Here's How It Works

Here's how disciples are made...

Do you like to read directions or would you rather figure it out on your own? I used to be the type of person who wanted to figure out on my own. However, after several frustrating attempts to just "visualize" the end product and make it happen, I eventually learned that I could save a lot of time and aggravation if I would just read the directions. Now, when something needs to be assembled, fixed, or changed, I always go to the directions first. This may not be the "manly" thing to do, but for me, it's the smartest thing.

I've discovered the same principle of "going to the directions" should be at play within the church. Over the last two years, I've learned so much about how the dynamics of church growth really work. When you are trying to join God in His mission to build His kingdom, there are so many factors at play. Unfortunately, it's easy to get overly caught up in all the theory, trends, and cool ideas that you lose sight of how real church growth actually happens, so we must always be willing to go back to the "directions."

Jesus told us how church growth would happen. First, He said He would be the one to build His church, so ultimately, He brings the growth not us. However, on the other hand, we have a part to play in this. He told us, all followers of Christ, to go and make disciples. When we understand our calling to invite and invest into others just as God has done to us, then disciples will be made and the church will grow.

Yesterday, we celebrated a perfect example of how making disciples happens through inviting and investing.  A guy in our church had been investing into a relationship with someone. Through that, he invited this person to our worship service yesterday. This person then gave their life to Christ. Now, the investment continues as this guy will continue to pour his life into the new follower of Christ.

You see, all of us can do this! Invite. Invest. Just keep in the mind, the ultimate invitation is to invite someone to follow Christ, not attend a church gathering. Therefore, you can invite someone to follow Christ as you interact with them or it can happen at a worship service you've invited them to. Either way, God gets the glory, and disciples are made! Invite and Invest. Let it be your guide in 2012!