Incremental Disciplemaking
Falling in love with Jesus step by step
The Master of the Brussels Calling of Saint Matthew, Arrival in Bethlehem
You’ve been there before. A random stranger is sitting next to you in line at the grocery store or walks up to you while you’re at the park and lays it on you: “If you were to die today, would you go to heaven?” or the more philosophical sounding “If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?”
It’s intrusive and obnoxious. No one wants to talk about in-depth topics like this with a stranger. Asking these questions out of the blue is awkward and feels forced. A conversation like this is usually followed by a planned presentation that leads to a set of theological propositions.
This is how many people learn evangelism. The problem is that it’s too much too soon. It’s abrupt. Doing evangelism like this is basically trying to get people to drink from the firehose before offering them a cup of water. It’s like making people sign a prenup on the first date. Coming at strangers with the full gospel and pressing for a decision right then and there can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.1 The best-case scenario is that they shrug you off, and the worst-case scenario is that they are even more resistant to Jesus.
It’s even more complicated when people already have a history with religion or chuirch background. When someone is from a different religion or has been scarred by the church, they have walls up. Those walls are usually based on things that are ancillary to the main purpose of evangelism: getting people to fall in love with Jesus.
I used to work at Chick-fil-A back in the day, and we would have a person in front of the restaurant with a tray of tasty samples. People who never tasted would take one sample and make a beeline to the counter to order because they loved what they tasted. It’s the same thing with Jesus. Giving people whole systematic theologies is like getting them to buy the sandwich. They need bite-sized samples first.
This is not to say we can’t evangelize strangers, but I think there’s a respectful and wise way to do it. Giving people so much up front is not the way Jesus did it. He called people to follow him by offering them something they wanted, whether that was healing, deliverance, or, in the case of the disciples, the chance to be rabbis.
There’s something about Jesus that addresses people’s felt needs, and everyone has a felt need. It just takes discernment and the Holy Spirit to figure it out. One of the easiest ways to do this is to offer them prayer. It’s the perfect bite-sized sample.
From here, you can see if they’re open to spiritual things, and if they are, you can point them to Jesus. You can tell your story. You can tell God’s story. And this usually helps you find out whether they would be interested in learning more about Jesus through a discovery Bible study.
They can learn about Jesus not just by studying facts and ideas about the Bible but by actually obeying his words. In discovery Bible studies, there’s always an expectation to put the words of Jesus into action.
Instead of inviting them to agree with you and your point of view, you’re inviting them into obedience. Just by doing these small baby steps of obedience, they are being shaped and formed to surrender themselves to him. In other words, doing what Jesus says becomes the sample that leads them to fall in love.
It’s not about signing them on the dotted line to make them converts. Converts agree to religious propositions. Converts follow rules for show. We don’t need any more converts. We need more disciples. And that often doesn’t happen all at once. It’s about incremental disciplemaking as people become followers of Jesus step by step.
Some people are called to do this…the Bible calls them evangelists (Ephesians 4:11) and they could probably lead people to Christ if they just sneezed. LOL.
Deb and I share the gospel almost every Sunday with brand new recruits in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Our bridge is "Thank you for your service." Then we ask how their training is going. We first find a point of commonality, and then we offer prayer or share our two-minute story with the gospel in the middle. The key is the "bridge." How to engage a stranger and share the gospel in a way that is non-threatening or sounds like a sales pitch. We've done two things in a very short period of time: Showed love and concern AND shared the gospel. Like two wings on an airplane, you need both to fly. 🤠
Well, I've actually never had a stranger try to share the Gospel with me. Maybe my area is more lost than I realized.
But to your point, I've been trying to think this way: How can I aim for a disciple as I share the Gospel? I think it will involve pointing them to Scripture, learning enough about them to know where they itch (what their needs are), and yes, sharing the Gospel and even calling for a response...