discipleship

I heard an encouraging sermon yesterday about Nehemiah and their perseverance in building the wall in Jerusalem, in spite of fierce opposition and discouragement.  These verses really encouraged me:

Neh 4:13Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

I was thinking about how important it is for us, as leaders of local churches, to stay focused and persistent in building a strong church so that we can have a community of spiritual refuge and growth.  I was thinking about the analogy to military strategy and the significance of gaining a strong fort.  I think the enemy has had a strong grip on El Paso and Boston, but as we are faithful to the Lord's calling on us, we will take it by force (Matt. 11:12).  We will overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony.  And I believe the Lord is using us (along with other churches in these cities) to gain significant positions in these regions.  We have to maintain an important balance between maintaining a secure fort as well as launching strategic attacks to gain more ground and press forward.

The Lord has continued to challenge me with what I shared last Saturday morning regarding discipleship.  I believe that it is critical that we develop a clear and concise plan for triad discipleship groups (Ecc. 4:12).  I think each of us needs to commit to two guys and meet consistently for six to twelve months to model what we want to replicate, and then we need to replicate.  I was thinking it might be helpful to make a simple conceptualization of discipleship groups so that we can model and teach it easily (e.g., transparent life discussion, scripture discussion, scripture memory, and prayer). (But we have to be careful not to create a legalistic checklist.) I know we (leaders) have been saying that small-scale discipleship is important, but I don't think we have really developed a strategic plan and executed.  I don't think ad hoc is going to work.  I think we need to make it part of the DNA of discipleship.  Programs and classes may be helpful for communicating doctrine, but we need life-on-life character transformation.

Heavenly Father, please give me wisdom to know how to engage in three-strand discipleship for making disciples who make disciples.  Lord, I want to be part of your Kingdom, and I want my life to be useful to you.  Lord, please use me, and give me wisdom to know how to press forward.  I love you, and I ask in the name of Jesus.