{"id":926,"date":"2019-03-28T09:03:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T09:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/?p=926"},"modified":"2019-03-18T16:06:09","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T16:06:09","slug":"cookie-cutter-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/2019\/03\/28\/cookie-cutter-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cookie-Cutter Discipleship?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week’s blog is written by Randy D. Raysbrook<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blame it on Frederick W. Taylor.\nThough he lived a century ago, he may still be affecting your understanding of\ndisciplemaking. Taylor’s influence was primarily in the industrial sector of\nAmerica in the late 1890s. It was he who refined post-Industrial Revolution\nthought by advocating the standardization of tools and equipment in the\nfactory. His ideas helped Henry Ford increase efficiency by focusing on method\nand speed. His formula: The greatest production results when each worker is\ngiven a definite task to be performed in a definite time and in a definite\nmanner. For many years my concept of discipling others was a product of\nTaylor’s thinking. Unwittingly I had developed an industrialized perspective. I\nlooked at statistics at the end of each year to determine if I was being\nfruitful in my ministry. That was the “greatest production” part of\nthe formula. I was very aware of how long it took me to train someone to the\npoint where he could reproduce himself. That was the “definite time”\ncomponent of the formula. And I had sophisticated and well-refined plans by\nwhich I trained. That was the “definite manner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to face the gruesome reality\nthat I had become more a disciple of Taylor than Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seem to be two extremes when\nit comes to helping another grow in his walk with God. One extreme says the\nChristian life is primarily relationship, and therefore if you just love\nsomeone he will grow and mature. The other extreme says you can’t build without\nplans, and you must have a set of well-defined training plans for a new\nChristian. Plans assure direction and continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhere in between these two\nextremes we must find a divine balance that proclaims the primacy of\nrelationship but also embraces the necessity of some order and structure.\nWithout this delicate balance a discipling relationship could either become\nstrictly social without healthy spiritual stimulation, or it could become a\nform of mechanical Christianity with its attendant hoop-jumping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For years I trained people relying\nalmost entirely on mechanical forms of discipleship. Bible study number four\nmust always be followed by number five. You couldn’t go to hoop number three\nuntil you had jumped through number two. I had developed every topic I\nintroduced into a standardized form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This excessive reliance on form over\nfunction revealed several things: an underlying insensitivity to the\nindividual, a hurried approach to life, and a desire to see others grow at a\nrate I had prescribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans are not wrong, but they must\nnot take precedence over people. How easy it is to fall into the trap of taking\nnew disciples through the same training plans over and over again, forgetting\nthe uniqueness of each person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years I have been forced\nto examine my whole approach to disciplemaking. I have come to realize three\nprinciples that are far more important than any prescribed plan for follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good disciplemaker understands the\nImportance of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disciplemaker’s history.<\/strong> Before we can help someone else, we must first\nunderstand our own background. Our approach to discipleship will be strongly\ninfluenced by our own past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not only our spiritual\ntraining that affects how we disciple, but our family experiences, parental\nmodels, our own hurts, and many other factors we normally don’t connect with\nspiritual formation. We carry the marks of these experiences into every\nrelationship, and we must be honest in recognizing that they may produce\ncertain biases. Some people become better disciplemakers as they get older not\nbecause they have learned more techniques but because they know themselves\nbetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being aware of our own history will\nenable us to encourage another in the same way we have seen God walk with us\nthrough our own trials. What better lessons to teach than the ones God has personally\ntaught us? Paul said it like this: “Praise be to the God and Father of our\nLORD Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who\ncomforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble\nwith the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor. 1:3\u20134).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, understanding our own\nhistory of growth helps us be honest about our limitations. Each of us has\nareas where we are not knowledgeable nor sensitive enough even to attempt to\nteach another. Wisdom dictates that we find others within the Body of Christ\nwho can provide balance to the person’s training. We must face the fact that we\nare not adequate to give someone all he needs to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remembering how long it took us to\nlearn certain lessons helps us to be more patient with others when their growth\nseems sluggish. We quickly forget what slow learners we were as young\nChristians. I tell all disciplemakers to pray regularly that God will never let\nthem forget what it was like when they were new and struggling Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The disciple’s history.<\/strong> The disciplemaker must also understand the importance\nof the history of the one he is helping. For every one thing I share about me,\nI ask the person I am discipling three things about himself. What are his family\nbackground, personal triumphs and tragedies, and past struggles with sin? What\nwere the life-shaping events in his background? Knowing these, I can minister\nto real needs in a person’s life as opposed to simply sharing facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This knowledge of the person’s\nbackground increases my appreciation for him as a unique individual. It’s\neasier to love someone when I see what he is as a result of what he has been\nthrough. The more I know about someone, the more easily I can influence him. We\nmake history as we understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an appropriate time I ask those I\nam helping to write me a personal biography. It can include family dynamics,\nareas of strength and weakness, fears, goals, areas where God is active in his\nlife, past triumphs and failures, how he thinks others view him, and desires\nfor marriage (if single) or relationship with spouse (if married).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I don’t know about a person’s\nhistory I may encourage him in the wrong direction. For example, many\nChristians work hard at the Christian life because they are still seeking the\nacceptance they never got from their parents. Christians raised in alcoholic\nhomes, as I was, often have a tendency to become addicted to work or\nperformance instead of alcohol. If I don’t understand his motives and how his\nbackground has influenced him, I may not be aware that he is doing the right\nthing for the wrong reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I help someone, I keep my own\nhistory in mind and try to discover his. My effectiveness has changed\ndramatically as I have begun to integrate what I know about the individual with\nmy follow-up plans and customize my encouragement and help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good disciplemaker understands the\nImportance of time and timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a new believer, I was on a\ncrusade to change the world for Christ. Sometimes it seemed as if God had made\na mistake in allowing only twenty-four-hour days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But several years ago I began to\nsense that much of the urgency I felt and sensed from others was not in balance\nwith Scripture. Is it really true that if you don’t seize the day God will be\nunable to complete His plan for the ages? Wouldn’t that mean it all hinges on\nyou, not God? I started to wonder how God viewed time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing a Bible study on time changed\nmy whole approach to life, holiness, and discipleship. I discovered that the\nScriptures speak in terms of generations, forty-year blocks, four hundred-year\nblocks. I speak in terms of hours, days, and weeks. For me, time no longer\nconsists of units of measurement to evaluate my work. Instead it is a panoramic\nview to showcase God’s fulfillment of His plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not in the hurry I once was\nbecause I realize God isn’t. Concerned? Yes. Active? Yes. Rushed? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this newfound freedom I found I\nwas no longer pushing people to grow within my narrow time frame. The question\nwas whether<\/em> they were growing. If they were, then my job was\nto encourage and challenge them, not grade their growth by a temporal measuring\nstick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article in Christianity\nToday<\/em>, Bruce Thieleman described the process involved in making a perfect\nsteel tube. He asked a steel machine operator about the critical elements in\nforming hot steel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s the temperature of the\nmetal. If it is too hot, it will fly apart. If it is too cold, it will not open\nas it ought. Unless you catch the molten moment, you cannot make the perfect\ntube.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In each life there are “molten\nmoments.” Or, to put it another way, God has designed us in such a way\nthat “windows of opportunity” open to our souls. When they are open,\nwe are more susceptible to certain thoughts and actions. The effective disciplemaker\nlearns to work with the Holy Spirit in determining those times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A good disciplemaker understands the\nImportance of anticipation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good photographer can project how\na picture will turn out before he snaps the shutter. Based on his experience\nwith film speed, lighting, type of lens, and a multitude of other factors, he\ncan “see” the final picture before he actually takes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God sees us in the same way. When He\nlooks at us He sees us as completed in Christ. Bob Foster says, “Jesus\ncalled [the twelve disciples] not so much for what they were as for what He\ncould help them become.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same way we can begin to see\nothers not for what they are currently, but for what they are yet to be. It was\nsaid that Michelangelo could see a statue in a block of marble. Each of us is a\nsculptor that God has entrusted with various pieces of\n“marble”\u2014people. Some are larger than others, some are rough and\noutwardly disfigured. But all await the refinement of the chisel. All are\nmasterpieces yearning to be unleashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As disciplemakers we need to reflect\nback to those we help what we “see” them becoming. Goethe observed\nthe power of this principle when he said, “Treat a man as he appears to\nbe, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he already were what he\npotentially could be, and you make him what he should be.” People can\nsense intuitively whether we really believe in them. The people in our lives\nwhom we have loved and been influenced by were people who could anticipate what\nwe had the potential to become. The best teachers and parents do this\ninstinctively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What a person is becoming determines\nhow he should be treated now. My wife and I were babysitting for some friends\nrecently. I observed both of the small boys as we went for a walk. One, the\nfrontiersman, charged out ahead, eager to explore and make new discoveries. The\nother, more reserved, was the settler. He was happy where he was with no desire\nto risk venturing into the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though they are brothers, each of\nthese boys has a very different perspective on life and different needs. It\nwould be a mistake to treat them both the same way. A wise parent would realize\nthose differences and, instead of trying to change their temperaments, work at\nunderstanding each of them as individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task before us is to make disciples\nof all the nations (Mt. 28:19\u201320). And this process means winning and\ndiscipling people one at a time. The methods we employ must vary to meet each\nperson’s unique needs. We must guard against so standardizing our methods that\nwe lose our sensitivity to those we are helping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we could revise Taylor’s\nformula this way: The greatest glory to God results when each person is\naccepted in light of his own history, treated with a divine sense of time and\ntiming, and loved with a sense of anticipation as to what he will become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Raysbrook<\/strong> is associate director of the Leadership Development\nInstitute at Navigator headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s blog is written by Randy D. Raysbrook Blame it on Frederick W. Taylor. Though he lived a century ago, he may still be affecting your understanding of disciplemaking. Taylor’s influence was primarily in the industrial sector of America in the late 1890s. It was he who refined post-Industrial Revolution thought by advocating the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tyndale.com\/unfoldingfaithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}