Pastor Hulett, from the Bridge Church in Downingtown, PA,
opened up the class by asking the question: “What is a disciple?”
I never really realized it, but it’s hard to actually put a
definition on it. He described it as both a process and a destination. He
opened the class strongly and really got us thinking.
The two things that excite Pastor Hulett is leadership and reaching lost people, and he is obviously very passionate about
what he does. He talked about how for the longest time in the Assemblies of
God, we’ve taught and thought that the sinner’s prayer was enough and that
everything starts from there. But we need to raise up a generation of people
that will challenge those things, not
out of rebellion, but in a pursuit to own
their faith. It’s vital that we understand the process of salvation and
sanctification properly before we make disciples. (John 4, one of the greatest
chapters we can look at to understand the discipleship process, shows us the difference
between the sower and the reaper, and is a great place to start.) We have to
teach others the process of
discipleship! If people don’t understand what the journey looks like, it’s
going to be very hard to actually
make disciples.
Discipleship it key.
God didn’t tell us to go into all the world and make converts. He called us to
make disciples. That’s the main end result. Our role in the process is not as
important as that end goal.
He asked us some good questions to get us thinking:
How do we go from nonbeliever
to disciple? What’s the in
between look like? What the Biblical evidences of a follower of Jesus?
To help people in his church understand this, he created a
program called The Discipleship Cycle. There
were three key things . First, Bridge Events: these are the big days
that have a positive first experience at the church. Second, Partnership
Services: these provide an opportunity to move people from pre-believer and
explorers to believers and followers of Jesus. And lastly, Connection
Communities: these provide a biblical context for discipleship through
doing life together with other believers. This provides a place for the
service, study, and social components of discipleship.
This was the model he based most of his lecture off of:
Non-Believer à
Pre-believer à
Explorer à
Believer à
Follower à
Disciple.
The focus should be this process. It shouldn’t be about
numbers because, as he said, “I don’t care about growing. But if we’re healthy
in discipleship, we’re going to grow. Healthy churches grow.” It should be
about showing the kindness of Christ. Kindness opens people’s heart. Just as
Jesus didn’t condemn people, we shouldn’t either. We should be showing them the
love of Christ instead, and focusing on His heart for the lost. According to
Pastor Hulett, Sundays are about lost people. They’re not about speaking in
tongues or prophecies or worship. They’re about reaching the lost for Jesus
Christ.
And we can’t just leave them once we reach them. We need to
explain the what’s and why’s of discipleship in order to
continue the process. We need to focus on being not only a leader, but a learner throughout the whole process, so we can effectively walk that road with them.
I was blessed to hear from Pastor Hulett this evening. His passion for lost souls translated very clearly and was contagious, challenging us to own the discipleship process and make it effective.
