Spring 2014 Acts 29 New England Regional Part 4 of 4 | Intro to Gospel Counseling

Acts 29 New England Regional Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson in Woburn, Massachusetts on Monday, May 5, 2014 

These posts are for the Discipleship Training I had the privilege to  participate in back in early May with Jonathan Dodson and more than 90 churches represented in the New England area. The topics covered were "Unbelievable Discipleship", "Re-Evangelism", "Gospel Metaphors", and "Intro to Gospel Counseling". Here are previous posts:
 

• Acts 29 New England Regional Part 1 of 4 | Unbelievable Discipleship 
• Acts 29 New England Regional Part 2 of 4 | Re-Evangelism
• Acts 29 New England Regional Part 3 of 4 | Gospel Metaphors
   

I'm still soaking in the thoughtfulness and wisdom that was shared. If you'd like to do some soaking yourself, here are video links* to three of the talks followed by my notes from the specific session this post is focused on:

• Unbelievable Discipleship (46:56 minutes)
• Re-Evangelism (39:14 minutes)
• Gospel Metaphors (36:15 minutes)

*I would highly encourage you to watch the videos as Jonathan provides more research and great real-life examples during his talks that I wasn't able to record below.

Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson Part 4 of 4 | Intro to Gospel Counseling

This is by no means a thorough overview of gospel counseling, but an introduction to it. Helpful books to further explore a healthy counseling posture are:

1. Practicing the Presence of People: How We Learn to Love
2. How People Change
3. Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering

“One of the keys in helping someone understand their story, as well as how God's story of good news is intersecting with where they are no matter how dark, is to surface their needs and desires by listening. 

The key actions are: 

1. Take the time to know their story overall
2. Listen to how they tell their story
3. Empathize with them in their story
4. Redemptively retell their story in ways they can see how Jesus meets their needs
5. Give them something to do in response to grace uncovered."

The three movements in the midst of these actions are: 

1. Love
2. Know
3. Speak

 

1) LOVE

One way to love well is to listen well. We need to give up on time and give in to love.

• Don't interrupt
• Don't shift the focus to you
• Let them know you understand what they're saying and feeling
• Then ask if you can share from your thoughts and experience when there is a pause

Allow for a range of emotions when people begin to really open up. Don't tell them to stop if what they say is wrong or false. When people suffer, they say things they often don't really believe. And when we're not gracious, we'll expect people to behave the way we would or the way we think we would. 

"Advice tries to fix the situation. Counsel tries to know and address the heart. God is both sovereign and imminent. Jesus is both transcendent and human. The Spirit is both powerful and comforting. We need to embody the gospel. Be physically present. We aim to replace grief with God's comfort after the grief has been shared and played out." 

Each time of counseling, set the expectation for the hour. You don't want to counsel them in a way that makes you their savior. Counsel them to the Savior.

2) KNOW

As you listen, there are key words and statements that will help you understand who someone is better.

• Emotional words: "angry"; "lonely"; "
• Interpretive statements: "This shouldn't happen ..."; "I'm getting what I deserve ... "; "They shouldn't have ... "
• Universal statements: "I always ... "; "This always happens ... "

When they something about God, really pay attention.

"Ultimately, we want to get to 'Who is God in this situation?' How is He meeting us in our deepest suffering or need even when we don't recognize Him or misunderstand Him? Is He the Suffering Servant? The Father of Compassion? The Counselor or Comforter?" 

Wide questions will be related to their history and what they desire.

Deep questions will be related to their values and what they believe.

3) SPEAK

Before you move into sharing what you've heard and how you want them to consider their situation, aim to:

• Remind them that there is a limited amount of time for this session, so not everything will be addressed immediately
• Ask for them to clarify anything that sounded confusing, contradictory, etc.
• Focus on what has been repeated with the most emotion or pain and seems to be the most important

"We want to work through the situation to the Savior. And we need to remember that Jesus is advocating and interceding for us." 

In some cases, we will need to confront people in their sin. When we do not confront, it's often not because we love people too much, but because we love ourselves and what people think of us too much. But we need to remember, it's not only what we say, but how we say it.

"Along with trusting that Jesus is interceding for us, He has also given us His church with people to come around us and believe the gospel for us when we are hurting, struggling, and doubting. The church is called to believe the gospel for one another."

– Sully

 
Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

New England Regional Disciple Training | Gospel Metaphors

 

New England Regional Disciple Training with Jonathan Dodson in Woburn, Massachusetts on Monday, May 5, 2014 

These posts are for the Discipleship Training I had the privilege to participate in back in early May with Jonathan Dodson and more than 90 churches represented in the New England area. The topics covered were "Unbelievable Discipleship", "Re-Evangelism", "Gospel Metaphors", and "Intro to Gospel Counseling". Here are previous posts:
 

• New England Regional | Unbelievable Discipleship 
• New England Regional | Re-Evangelism

I'm still soaking in the thoughtfulness and wisdom that was shared. If you'd like to do some soaking yourself, here are video links* to three of the talks followed by my notes from the specific session this post is focused on:

• Unbelievable Discipleship (46:56 minutes)
• Re-Evangelism (39:14 minutes)
• Gospel Metaphors (36:15 minutes)

*I would highly encourage you to watch the videos as Jonathan provides more research and great real-life examples during his talks that I wasn't able to record below.

Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson | Gospel Metaphors

“'How is the gospel good news to those we evangelize?’ We can be proficient at rehearsing the information of the gospel but we often lack the ability to situate the gospel in the lives of others. We need to get into their skin, to understand how the gospel could transform the self-righteous do-gooder, the skeptical urbanite, the abused mother, the successful professional, and the strung out addict. It is true that, in the end, the Holy Spirit has the final say in convincing others that the gospel is good news. But it is also true that the Holy Spirit chooses to use what we say along the way.” – pgs. 9-10, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

Underneath the stories of people, there are deep longings. As followers of Jesus, we need to slow down, listen, and be willing to "inconvenience" ourselves. As conversations continue and deepen, we will be able to move into more thoughtful questions like "How has your life been shaped by that experience?" and "How did that situation make you feel?"

"We need to give up on time and give in to love."

We also need to grasp a fuller understanding of the gospel.

“If Jesus did die and rise for the world, then it is incumbent upon his followers to tell them how and why the gospel is good. Reciting the memorized fact that Jesus died on the cross for sins to a coworker doesn’t tell them why this is important or how it can change their life. Reciting this information dispassionately is even less convincing. What people need to know is not only what the gospel is but also what the gospel does." – pgs. 9-10, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

We're all undergraduates in the school of grace. So we continue to learn not only what Jesus did climb down the spiritual ladder to share who God is with us, but how He did it so that we can share His truth with others in a way they can understand it.

“All disciples are called to evangelism, but an evangelist isn’t someone who coughs up information about Jesus or proselytizes people. According to Paul, an evangelist is someone who communicates the gospel of Jesus with patience and wisdom. This is why it is ‘work’ – not because it is onerous but because it requires thoughtfulness. Anyone can drop a name or recite a presentation, but it takes effort to listen patiently to discern how to share the gospel in a wise and meaningful way. The great cultural apologist-evangelish, Francis Shaeffer, was asked what he would say if he had an hour to share the gospel with someone. He responded by saying: ‘I will spend the first fifty-five minutes asking questions and finding out what is troubling their heart and mind, and then in the last five minutes will I share something of the truth.’ The work or calling of an evangelist isn’t to drop names, recite presentations, or campaign politics. Rather, then work of the evangelist is to listen patiently for minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years in order to wisely show others how the gospel is actually worth believing.” – pg. 19, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

God has called every person who follows Jesus to be a light, to be part of His kingdom of priests. We have been given His grace and hope and we are each called to minister His grace and hope to others. And the gospel is so rich, that there are "metaphors" or facets of the diamond that different people are often looking for.

Through faith in Jesus, God offers us a new identity informed by the graces present in each gospel metaphor. These graces are not metaphors in the sense that they are symbolic of some deeper reality. Rather, each gospel metaphor actually represents a facet of the gospel. 

• Adoption: how we become part of God’s family
• Justification: how a righteous God relates to unrighteous us by making us righteous
• Redemption: how we receive forgiveness
• Propitiation: how we escape His just wrath for corrupting and selfishly taking advantage of His world
• Union in Christ: how we are given a new identity
• New Creation: how we are changed

Each gospel metaphor conveys a unique blessing from the Father. All of the metaphors converge in the good news concerning Jesus and reveal how the Father, Son, and Spirit collaborate for our restored, renewed humanity.” – pg. 34, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

“Each gospel metaphor brings a grace-soaked correction to the five evangelistic concerns:

• Instead of preaching self-righteousness, we can point people to Christ’s righteousness, which is based on his performance not ours. 
• Instead of impersonal evangelism, we can share the hope of Jesus from our personal union with Christ. 
• Instead of being intolerant, we can lovingly tolerate differences between religions while also communicating the unique, redeeming work of Christ. 
• Instead of using right answers to gain approval or applause, we can share an enduring approval that comes through faith in the Father who adopts through the Son. 
• Instead of sharing a shallow gospel of information, we can communicate the deep, transformative gospel of new creation.” – pgs. 75-76

Enjoying the creativity of our Creator in how He lovingly speaks His good news to different types of people is His mission He invites us into.

For example, with a self-righteous do-gooder, we can share how the gospel reveals our justification instead of how much good we do: " ... You’ll never be moral enough for a perfect, holy God. I could never be moral enough, either, but the good news is that Jesus climbed down the spiritual ladder to die for all your moral failures, offer you forgiveness, raise from the dead, and if you’ll trust him, he will put you on his back, climb all the way up the spiritual ladder, and place you in front of a holy God, fully loved and fully accepted…’…’Is it really that easy?’…’Yes, it really is that easy.’ Give up on yourself and give into Jesus and you’ll find perfect acceptance.” – pg. 36, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

Another example could be with the successful professional, we can share how the gospel gives us union in Christ, an identity we can rest in rather than an identity we have to work for: “… 'the reason I do all this stuff for the city isn’t because I’m a great person. I’m not even a great pastor; it’s because I have a great God. I’ve had a profound personal encounter with Jesus Christ and he’s utterly changed me.’ Union with Christ prompted me to go public with the unparalleled joy of union with Christ. Sometimes, wonderful doesn’t wait. We talk about what we are taken with ... we all need fresh encounters with Jesus for our evangelism to ring with authenticity. We need fresh encounters with Jesus to remain our authentic ourselves.” – pgs. 45, 47, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing 

With the skeptical urbanite, we can share how we uniquely receive redemption in Jesus without being intolerant:  " ... In all major world religions, a way is devised to work our way to the God. The problem, however, is that we can’t keep all the rules and adhere to all the ways. We are imperfect. In Christianity, however, the God works his way down to us. He keeps all the rules; he makes the way. This is called grace. It is the fundamental difference between Christianity and other religions. So, sincere self-sacrifice, while noble, does not make one acceptable to a holy God. Rather, we need someone to sacrifice our failures to honor the God and to present us acceptable to him. This is precisely what Jesus did. No other religion offers this, where the God gets hurt on behalf of his people, dies, rises from the dead and then makes them acceptable, forgiven, and righteous.” – pg. 54, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing 

With someone who is broken like a suffering mother, we can share how we are adopted into the family of God, approved of and valued because of what Jesus has done on our behalf regardless of what we or anyone else thinks of us:  " ... The Father wants us to enjoy his approval more than the approval of others. He wants us to see how his love is superior to the love of others. ‘See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are’ (1 John. 3:1). The Spirit gives us a voice before the Father, the voice of a son not a slave. This is why it is so important we keep in step with the Spirit (1 John 5:25). The Spirit walks slowly, gently moving us from intellectual security to heart security, as the truth of adoption slowly sinks in. The spirit of our age moves quickly. We need to slow down with the Spirit, allowing him to grasp our hand and guide us into gospel meditation and prayer, where our adoption becomes a heart-convincing reality. If we slow down, we can hear his voice continually reminding us that we are sons not slaves, loved not judged. False masters and fleeting ideas quickly bombard us with lies, which is why praying throughout the day ‘in the Spirit’ (Ephesians 6:18) is such a powerful weapon for fighting off the fear of men. The fear of man whispers discouragement, but the Spirit brings encouragement. When Satan whispers disapproval, the Spirit champions undying approval.” – pgs. 64-65, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing  

And for a wandering addict in response to whatever fuels his or her appetite and crushes his or her hope for life to change, we can share the hope of new creation: In Jesus, the old man or woman is exiled, not you. In Him, you can become new in the Father's eyes and have hope for heaven breaking into the hell you've experienced on earth now. The new creation has come! "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:16-21).

“Using the gospel for how we share the gospel, we can discern five ways to communicate a believable gospel: 

• (1) To those searching for acceptance in all the wrong places, we can point them to perfect acceptance in the gospel of justification. 
• (2) To those searching for fulfilling relationships, we can point them to profound, personal union with Christ. 
• (3) To those who struggle with tolerance, we can show them the uniqueness of Christ in the gospel of redemption. 
• (4) To those who fear disapproval or demand the applause of others, we can share the gospel of adoption, which offers an enduring approval and produces humble confidence. 
• (5) To anyone longing for a new start, there is the hope of new creation.” – pgs. 74-75, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

Continue to learn about the good news you have been given in Jesus and enjoy your union with Him. Enjoy your identity in Him. We need to come out of the pressure cloud we have created ourselves, and step into the Spirit's prompting. We enjoy Jesus, announce His good news and trust the Spirit. 

Next post: New England Regional | Intro to Gospel Counseling

 – Sully
 
Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

Spring 2014 Acts 29 New England Regional Part 2 of 4 | Re-Evangelism

 

Acts 29 New England Regional Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson in Woburn, Massachusetts on Monday, May 5, 2014 

These posts are for the Discipleship Training I had the privilege to participate in back in early May with Jonathan Dodson and more than 90 churches represented in the New England area. The topics covered were "Unbelievable Discipleship", "Re-Evangelism", "Gospel Metaphors", and "Gospel Counseling". Here's the first post:

• Acts 29 New England Regional Part 1 of 4 | Unbelievable Discipleship

I'm still soaking in the thoughtfulness and wisdom that was shared. If you'd like to do some soaking yourself, here are video links* to three of the talks followed by my notes from the specific session this post is focused on:

• Unbelievable Discipleship (46:56 minutes)
• Re-Evangelism (39:14 minutes)
• Gospel Metaphors (36:15 minutes)

*I would highly encourage you to watch the videos as Jonathan provides more research and great real-life examples during his talks that I wasn't able to record below.

 

Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson Part 2 of 4 | Re-Evangelism

“I am advocating that we share the true gospel, namely that Jesus is the Christ and the one, true Lord, the only Messiah that redeems from sin and the true King that reigns over all.

The gospel is news about the good and true story that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us. Faith in the gospel sweeps us, not into Christianity but into Christ.

It offers us an entirely new way of being human, not merely a new way of thinking and behaving (any religion can do that) … (the gospel) is a shift that comes about through an exchange of one identity for another, from an old identity to a new identity ‘in Christ.’ The gospel says: ‘God saves you, not by faith in your doctrine and friends, but based on faith in Jesus.’ Faith in other things will bring a slow, disappointing death, but faith in Jesus pulls us into a deeply satisfying life.

Since the gospel is an exchange of death for life, not an exchange of wrong beliefs for right beliefs, it must change where we place our faith. The gospel is not about recruitment to a cause or community; it is about regeneration to a new Savior and Lord.” – pg. 26,
The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

"Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord." There's so much packed into that name, that statement of faith. But do we keep our focus on Him and the wonder of who He is? In so many ways, we as His followers need to re-evangelize or retell the gospel to ourselves again and again. Too often, we take our eyes off of Jesus and instead put them ourselves or each other. Then we lose sight off the One who can make blind eyes see.

"Whether we are pastors, churches, apathetic, secularists or atheists, we all talk about what we're taken with. You don't have to convince someone to talk about what or who they love. Everyone is an evangelist of something."

How are we convinced of the love of the One who first loved us? How are we filled by this love? How do we let His love overflow to others?

"When we see the sufferings and service of Christ for us, we can be free to suffer for and serve others. When we see that Jesus is going to renew everything, we have everything to give away. Paul said to those in Ephesus, 'You know how I lived among you ...' (Acts 20:18). He not only shared the gospel, he shared his life with them; he shared everything with them. His confidence in Jesus enabled him to say, 'In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). His confidence was in remembering Jesus and what He said more than anything else so that he could serve everyone else."

So what's stopping us? "The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe" (Proverbs 29:25). If our master is the fear of others and what they think or how they will respond, then we'll be stuck. 

"'Master fear' is not a good master. But 'master missional' or 'master individual' are not good masters either. Master Jesus is a merciful master. He gives us infinite attention and approval. When we reach the end with our idols, they mock us. Jesus was mocked for us and we can never reach the end of His love for us."

Everyone wants safety. Everyone wants security. We're just looking in all the wrong places for our safety and security. Our character comes out when our glass – what we hold on to for our identity and security – is jostled and bumped. Are we filled with the Spirit of Jesus or something else? Our character will be an expression of where our hope rests.

"In managing our reputation or others' perceptions of us, we still think less of ourselves than what God thinks of us in Jesus. And we still want less and settle for less for ourselves and others than what God gives us in Jesus."

For example, the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31 desires wealth on the outside and comfort on the inside. But he still has concern for his soul. His wealth and his comfort haven't given him complete safety. They are less than what he needs. But when Jesus asks him to give them up to find true peace with Jesus, he can't let go. It says in Mark 10:21 that Jesus loved him. That's why he told him to sell all he has. Jesus knew his wealth and his comfort were not a safe place for the rich young man to find his security. But in the end, even Jesus let him go.

"If we're faithfully asking people to follow Jesus with us as we declare and display His gospel, the fruit will be some people following Jesus and some people walking away from Jesus and us. Jesus told us this would happen and we can rest in Him when some leave."

Next post: Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson Part 3 of 4 | Gospel Metaphors

 – Sully
 
Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.

Spring 2014 Acts 29 New England Regional Part 1 of 4 | Unbelievable Discipleship

Acts 29 New England Regional Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson in Woburn, Massachusetts on Monday, May 5, 2014 

These posts are for the Discipleship Training I had the privilege to participate in back in early May with Jonathan Dodson and more than 90 churches represented in the New England area. The topics covered were "Unbelievable Discipleship", "Re-Evangelism", "Gospel Metaphors", and "Gospel Counseling". 

I'm still soaking in the thoughtfulness and wisdom that was shared. If you'd like to do some soaking yourself, here are video links* to three of the talks followed by my notes from the specific session this post is focused on:

• Unbelievable Discipleship (46:56 minutes)
• Re-Evangelism (39:14 minutes)
• Gospel Metaphors (36:15 minutes)

*I would highly encourage you to watch the videos as Jonathan provides more research and great real-life examples during his talks that I wasn't able to record below. 

 

Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson Part 1 of 4 | Unbelievable Discipleship

Who is engaged in unbelievable evangelism, or what Jesus might call unbelievable discipleship? Though the missional church movement has been going for more than 25 years since Darrell Gruder's book Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America came out, we are only now seeing a focus on evangelism within the missional church.

In order to recapture the heart of sharing the gospel message, we need to focus on our motivation. Why do followers of Jesus, when tasked with declaring and displaying the good news about Jesus, more often respond with "I can't" or "I won't"? 

"Why are there not many more of us finding our infinite worth in Jesus and becoming more like Him in being winsome, culturally-discerning gospel-tellers?"

Here are three potential "defeaters" that warp our motivations:

1. Pressure evangelism: this view of "successful" evangelism or discipleship is more based on our performance (i.e. sealing the deal) and that we actually got up the nerve to say something rather than focusing on the person we are sharing Jesus with
2. Checklist evangelism: this view of "successful" evangelism or discipleship is based on how many times (i.e. project-oriented) we've shared and what information we share (i.e. answer-oriented and heaven-oriented instead of Jesus-oriented) instead of learning how to love others in Jesus' name
3. Reactionary evangelism: this view of "successful" evangelism or discipleship is that we don't want to misrepresent the gospel or provide the wrong example or information, so we don't really share the gospel with anyone, or we only share certain things in order to counter what we don't want people to think we are like

We need to become more Jesus-centered in how we declare and display the gospel to ourselves and to others. After all, the gospel is the announcement of good news! Do we believe this? And do we understand just how good the news is?

Today, in the United States, more than 40 million people are practicing "secularism," while being open to or seeking spirituality. But instead of finding our security in Jesus to share Him with them, we tend to succumb to more "defeaters" such as:

• I don't want to be preachy.
• I don't know enough.
• I'm going to be rejected.
• I don't want to be impersonal.
• I don't want to be intolerant.

This is not to say that there isn't wisdom to be learned from our defeaters. We don't want to be any of the above in a way that's not like Jesus. But we also do not need to be defeated by any of them. 

"Preachy self-righteousness says: ‘If you perform well (morally or spiritually), God will accept you.’ But the gospel says, ‘God already accepts you because Jesus performed perfectly on your behalf.’ There’s a hell of difference between the two. The gospel sets us free from performance and releases us into the arms of grace. Self-wrought performance is a death sentence, but the obedience of Christ on our behalf is eternal life. What people need to hear is grace, audacious, seems-too-good-to-be-true but so-true-it’s-good, grace. Grace is God working his way down to us, so that we don’t have to work our way up to him. He comes down to us in Jesus. We need to make Jesus the stumbling block, not preachy self-righteousness or spiritual performance.” – pgs. 30-31, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

So we do not need to be defeated by any of of our defeaters, including "I don't want to be preachy". We learn from them, grow past them, and continue to share the message Jesus gave us as we walk in step with His Spirit. We are already completely accepted in Christ regardless of how we might make mistakes or misrepresent Him (which, let's be honest, we all do). He loves us and wants to work in us and through us.

We have been invited into Jesus' mission and He has given us His Spirit to help us make disciples, baptize and teach how to obey everything He commanded. We begin with Jesus. We end with Jesus. He is the One in whom we live and move and have our being. If we rest in this truth and promise, then we will grow in our desire and ability to share about Him because we see how much He has shaped and changed us with others out of love instead of fear.

"As the Pope says, 'Proselytizing builds walls; evangelism builds bridges. Proselytizing recruits for a cause; evangelism loves a person.'"

We also need to realize gospel evangelism and discipleship is an inconvenient and long road. Why? Because love is inefficient. People need time and experience to see the love that Jesus said people would know we are His disciples by. Most of the time, there is no immediate reaction to hearing the good news. Out of those who hear the gospel, less than 30 percent turn to faith in Jesus on the spot, which means more than 70 percent need the process of hearing and seeing the gospel again and again. 

“Without the shining light of the gospel of glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4), darkened hearts aren’t illuminated and dead bodies don’t truly live. The problem, however, is that through our mindless, impatient, and unwise evangelism, we pile stones on top of their graves. Good evangelism removes the stones and shares the truth in such a way that the good news can travel down the shaft of gospel light into darkened hearts.” – pg. 20, The Unbelievable Gospel: Say Something Worth Believing

 

Jesus-centered evangelism and discipleship will require you to love others and serve them more than you serve yourself, or the way you think things should go. You will need to practice. You will need to sow more so you will be able to reap more. Then you will need to trust Jesus with those He has sent you to. And you will need to find Him worth all of the above. Because if He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, then He is worthy of our devotion.

"When you're with the person you are sharing the gospel with, do you act like Jesus not only belongs in your life, but in the person's life you are sharing Him with? Jesus acted on our behalf so we could belong. He was perfectly righteous so we can stand before a perfect God and be welcomed. This reconciliation and peace is our motivation. This comfort and hope is what makes our discipleship believable. 

If we don't understand the depth of the grace we have been given, then with Jesus, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence, read His Word, and ask the Spirit to help us understand more of what He has given us in His Son so that we can be ready to share the hope we have in Him with others."

Next post: Discipleship Training with Jonathan Dodson Part 2 of 4 | Re-Evanglism 

– Sully
 
Curiosity piqued? Something inside you being stirred? Go ahead and connect. For other updates, like and follow Emmaus City on Facebook.