Making Disciples

In her modern-day missionary journeys throughout Asia, Teresa has been focusing on training leaders and equipping them to facilitate disciple-making-movements, primarily through the tool of Discovery Bible Study. In this article, we share stories from Teresa’s recent trip to Asia. Stories of God at work through the tool of DBS! Stories of a Disciple-Making Movement!

“She has a map! That's just like in the back of your Bible, the missionary journeys of Paul”, Craig Kraft, OC’s Executive Director, excitedly shared about an OC missionary and her recent travels through southeast Asia.

Sure enough, the map looks curiously like those maps in the back of your Bible – pinpointing the stops along Teresa’s recent missionary journey to Asia where she travelled from place to place - flying, or renting a jeep and travelling with other leaders and driving into remote communities, to equip leaders and guide a disciple-making movement using the Discovery Bible Study tool. After a glimpse into her story, we knew this was a story we needed to capture and share.

We pray that these four stories about disciple-making & disciple multiplication (from Simply Mobilizing Canada) encourage your heart and inspire you to action!

• The Letter - the story of just one letter and how God used it to bring many to Himself.
• Why I love doing Discovery Bible Studies with my Muslim friends - the story of a woman who is studying the Bible with her Muslim friends.
• From Stone to Soil - Once upon a time, a seemingly uninterested man participated in a Discovery Bible Study in a cafe around the world, and then everything changed.
• Living and Active - the story of how the Scriptures made it to a remote village through text message.

I had a dream recently. I could be wrong, but I think it was a dream from God with a message for me. And maybe it’s a message for you too.

Someone was promoting the idea of a coffee shop space. It was a small room—almost set up and ready to go, but not quite—there was some more work yet to be done to make it a welcoming and inviting space. Though it did already have some bookshelves, some decor, and a few comfy sofas chairs. For the colors, you need to imagine a typical Latin American street scene, where even humble spaces can be lit up by eclectic assortments of paint colors.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” -Mark 8:34

I still remember the moment I heard the words of Mark 8, grasping their significance for the first time. Sitting amongst peers while at university – I was largely preoccupied by ambition and my pursuit of excellence.

I didn’t know a lot back then about what it means to follow Jesus, but I did know Jesus as the Saviour who pulls little children closer, drowning out harshness with His greatness. His hands had sheltered my heart throughout my youth and brought along gifts of companionship, discipleship, and understanding. I felt cherished by Jesus and it was his inordinate compassion towards me that kept me tethered to Him. 

Deny - the word sprang out at me, convicting and exposing me. 

What did that mean? 

I was well positioned to pursue the American Dream and succeed at it, and denying myself in any way was not really part of the plan. So tangibly struck, I fumbled to respond to those words within our group, finally landing on, “I don’t think I’m doing that”. 

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” -Mark 8:35

Oh boy, somehow denying myself was connected to losing my life and that was not anywhere on my to-do list. I was on track for a comfortable life, full of all the perks of a first-world society, with no regard for the reality that no one avoids suffering anyway...

A few years ago, I spent several months reading and re-reading the book of Acts. I was trying to understand how the Church had gone from a handful of people hiding out for fear of the authorities, to a bold and fearless community growing at an exponential rate.

As I read, a pattern began to emerge:

Prayer preceded Holy Spirit empowerment, which led to bold, public witness about Jesus Christ, accompanied by affirming signs and wonders,

resulting in many coming to faith AND active opposition from others,

which then caused Jesus’ followers to go back to prayer … starting the cycle all over again.

Here are 8 disciple-making principles that have become crystal clear to me from the Acts accounts ...