The DNA of a Disciple-Maker · 8 of 8
Formed, not learned
God does not send money, plans or programs first. He sends a person.
Everything in this class has pointed one direction: the DNA of a disciple-maker is not learned. It is formed, by walking closely with Jesus over time.
That is worth saying plainly at the end, because a class like this one can be misread as a list of qualities to acquire — and if you leave with a self-improvement project, the class has taught you the opposite of its own content.
What God sends first
When God wants to reach a community, He does not first send money, plans or programs. He sends a person — someone filled with His Spirit, who sees as He sees, thinks as He thinks, and loves as He loves.
That is the whole argument compressed. The resources are not the bottleneck and never were. Neither is the method, which is simple on purpose. What a community waits for is a person in whom God has grown something.
Two things this does not mean
It does not mean waiting until you are ready. Character grows in the doing, not before it. Nobody holds off until the fruit is ripe — the first “I will” you keep is part of how the fruit grows. If this class has you planning to begin once you are more patient, it has gone wrong.
It does not mean measuring yourself against the list. Thin is the normal condition, in you and in everyone God has ever used. The traits are a description of what He grows, not a bar to clear before you are permitted to serve.
Where this leaves you
Three questions are worth sitting with rather than answering quickly:
- How does seeing disciple-making as God’s work change the way you approach ministry?
- Which fruit of the Spirit do you most need Him to cultivate in you?
- What mental shift do you need in order to start seeing the way He sees?
None of those is answered by a decision. They are answered over months, by somebody who keeps walking.
Pray this
Lord of the harvest, raise us up as Your workers. Give us eyes to see as You see, hearts to love as You love, and minds that think Your thoughts. Form in us the character, the fruit and the faith to make disciples who make disciples.
Recite this
The DNA of a disciple-maker is not learned. It is formed by walking closely with Jesus.
Try it this week
Go back to chapter one and pray Luke 10:2 again — but this time name yourself in it, and name one person you will walk with while God does the forming.
I will ask God to make me a worker, and I will walk with ________________ starting ________________.
Scripture quotations are from the Open Translation Bible (OTB), used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Practice this chapter
Run a short Discovery Bible Study on this passage — everything this chapter taught, on a real one.