What about Follow-up?

[This is Chapter 9 of Disciple Maker: Fulfill Your Destiny in the Disciple-Making Movement Launched by Jesus Christ, by Phil Bickel (© 2020). Free download at www.philbickel.com/store.]

In athletics, the action of hitting or kicking a ball has three components: 1. Backswing: preparing to make contact. 2. Swing: building momentum and actually striking the ball. 3. Follow through: transferring all the energy and ensuring accurate trajectory.

Many Christian evangelism strategies include good preparation (backswing) and make solid contact (swing).  Where we tend to fall short is follow through.  Often we simply hope follow through will occur without planning or effort.  Sometimes, we make an elaborate plan, but are disappointed when the majority of converts fail to participate.  In many cases, the resulting harvest diminishes significantly from what we originally anticipated.

So what is the follow-up plan of the twin strategies of Disciple Making Movements and Discovery Bible Study? How effective is the follow-up?   Do new believers fade or flourish?

A. What about Peer Pressure?

Far too often new converts are pulled back into sinful practices by their friends who don’t know the Lord and mock their “come-to-Jesus” testimony.  Some Christians may advise converts to withdraw from their friends, but this may leave new believers isolated and rob them of opportunities to witness to their not-yet-Christian buddies.

DMM-DBS does not isolate converts from peers, because they come to faith within a group of peers who already enjoy significant social bonds and friendships.  As they investigate the Bible’s teachings week after week, they each are wondering: What would life look like if I believed in God and lived as He advises?  As individuals, the possibility of such a radical shift appears risky and frightening.  As a group of friends, however, they see a gradual transformation occurring in their friends, and their friends see it occurring in them.  

Discovery Bible groups in some parts of Cuba included crime leaders and thugs.  Imagine the personal peril they each faced and the fears they overcame.  They literally risked their lives to declare allegiance to Christ rather than the mafia.  Why did they take that risk?  Because they could hear the Disciple Maker calling each one of them as they gathered around God’s Word.

So, we find that within a Discovery Bible group, peer pressure actually works in favor of conversion, not against it.

B. What about Service and Witness?

Some evangelism methods delay the witness of converts until they are better prepared.  However, the longer a new believer goes without expressing his faith, the more witnessing becomes a “foreign language” too difficult to speak.  Some church goers take refuge by witnessing with their actions rather than words.  Far too often, an unseen barrier is erected between Christians who are only comfortable serving and Christians who are willing to speak the name “Jesus” aloud.  

How does DMM-DBS avoid this unnecessary conflict between our service and our witness?  From Week 1 onward, the Discovery Bible group helps a neighbor with a problem (service), and each one shares the Bible story with a friend (witnessing).  Thus, both service and evangelism are firmly established in the DNA of each disciple.

Writer James Nyman describes a disciple-making movement in Indonesia.  One day, a sudden downpour causes two strangers to seek refuge in a grass hut on the edge of a rice paddy.  Abdullah is a radical Muslim, and Umar is an alcoholic.  Had they met months earlier, Abdullah would have self-righteously given Umar a severe beating.  But Abdullah has been changing since Jesus delivered his son from evil spirits.  The miracle led him to begin leading a Discovery group in his home.  Moved with pity for the drunk, Abdullah tells Umar the Bible story he has just learned: when Jesus forgives the woman caught in adultery.  Within a couple days, Abdullah is mentoring Umar to begin a Discovery group in his home.  

(Example from Stubborn Perseverance by James Nyman with Robby Butler (2017), pp. 108-117.)

Like the wings on an airplane, both service and witness are essential qualities modeled for us by Jesus the Disciple Maker.

C. What about Discipleship?

In our typical witnessing approaches, new believers learn that God forgives them and grants them the gift of eternal life.  They trust Jesus Christ as Savior, but awareness of Jesus as Lord of their lives is often minimal.  So, we invite them to Sunday worship services and urge them to join classes where we teach doctrines and practices which we hope will make them devoted disciples.  

How well does this work?  Not everyone is motivated to learn more.  Some will question: “I’m already saved.  Why is being a disciple necessary.”  Years later, we look back and realize that far too many church-goers have never matured, never learned to obey everything that Jesus commanded.  (Matt. 28:19)  Without realizing it, we have set saving faith at odds with “the obedience that comes from faith” (Rom. 1:5), a separation which the Bible does not recognize. 

Meanwhile, every portion of the DMM-DBS format simultaneously teaches the participants both doctrines and duties.  Every week they learn a little, and seek to carry out one “I will…” assignment drawn from God’s Word.  During the 20-some sessions of Discovering God, most, if not all, of the group become disciples of Jesus, saved by faith in His redemptive works, and eager to practice what He commands them to do.  

Then, what do they study next?  Using the same DBS format and discussion questions, they dig into new sets of Bible readings, such as:

• Discovering Obedience, based primarily on the Sermon on the Mount.
• Discovering Church Planting, texts about prayer, evangelism, and church.
• Discovering Leaders, based on Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Matthew.

As they internalize and obey these Scriptures, they become more effective carrying out a local disciple-making movement.  The DBS process that led them to the Savior does not fail to lead them to the full maturity God intends for us, namely that …

… we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.  Then we will no longer be immature like children.  We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.  We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  (Eph. 4:13-16 NLT)

How about you?  How long have you attended Bible study groups?  During that time, to what degree have the participants matured spiritually as Ephesians 4:13-16 describes?  Is maturity in Christ even on your radar?

Summing Up

So, what about follow-up?  When we employ DMM-DBS as our evangelism strategy, an additional follow-up plan is not necessary.  DMM-DBS accomplishes both quantitative growth (making new disciples) and qualitative growth (teaching them to obey what Jesus commanded).  The methods of Jesus the Disciple Maker are brilliant!