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Discipling the Laity for Disciple Making (03)
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Paul Jang
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2008-03-24 03:23:46, hit : 4,180 |
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Discipling the Laity for Disciple Making (03)
To succeed in making disciples the pastor has to make an effective plan as the first stage of preparation. "An appropriate planning multiplies efficiency when the actual work begins" said C. Peter Wagner (Wagner 1990, 43). He said again, "If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail" (Wagner 1990, 43). Planning can be made through two ways according to the goal of church growth: short-range and long-range. One may be focused on individual growth and the future potentiality for church growth, the other on the leadership needs for church growth in the future (Huber 1975, 17). If the decision of an effective plan for church growth is made, the pastor should schedule to carry on the plan in order.
The first stage is a "Goal setting." If the pastor does not have any goals for church growth, he will be aiming at nothing. If the goals are clear and if the pastor has agreed that evangelism needs to be geared toward making disciples, not just decisions, then the methods are almost up for grabs (Wagner 1977, 63). The pastor must note that he is identifying goals for congregations first, and secondarily he is suggesting these as goals for the individual Christian (Evans 1977, 26). And the only goal in accordance with a vision can give the direction of the growth of the church. In the goal of church growth must be two aspects considered.
The first goal of the discipling ministry is to make people disciples in which Christ is formed (Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:28) because one who has not been discipled cannot train people. In Col. 1:28, Paul says, "We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." This is to the people of the church who are mature. It may be called "spiritual formation" (Clemmons and Hester 1974, 61). Gary W. Kuhne called this goal "life transference." (Kuhne 1978, 33).
The second goal of discipling ministry is to multiply
disciples for church growth. Who is to be a multiplier? Of course, he is the only one that has been qualified as a disciple through the process of the first goal, "life transference." (2 Tim. 2:2). What, then, is a multiplier? A multiplier is a person who is committed to the task of reproducing his life in someone else, who in turn will reproduce himself in a third spiritual generation (Hadidian 1979, 37; Kuhne 1978, 16).
One disciple must have the responsibility to make his disciple for the purpose of multiplication of the church membership. The production of multiplying disciples is the only way to effectively fulfill the Great Commission, and multiplying disciples are best produced through discipleship training (Kuhne 1978, 16).
Gary W. Kuhne has classified the multiplication into four phases in order: (1) evangelism, (2) personal follow-up, (3) discipling the new Christian, and (4) producing other disciples (Kuhne 1978, 17-18). Through these phases he has suggested drawing up a six-year multiplication plan step by step (Kuhne 1978, 18-19). The writer would like to suggest that the goals for the growth of church may be set in three areas: church membership, spiritual maturity, and financial increase.
The first area: membership multiplication, can be achieved through multiplying disciples by making disciples. In the first step, discipler (pastor) can make one disciple or more. If a pastor can make, for example, five disciples in the first generation, the five will be multiplied into ten in the second generation, and the ten into twenty in the third generation. In this case "the pastor" is the first generation, "the pastor's disciples" are the second generation, and the pastor's disciples' disciples are the third generation (Hadidian 1979, 38).
This pattern has been found in the Scripture Tim. 2:2, as a pattern, Paul-Timothy-faithful men-others. Other examples have been shown in the principles of the Bible: Paul, Silvanus and Timothy-the Thessalonians-believers in Macedonia and Achaia, and Jesus-disciples-Philip-Ethiopian eunuch-African (Hadidian 1979, 38-40).
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Introduction
Ch Growth 