My recent ministry report includes the following:

I was in two sword fights, made a tent out of blankets, played “Star War Legos”, and lost three games of “Sorry,” “Candyland,” and “Hedbanz.”

Why, you may ask, would a 65-year-old man build forts and play “Candyland”? It is because children matter to God. Of all my ministry activities this past month I believe that the events involving the children in my life were among the most significant.

Singles had significant roles in the early church, which means that when we take on this subject, we’re not looking for something new. Actually, we’re celebrating what God has done through the lives of tens of thousands of His servants—both married and single—to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

One of the most powerful and loving things you can do for someone is believe in them.

As disciples of Jesus we see that Jesus sees people through the lens of love and possibility in their life. Jesus modelled this for us when he put together his band of disciples. We tend to think of the disciples as a group of superhero Christians and they obviously lived unique lives that changed the course of history. But, they did not start that way. 

They were average, everyday working class people.  On the surface, they did not really stand out as future “superheroes”.  Even after Jesus spent 3 years with them they had plenty of less than hero-like moments.

Recently I was with a Jewish couple that had converted from Judaism to Christianity.  One difficulty in the transition was the home life.  Judaism had provided for them a template for a Jewish home (e.g., keeping the Sabbath, Passover, feasts, etc.), whereas Christianity gave them little help on what a Christian home should look like.  (Other than they were told to be sure and get their children into Sunday school and youth group.)  As Voddie Baucham points out, Christianity’s approach to ministry communicates to parents: “leave the spiritual training of your children to the professions.” [1]

To be one of the twelve disciples of Jesus was an experience of love. Jesus had modeled his disciple-making after the mutual love between the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Kallistos Ware writes, “The circle of divine love however has not remained closed. God’s love is, in the literal sense of the word, “ecstatic”-a love that causes God to go out from himself and to create things other than himself. By voluntary choice God created the world in “ecstatic” love, so that there might be beside himself other beings to participate in the life and the love that are his.”

My dad has prayed for me every day for 52 years. It is difficult to describe the security and love that I feel each time he says to me, “Son, I pray for you every day.”

Prayer is a gift of love for you to give to your disciple. Telling your disciple that you pray for him is just another way of saying “I love you.” You may not have money, possessions, or position, but all can give the gift of prayer.

Recently I was with a group of Christian college students that had autism. They were delightful and I learned important things. Being neurodivergent, they find it difficult to fit into society and to belong in Christianity. I could understand not fitting into society but to not belong in Christianity was heartbreaking. None of the students attend church because the services and crowds cause them sensory overload.

Christianity has made God inaccessible to people with a learning disability. Their impression from the church is that Bible reading, Bible study, sermons, reading Christian books are all important ways to connect to God, but because they have a difficult time reading they feel alienated from God.

The question we are asked most about disciple-making is, “What curriculum do you use to make disciples?” It sounds like a perfectly legitimate question to our Western ears but it is a “second thing” question. Modernity has led us to believe that disciples are made through knowledge. However, It is a question that would have seemed strange to our brothers and sisters in the first century, not dissimilar to asking a parent today, “What curriculum did you use to raise your children?” Or inquiring, “What curriculum do you and your friend follow to build your relationship?”

“We get labeled early and frequently in non-relational terms: first-grader, smart, cute, average, short, second string. As we enter adulthood non-relational labels continue… These labels are inevitable and in many ways useful but the common element to them all is that they are impersonal and partial; when they become all-encompassing… they distort our core identity.” -Euguene Peterson

To follow Jesus is to leave the solitary confinement of shame in order to live in connection with God and others.

The heart of sabbath is that we cease our work so that we can rest and delight in God and his good gifts. It’s an opportunity for us to stop, rest, delight and worship. It’s a day we give ourselves permission to soften and slow, to be more receptive and available to God and our loved ones, to choose contentment and gratitude over consumerism, and to participate in activities that restore our bodies and souls.

Love pursues. Your first step with a disciple is to pursue him. Just as Jesus chose his 12 disciples and as Paul chose Timothy, it is important for you to take the initiative in pursuing your disciple.

People need to belong. This desire in man to belong comes from the nature of God. For all eternity the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have had each other and belonged to one another. Since man is created in the image of God, we too were made to belong to others.

The church (ekklesia) is made up of the children of God, and so it only seems consistent that we would function as a family on earth. Families cannot be run as an organization, and yet Christianity approaches the church as an organization as seen in the way it recruits and trains its leaders.

The marked difference between how parents approach their children and an organization their members is sacrificial love. Just as a child learns love through the daily sacrifices his parents make for him, so the love of God is taught by the believers laying down their lives for other believers. We demonstrate to the world the love of God when we, as the family of God, lay down our lives for one another.

Making followers of Jesus cannot be separated from the family nature of God. As God the Father loved Jesus, and Jesus loved us, so in the same familiar manner we are to love one another. A parental sacrificial love for others is the catalytic force that will produce disciples of Jesus and advance the kingdom of God.

One reason why Christianity has struggled to make disciples is because we have approached disciple making with programs rather than as a family. Can an organization empower and develop its people? Certainly. But, there is a marked difference between how an organization develops its people and how a parent loves his child.

Each member of the ekklesia uses their gifts (and talents and skills) to equip and form their brothers and sisters for the sake of the Kingdom and the glory of God in Christ.