Walter A. Henrichsen - Disciples Are Made Not Born: Helping Others Grow to Maturity in Christ

At David C Cook, we equip the local church around the corner and around the globe to make disciples. Come see how we are working togethergo to www.davidccook.com. Thank you!

Walter A. Henrichsen

Foreword by Howard G. Hendricks

DISCIPLES ARE MADE NOT BORN

Published by David C Cook

4050 Lee Vance Drive

Colorado Springs, CO 80918 U.S.A.

David C Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications

Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6NT, England

The graphic circle C logo is a registered trademark of David C Cook.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

LCCN 2017951065

ISBN 978-0-7814-3883-4

eISBN 978-1-4347-0471-9

1974, 1988, 2018 by J. Henrichsen

The Team: Alice Crider, Nick Lee, Stephanie Bennett, Hannah Olson, Susan Murdock

Cover Design: Nick Lee

Cover Photo: Getty Images

Make disciples is the mandate of the Master (Matt. 28:1920). We may ignore it, but we cannot evade it.

Our risen Christ left this legacythe magna carta of the church. He provided both the model and the method. His life and death recast the lives of men. He demonstrated that you have not done anything until you have changed the lives of men.

Follow Me, He urged His men. And then that staggering assurance: Lo, I am with you always. Somehow we have forgotten that this promise is not a carte blanche; His promise is linked with a process. We cannot embrace the promise and ignore the process.

Much of the feverish and frustrating activity of the contemporary church is devoid of relevance and fulfillment. Entertainment, not education, is our program. Laymen are disenchanted. They are looking for an involvement with eternal bite. C. S. Lewis said it: All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.

Disciples Are Made Not Born is not a collection of dry, doctrinal dust but an eminently practical and provocative cud to chew on. The writer constantly hits the nail on the head.

Walt Henrichsen is no mere theorist. Long associated with the Navigatorsan organization committed to disciple makinghe has probed the Scriptures persistently and has presented effectively the results of his study and experience.

He also writes out of the reality of family life. He and his wife, Leette, have had the joy of discipling four active children. And they have known the heartache of losing their older son to leukemia.

Here is a primer on discipleship, commended to the one who wants to walk where Christ walked and sustain a ministry of multiplication. These pages fill an urgent need in our generation when the battle is for the minds and hearts of men.

Everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher, our Lord avowed (Luke 6:40). This book invites you to take His yoke upon you and learn of Him.

HOWARD G. HENDRICKS

Professor of Christian Education,

Dallas Theological Seminary

When Jesus Christ voluntarily gave His life on the cross some 2,000 years ago, He did not die for a cause. He died for people. During His ministry on earth, He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach (Mark 3:14). Just before His death on Calvary, Jesus prayed for His men (see John 17). Over 40 times in that prayer, He referred to His twelve disciples.

During His brief ministry on earth, Jesus had the world on His heart, but He saw the world through the eyes of His men. Prior to His ascension, He gave to these men what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. As recorded in Matthew 28:19, Jesus charged them to take the Gospel throughout the world by making disciples.

Jesus had world vision. He expected His men to have world vision. Jesus expected them to see the world through the disciples that they would produce, just as He had seen the world through the twelve men He had raised up. His vision of reaching the world through the use of multiplying disciples is not found in an obscure passage in the Bible; it is a theme that pulsates from page to page.

It was obviously the thought that was on the apostle Pauls heart as he wrote his last will and testament to his son in the faith, Timothy. Lets briefly analyze 2 Timothy 2:2: The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

You indicates the importance of the individual. At Jesus meeting with Peter, He said, according to John 1:42, You are Simon you shall be called Cephas. (You are Simon, you will become a rock.) When Jesus saw Peter, He did not see him as he was but as he would someday be. There is tremendous potential in the life of one man.

You me indicates the importance of personal relationships, of mutual confidence and trust built up through years of laboring together. When Paul wrote from prison to the church at Philippi, he said that because he was unable to visit them, he would send Timothy, his son in the faith. In essence what he said was, When Timothy arrives, it will be as though I myself were present.

Many years earlier, Paul had seen the potential in this young man from Asia Minor and decided to invest his life in him.

Commit suggests transmitting something from one person to another. It indicates the deposit of a sacred trust. Paul is saying to Timothy, You are my disciple. This is the relationship that exists between you and me. Now transmit this as a disciple-maker to other disciples. When we invest in the lives of other people, we transmit not only what we know but, more importantly, what we are. Each of us becomes like the people with whom we associate. I am sure that if we could meet Paul and Timothy, we would find them similar in many respects.

Later Paul wrote to him, Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions (2 Tim. 3:1011). This gives a synopsis of what was committed to Timothy by Paul and what in turn was to be committed by Timothy to faithful men.

Faithful menDiscipling stands or falls with these two little words. Solomon, that wise king of ancient Israel, said, Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man? (Prov. 20:6) Faithful men and women have always been in short supply. God still seeks them out: For the eyes of the L ORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His (2 Chron. 16:9).

Teach others alsoThis is where the discipling process begins to pick up a head of steam. We are now in the fourth generation. We began with Paul, then Timothy, then faithful men, and finally, others also. Teaching others cannot be done solely through a classroom situation. It entails the imparting of a lifethe same in-depth transmission that occurred between Paul and Timothy.