I am forever indebted to the man who obeyed the Great Commission, in reaching me with the gospel and Discipling me towards maturity in Christ. His name is Chris Morgan. Chris serves as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chaplain at the University of Louisville. He has planted his life down there and sought to make disciples of coaches and athletes for the long haul. His ministry has not only impacted me, but countless others who leave campus having vision and tools to minister to others in their sphere of Influence wherever they go.
"For the last 20 years, I have always had a group of young men, to mentor and disciple. This year, I'm really looking forward to growing with these guys, and Lord willing some more..." - Chris Morgan
Since I was in one of those groups of guys over the last twenty years I know that every one of them were challenged to spend the rest of their lives investing in other men. This after the pattern of 2 Timothy 2:2. In fact, Chris told me that for the rest of my life, if he ever sees me and asks the question, "Where are your guys?" and I didn't have someone I could point to, he and I were going to have problems. By God's Grace, I have sought to have the same commitment for nearly a decade. But here's what struck me about Chris' tweet. Let's just say only 3 people from each of those groups actually multiplied into 3 people. That would give us 60 disciple makers. If each of those people spent 5 years replicating the process each year it would give you 22,500 disciple makers, and these are low ball numbers. What a legacy!
My point is that when we look at this picture through the lenses of addition we see something very average. But when we look at it through the lenses of multiplication we see a missional movement. Imagine 20 years of intentional disciple making by members of our church. The world would literally be turned on it's head for the gospel.
May we have long term vision as we faithfully labor year by year, always being able to answer the question, "Where are your people?"
Disciple Makers Breakfast
Please join us for our next Disciple Makers Breakfast on Saturday, October 12th, 9:00am, at East Campus. During this time we will tackle some of the questions and challenges you guys have submitted over the last few months practicing discipleship. This will be a time of encouragement and celebration as we also want to highlight some key things God has done through D Groups. You won't want to miss it. Register by responding to this email.
9 Essentials for D-Groups
Replicate Ministries has started a blog series on essentials for d-groups. These ideas should help us keep our groups on track and make adjustments as we go.
https://replicate.org/9-essentials-of-a-discipleship-group-1-leadership/