Discovery Bible Study in Your Church

[This is Chapter 13 of Disciple Maker: Fulfill Your Destiny in the Disciple-Making Movement Launched by Jesus Christ, by Phil Bickel (© 2020). Free download of 58-page ebook at Faith Trekker Store.]

Acorns become shoots, which grow to be saplings.  Saplings become shade trees, which eventually become majestic oaks.  Unlike the plant that sheltered Jonah, oaks do not grow up overnight.  Neither did the church that Jesus promised He would build.  (Matt. 16:18)

Planting Churches

Jesus spent three years patiently discipling small numbers of people, and DBS resembles that gradual process.  Then Pow! — on Pentecost their number increased by three thousand.  How could they handle the crowd?  Weren’t they overwhelmed?  Not at all.  My friend Pastor Rich Nelson showed me why not.  When we do the math, the interconnection of some key New Testament numbers is amazing.

1. Mark 6:7: “Calling the 12 to him, he began to send them out 2 by 2 and gave them authority over impure spirits.”  We compute: 12 apostles ÷ 2 = 6 pairs.
2. Luke 10:1a: “After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them 2 by 2.”  That makes 36 pairs.  We are not told where the 72 came from, but if each pair of Apostles had gained about 12 followers, then 6 x 12 = 72 new disciples.  Interesting!
3. 1 Cor. 15:6 reports that the Risen Savior “appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time.”  So what?  Well, if the 36 pairs of disciples in Luke 10 gained on average 12 Christ followers, then 36 x 12 = 432 new disciples.  And 72 + 432 = 504 disciples.  Wow!  Is this happenstance or part of a divine plan?
4. 4. Acts 2:41 reports: “Those who accepted Peter’s message “were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.”  So what?  Well, 504 ÷ 2 = 252 teams of mentors; and 252 groups x 12 each = 3,024 new believers who were discipled!

Is this a coincidence or a God-incident?  The New Testament reports very few statistics about the amount of disciples.  By crunching these numbers, we see that the infant church was not crushed by the great influx of new believers, because Jesus’ slow-but-sure method of disciple making had prepared them for the harvest on Pentecost.  As they continued to disciple the new arrivals, they were always ready for the successive waves of growth that came (Acts 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 9:31; 13:49; 16:5; & 19:10, 20).  

Since 1994, similar growth occurs where Discovery Bible groups learn from God’s Word to follow Jesus as their leader.  Though small in size, each group is a church where two or more gather in Christ’s name (Matt. 18:19-20), and where the Holy Spirit gifts them with a shepherd (pastor) and others servants (deacons). (Acts 14:23)  House churches in close proximity to each other may unite into a larger church which worships together on the Lord’s day, and shares pastors and others servant leaders.  Even when the small groups merge into a larger church, they still meet in homes and launch new groups, in order to sustain the Disciple Making Movement.  (Acts 2:46f)

Notice the distinct roles played in both the New Testament and in DMMs today.  First, disciples don’t plant churches.  They make disciples who believe, are baptized, and obey the Lord, as Jesus commanded us to do in Matt. 28:19-20.  Second, Jesus builds His Church (not us), as He promised He would in Matt. 16:18.  With this proper division of labor, the momentum of a DMM builds gradually, and in time believers become “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor” (Is. 61:3).  

Transforming Churches

If you are a lay person, avoid assuming that your first task is to persuade everybody in your church to use DBS.  Since some principles of DBS and DMM are counter-intuitive and may conflict with what people have experienced, they might not appreciate and comprehend DBS until they can see some results.  So, don’t bother to bring it before a church board and put it to a vote.

To start off, all you need is one or two persons who show interest.  Share this little book with outreach-minded folks in your church, neighborhood, workplace, or other social venue.  Show them some videos.  Discuss the possibilities.  Dream and pray.  If one or more people agree to partner with you, begin seeking persons of peace.

Even for a church professional who is highly respected by congregational elders and members, it is still wise to turn the ship gradually.  Rather than trying to launch a congregation-wide DBS effort, simply plant seeds by using some of the DBS questions. 

1. Before you preach or teach on a Bible text, invite your people to read it ahead of time and identify what it teaches about God and about people. 
2. Encourage your people to identify one specific action to take in obedience to what God’s Word taught them this week.
3. Encourage your sheep to share the Bible passage during the coming week with one lost sheep whom they know.

Sermons and Bible classes will no longer be monologs but lively, Spirit-led conversations.  Within a year, some of your people will establish the good habits of: mining truth from Scripture; obeying God’s Word; and speaking about the Lord with others.  In the process they will experience that God personally teaches and guides them through His Word.  Then you can:

1. Identify members who desire further training.  Even a few is enough to start.
2. Train and mentor them to facilitate a Discovery Bible Study and find a PoP.
3. Send them out as Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72, and see what happens.
4. Pray during every step of the process.  Learn from failures.  Celebrate victories.

In time God will set your ocean liner on a steady new course toward making disciples.

Topical Use of DBS

Not everyone is ready to set sail on a “round the world voyage” through 20-some Bible stories from Creation to Christ.  Some would rather test the waters with a brief DBS cruise.  This is why missionary to Indonesia Jim Yost developed 54 Trial Discovery Bible Studies that are only 6 sessions in length.  Especially suited for use in urban settings, Jim calls them Urban Seed Discoveries.  The selected Scriptures are mostly narratives, which facilitates group discussion and simplifies telling the stories outside the group.  As a 6-week trial study addresses the felt needs of participants and whets their appetites for God’s Word, you may discover a person of peace, or a fellow church member may grasp the value of DBS.  Jim Yost’s nine major topical Bible study categories are: Men, Women, Singles, Marriage, Parenting, Youth, Marketplace, Special Needs, and Recovery.  Each topic has 6 sub-topics, and each sub-topic includes 6 Bible studies.  That’s a total of 324 possible Bible study sessions!  

Quantity isn’t the only strength of this resource.  The titles speak to real life issues, and the selected Bible stories match them well.  Browse through the entire list of Urban Seed Discoveries and select those you find useful for your purposes.

Training Resources

Whether you are a lay person or on the staff of a church, here are more resources that can help you weigh anchor and launch out to sea.

• At their website entitled Discovery Bible Study David and Paul Watson provide basic resources, including an excellent 3-minute introductory video about DBS.  
• Stubborn Perseverance by James Nyman with Robby Butler (2017) is a combination how-to manual and captivating narrative based on real events.  As you follow a handful of Indonesian believers who launch a disciple-making movement, you will learn step-by-step how to do the same where you live.
• Great Commission Disciple Making: Growing Disciples Rooted in God’s Word by James A. Lilly (2018) is an extensive, step-by-step training manual.  It includes a brief history of DMM, thirteen training lessons, and seven informative appendices.  There is also a companion title Great Commission Disciple Making Workbook: Personal & Discovery Group Exercises by James A. Lilly.  
• Based on three years of research, The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus’ 1st-Century Kingdom Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church, by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine with Gregory C. Benoit (2018) identifies factors that hinder Western believers from utilizing DBS and DMM.

Two Churches Setting a New Course

Are any churches in the USA using DBS to initiate a disciple-making movement?  Two American pastors who had already planted large churches that attracted many new believers, are now climbing the learning curve of disciple-making.

1. Meet Roy Moran, pastor of Shoal Creek Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri.  He describes retooling his church in two books: Spent Matches: Igniting the Signal Fire for the Spiritually Dissatisfied (2015); and Hybrid Church: How the Local Church Can Engage Disciple-Making Movements Strategy (2017).  Throughout his congregation Pastor Roy uses Discovery Bible Study methods as the foundation of Christian education, evangelism, and service to their urban community.  He provides more details online at www.roymoran.com, www.shoalcreek.org, and www.youtube.com/user/disciplemakingmov/videos.  
2. Meet Chris Galanos, Pastor of Experience Life Church in Lubbock, Texas.  After growing the church to over 12,000 members in ten years, God sent Pastor Chris and his staff on a new adventure, which is chronicled in his book From Megachurch to Multiplication: A Church’s Journey Toward Movement (2018).  The description at the book’s Amazon site is compelling.

What would cause Experience Life Church, frequently named one of the fastest-growing churches in the country, to completely change directions?  Why would they risk an attendance drop and a decrease in giving to pursue a vision that has seldom been attempted in the American church?  The leaders of Experience Life knew this journey would be risky and calculated the costs before ever beginning.  They believed that following Jesus and aiming to reach millions was worth any cost.  Be careful with this book!  It might inspire you to risk everything you have to follow Jesus.  You’ve been warned.

Chris Galanos’s book began as blog posts written in real time as the congregation transitioned its outreach strategy.  The posts can be read at www.wigtakedmm.com.  

We can learn much from these two men of God as they take different routes to implement a disciple-making movement in their communities.  On one hand, Roy Moran in Kansas City is experimenting to see whether his local church and DMM can coexist and even thrive together.  On the other hand, Chris Galanos in Lubbock is completely retooling his ministry on the basis of DMM and DBS principles.  Both pastors have great insights into what American Christians need to learn — and unlearn — in order to follow God into the adventure of a Disciple-Making Movement in our own backyards.  These pastors are not spouting mere theory.  They are gaining their insights in the crucible of trusting in God’s Word to show a better way to do church and to invite large numbers of people to follow Christ.  May the courageous efforts of their two faith communities help convince you to set sail on your own voyage of discovery with Jesus Christ the Disciple Maker.

Oak image by Kevan Craft from Pixabay.

Freighter image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay