the major themes of the material. Later, following Dale Bishop's and Keith Tungseth's adaptation of the Wheel we added the hub to represent the Holy Spirit. Many disciples, disciplers and colleagues in ministry have helped in the development of this tool. We want to thank to Tim Ek for help with the stewardship outline. Special thanks go to Jerry and Vicky Love, our missionary colleagues in Mexico, for helping to field test and make improvements in the outlines and for developing the supplementary material found in the Appendix. We are indebted to Carl Racine, short-term missionary to Ecuador and Mexico, for his keen insights and suggestions. Our appreciation for continual fresh insights and ideas for improvements goes to former short-term missionary to Mexico and President of Alaska Christian College, Keith Hamilton.

Since coming back to the United States, Jerry teaches evangelism, discipleship, and church growth at North Park Theological Seminary. Nancy is the Coordinator for Hispanic Church Relations for the Covenant Church and works directly with national church leaders in Latin America, Spain, and the Hispanic church in the U.S.A. We continue to be involved in the discipleship process. We have spent many weekends working with pastors and lay people in discipleship seminars in the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The feedback and insights gained from the seminars as well as from my students and personal experience are now reflected in this present edition (Version 3.5) of the Discipleship Encounters which also includes the Discipler's Guide .

Chicago, June 2001

Jerry and Nancy Reed

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