Have you ever wondered why most ministry takes place inside the walls of the church? You don’t see this with Jesus. Almost all of the personal ministry of Jesus took place outside the walls of the temple or synagogue. As believers who make up the church, the Bible says, “You are the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are His hands and feet, but we often tie up His hands with matters inside the church. We fail to make a difference in the world when we keep His hands and feet inside the walls of the church. In the New Testament, we see Jesus leading His disciples outside the walls of the synagogue to proclaim the message of the kingdom. His disciples watched as He touched the leper, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and showed compassion for the sinner. Then He “began to send them out two by two” to do the same (Mark 6:7). It was their turn. The Bible simply says, “So they went” (Mark 6:12). In Jesus’ D-Group, doing ministry outside the walls of the synagogue was not an option. It shouldn’t be for us either. This is an important part of leading a D-Group. You deceive yourself if you think you can disciple others solely from a classroom. Disciple-making requires on the job training. Would you fly on a plane with a pilot whose only training was in a classroom? Of course not! Pilots need real experience and so do disciples. Disciple-making requires a lab, and the world is our lab. LEAD YOUR GROUP TO PLAN MEANINGFUL MINISTRY PROJECTS In your D-Group, take time to plan for meaning ministry. Ask, "How can we be the hands and feet of Jesus where His presence is needed?" Pray for the Holy Spirit to direct your path. Plan for meaningful ministry projects where you can bring light into darkness and hope to those who are hurting. Such incarnational ministry is best fleshed out in a D-Group. Real people rub shoulders daily with other real people. Meaningful ministry happens when a disciple says, “I know where a real need is. I saw it with my own eyes.” This is when a group will take ownership of the ministry that needs to be done. I’m sure you have heard of the 80/20 principle. It’s a principle that says that eighty percent of the work in a church is carried out by only twenty percent of the people. This is a real concern for some people in the church today. But what is really concerning is that the vast majority of the work done by the twenty percent takes place within the walls of the church. It makes you wonder if any percent of the work of ministry takes place outside the church. Now, think about Jesus and His disciples. What percentage of the twelve disciples did the work of ministry? All twelve did; it was one hundred percent. Even Judas did, though he complained about it. Also, almost everything they did was outside-the-walls ministry. How did this happen? It was because this is what Jesus had discipled them to do. In the church today, we could obliterate the 80/20 principle if we could simply get the twenty percent to disciple the eighty percent to do the work of ministry. What’s more, is that we could shift the focus of our ministry outside the walls of the church. LEAD YOUR GROUP TO GO OUT AND DO MEANINGFUL MINISTRY PROJECTS After your group makes plans for meaning ministry, then go out and do it. Sharing in ministry together as a D-Group is both fun and fruitful. It builds deeper community within your group. Ministry projects may include things such as feeding the homeless, doing lawncare for someone’s yard, doing a project at a local school, building a wheelchair ramp, adopting a family for Christmas, prayer walk evangelism, offering assistance to other social ministries in your area, and many other creative ideas. The opportunities are endless. D-Groups can even make plans to go on a mission trip together. A minimum goal for your D-Group should be to do at least one meaning ministry project every two months. This means that your D-Group will do six ministry projects a year. Again, it is important to keep your goals reasonable and attainable. If we truly desire to impact our world for Christ, this is a reasonable minimum goal. Think about the significance of this on your church’s ministry to your community. If your church started only four D-Groups, this would result in twenty-four ministry projects outside the walls of your church in one year. Simply multiplying to ten D-Groups would result in sixty ministry projects. What if someday you could train one hundred believers to lead D-Groups? This would result in six-hundred ministry projects each year outside the walls of your church. Can you imagine how many lives would be touched? LEAD YOUR GROUP TO PRACTICE LIFT UP YOUR EYES EVANGELISM Meaningful ministry opens doors for Gospel conversations. When unbelievers see the love of Jesus displayed in a practical way, they are more willing to listen to what we have to say. As a D-Group leader, you want to lead your group to practice lift-up-your-eyes evangelism. Jesus instructed His disciples saying, “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest” (John 4:35b).When your D-Group does a ministry project, lift up your eyes and see those who are around you. See those who are watching you and wondering why you are there. Look for an opportunity to share the Gospel with them. When you lead others to Christ, you will seek to connect them with your D-Group, and when possible, to your church. In many churches today, intentional evangelism does not exist. No one is being discipled to share his or her faith. However, to be a true disciple-maker, you must unite evangelism and discipleship into one process. Think about it. You can do evangelism without being a disciple-maker, but you can’t be a disciple-maker without doing evangelism. D-Life exists to equip common people to be Christ-like disciple makers. Click below to learn more.
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There are a lot of broken and lonely people in the world today. For the most part, the church is not doing an effective job of reaching them. Studies indicate that six to ten thousand American churches permanently close their doors every year. How can this be? When the need is so great, why are so many churches boarding up and calling it quits?
Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers in to His harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). As I consider Jesus' words, I realize the failure of many churches to reach the broken and lonely is not about what they do inside the church. It's about what they are not doing outside the walls of the church. |
authorDr. Bill Wilks, has a passion for equipping common people to be Christ-like disciple makers. Bill and his wife, Rondie, have traveled extensively to train thousands of believers how to make disciples who make disciples. Bill and Rondie live near Trussville, AL, where he serves as Lead Pastor of NorthPark Church and Founder of D-Life. Archives
August 2024
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