Bill Hull - Jesus Christ, Disciplemaker

Jesus Christ,
Disciplemaker

20th Anniversary Edition

Bill Hull

1984, 2004 by Bill Hull

Leaderss Study Guide 1990 by Randall K. Knutson

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Second printing, March 2006

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hull, Bill, 1946

Jesus Christ, disciplemaker / Bill Hull.Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 10: 0-8010-9169-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-8010-9169-8 (pbk.)

1. Christian life. 2. Evangelistic work. I. Title.

BV4501.3.H85 2004

269'.2dc22

2003016900

Unless otherwise indicated Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Thank you, Jane,
for twenty more great years

Contents

by Randall K. Knutson

I am so thankful to the grand chorus of disciplemaking writers who have gone before me, especially Robert Coleman and Elton Trueblood.

We have now sunk to the depth that the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

George Orwell

I am the master of the obvious, so I will say it again twenty years later. Jesus hasnt changed his mind and neither have I; he commanded us to make disciples and he remains our best model.

Why is our discipleship only in-house and nonreproductive? This is the question that troubles me almost twenty years after the first publication of Jesus Christ,Disciplemaker. In 1984, the year that Orwell said Big Brother would take over our lives, my first offering on the primary work of the church was unleashed on the reading public. Since then nearly 100,000 people have read it and I am gratified that it is still in print and changing lives. I say primary work of the church because I have not mellowed in my belief that making disciples is indeed the primary and exclusive work of the church. The fact that the church is weaker than ever and shrinking is the evidence that we still havent got it. Shortcuts and the quick fix still skim off our best energy and most of the churchs renewal dollar.

We have our islands of strength, there is much good to celebrate, and I have benefited from it. Still, we are languishing when it comes to our penetration of culture, and even our better churches are not doing very well in discipleship. George Barna writes, A little more than 60 percent of born-again adults have set no goals for their spiritual development, failed to develop standards against which to measure their growth, or failed to establish procedures for being held accountable for themselves. Vision, intentionality, a plan, and a relationship for accountability are all missingthese are the very heart of discipleship.

I think the problem at its root is that we have accepted a nondiscipleship Christianity that leads to plenty of motion, activity, and conferences but no lasting transformation. By transformation, I mean consistent long-range change into the likeness of Jesus, so that we are positioned to break the back of strongholds and habits that retard out growth. In the last twenty years I have written nine other books, pastored two churches, and created an international training network. I can confidently report to you that there is a desperate search among church leaders for something more meaningful than what is currently being offered. We have found that church growth does not satisfy the soul; neither do accolades about sermons or completed projects. There is a movement in our land that is driven by hunger for intimacy with God. There is a growing consensus that the Great Commission has as much to do with depth as strategy.

I have pondered, prayed, and talked with many leaders about how to improve the situation. With wide agreement that something needs to be done, thousands of organizations and church consultants are committed to renewing the 350,000 churches in America. There is a variety of opinion. Some insist that all is lost without revival; the church should just pray. I dont think that the word just should ever appear in front of the word pray. I also believe that to only pray is as much a sin as to only work without prayer. There is the pray-and-wait crowd, then the plan-and-go gang, but the balance needed is found in pray-plan-and-then-go make disciples. Others proclaim that we should leave behind the dead hand of the past and start new churches. Let the bad churches go the way of the dodo. It is predicted that fifty thousand will close before the end of the decade. Bravo! Dot the landscape with thousands of new churches that live out the values of the kingdom. Yet within a decade they too will calcify without the primary commitment to personal transformation.

Since 1994 the percentage of evangelicals to people in the U.S. has declined from 17 percent to 12 percent. It used to be said that 80 percent and more of local churches were in decline; that hasnt changed. The reason is that we have insisted on going too fast and being too programmed. Our need for success is so strong that we have taken a series of shortcuts that have given us short-term numerical growth instead of mature believers. We have accepted addition instead of multiplication. So we surge ahead and then fall back; its like shoveling sand against the tide.

I have made a career out of being the master of the obvious, so let me say it one more time. To follow Jesus is to be a disciplemaker. Doing what Jesus did is the answer to our questions and the solution to our problems. I must repeat what I said in 1984: Following and listening to Jesus are essential elements to effective ministry.

Doing What Jesus Did

There are three dimensions to doing what Jesus did. I give them here, not in order of importance but for my own purpose in this discussion. The first is doing what Jesus did in his ministry of power. In the upper room Jesus promised his followers that they would match and even exceed his works (John 14:1214). The second dimension is doing what he did in the practice of personal transformation, his practice in prayer, silence and solitude, fasting, frugality, chastity, service, and stewardship. The third dimension is doing what he did as he worked with those who followed him.

Twenty years ago in this book I introduced four phases that Jesus led his followers through: Come and See; Come and Follow Me; Come and Be with Me; and Remain in Me. The leadership lessons I drew from these phases are about the technique and time needed to train others. They provide us with a segmented and sequential process. It is segmented in that each phase has its own characteristics; it is sequential in that a person can move through the phases, beginning as a new believer and eventually becoming a leader.

Ignoring Jesus at any of the four levels is disastrous, and our missing the lessons of training explains why we are not making the kinds of gains on the Great Commission that are required. It still takes one hundred church attendees, a pastor, and $100,000 a year to win a convert. Among evangelicals it is a bit better1.7 conversions per year per 100 people in worship attendance. This is an ugly fact that should grieve us all. Any other business would have gone bankrupt long ago. We stay in business only because of Jesus commitment to sustain the church.