Pastor Bob Hulett, Bridge Church

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.