Transcription
As pastors and leaders, you want to grow your church. We have to grow our discipleship process. We have to help people take next steps. And I maintain that the reason why they don't isn't because there's resistance. I think they don't because they don't know what they are, and we have to make those clear.
Hey everybody, and welcome to the Grow Leader Podcast, where we grow leaders that grow churches by helping them reach their full potential. My name is Matt, and I'm so glad you're here today. Sitting beside the one and only Pastor Chris. PC, how you doing, Matt? I'm fantastic. I love this time of year. I do too. It's spring. Yes, finally. Yeah, and it's my favorite golf tournament is coming up pretty soon here, you know, over at Augusta National Golf Club, the Masters. And the azaleas are blooming, the dogwoods are blooming, and it's just, it is the best time of the year. Great time of year. Uh, in reality, we're recording this just before the Easter weekend because it'd be crazy to record this on the 1st of April. But we're praying that you had the best Easter weekend ever in your church. And I know they did. And we are recording this before because this podcast releases literally the day after Easter. And, uh, but I think we have a little over 100 services over our 26 locations. And I, I just, I'm so excited to see how God's moving in our country. I recently read a Gallup poll that said that 44% of Americans say they need God in their lives. Uh, that, this is the highest level in 50 years, uh, of people's hunger for God. So I'm excited about helping churches more than ever before with the topic that we have today, which I'm excited to talk about because right now, we are stepping into, uh, follow-up season, right? Not that we don't always do that, but, um, we certainly were preparing for thousands of people to give their lives to Jesus, which is wonderful. But we also want to help them take next steps. In fact, Matt, I think as I look back now over 23 years of Church of the Highlands history, and when people say, you know, what, what happened? How, how, how did this happen? You know, I give God all the glory, 100%. There are things I cannot explain. But if we did one thing well, it's the topic that I want to talk about today. And that is, we, we made the path toward God, and the path after they find Christ, after they give their lives to Jesus, we made that path incredibly clear. And I get the opportunity to travel, uh, to churches and to conferences and to meet pastors. And this is not a knock on them, but, but it's amazing to me, the number of places I go where I was, I, I put myself in the mind of someone who is far from God. And did they even give me a pathway to make a decision to follow Jesus today? Was there an opportunity to even pray that prayer? And maybe it's the old Baptist in me, but I still like to give people a chance to follow Jesus or give their lives to Jesus or even rededicate their life to Jesus, uh, in every, every service, in every event, honestly. And then, and then it's amazing to me the number of churches and pastors, leaders, that that aren't making steps incredibly clear and people knowing the spiritual journey that's in front of them. And I think again, I, I think if we did something well, this might top the list of the things that we do well. And I know this is a, a massive passion point for you. It's how you lead us all the time here at Highlands. I want to remind everybody, if you're looking for, uh, show notes, go to growleader.com/podcast. They're going to be there. So don't, don't try to take notes while you're driving or running right now. But I want to jump into the, because this is something you, I want to say, preach to us, but you remind us of as a staff, literally around the, around the year. Yeah. So I want to break it down in two, two, uh, areas. And I want to give you four points in each of the two areas. And I want to talk about intentional evangelism. And I'm talking about our services, our events, our camps, whatever we're doing for people, that there's a chance that that we give people a chance that are far from God to give their lives to Jesus. And not only just give their lives to Jesus, but maybe even rededicate their life. And I say that, Matt, because my salvation experience was a rededication. So I thought I was already a Christian. So when they gave the response and I gave my life to Jesus, I thought I was rededicating my life to the Lord. Only years later to discover, after I have some maturity and realize what salvation really is, that I was getting saved, really for the first time. Right. It was, it was the first time. And so, so I, I love to, um, throw a big net in everything that we do. And I'm going to give you four things to think about as you do this. And the first is, is it sounds so simple, preach the gospel in every service. Like, every time you, if it's a marriage conference, or if it's a Sunday service, or if it's whatever we're doing, let's make sure that we have space in those, uh, environments where we take time, even if it's just for a few minutes, and explain how Jesus came to, to pay for our sins and that we can receive this free gift of salvation. I'm even thinking back to some of the times you, you've been preaching on, let's say it's, you know, financial health or on marriage or raising your kids. And I can think, I'll admit this in front of you, that man, this is going to be kind of a low-response Sunday, just because of the topic that we're talking about. And then talking about budgeting and finances, people are accepting Jesus all over the place because that's their, their pain point. That's where they feel the pain the most. And it makes them respond to Jesus. Yeah. And that they really, those topics become hooks. So they came because they wanted that information, but when you're just in the environment of worship, hey, an environment that has been prayed over, with our, with our prayer services before the weekend, I mean, experiencing the presence of God, and just reading scripture, even if it's not necessarily salvation scriptures per se, man, there's just the anointing on the word of God. People's hearts get convicted. In fact, I like to remind people that I got saved, can't even remember the message or the music. I got saved just being in the environment of Christians that were on fire for God. I'd never seen Christians in love with God before, and it so moved me. It's 1 Corinthians 14, where unbelievers come to our gatherings and they say, surely God is in this place. Well, what are we doing for them after they have that experience? I think we need to not only preach the gospel, but number two, give people a chance to respond to God. And again, like I said, every service, um, every event, we are going to pause just for a moment. Say, perhaps somebody is here today who's far from God, or someone here who, you know, your relationship with God is not like it should be, right? And you're ready right there where you're seated to make a decision to follow Jesus. Do you know that you are one heartfelt prayer away from your sins being forgiven, the power of God coming into your life, and you living, having the ability to live a brand new life and have an eternal home in heaven? Who, who is there anyone here today who would? I'm telling you, people are going to respond if we give them the chance. And I love that the, the language you use. Love this, especially in our context. We're in the Bible Belt. I feel like we're, we're the, the belt buckle of the Bible Belt. And you'll even say, hey, maybe you consider yourself a Christian, but you feel so far away from God. Oh, I've even gone further than I've said. If you're a Christian and you don't know God, well, that's not even theologically correct. But they identify with it because they grew up in church. You know, we know down here in the South, for some, you know, it's going to church is almost like belonging to a country club. Right. And so, so they just think, man, I am one because I belong to something. And of course, when they come under conviction, they really get to surrender life to Jesus. It also reminds everybody in the room that is a believer, it's vision. It reminds every, hey, this is what we're here for. No matter what we talk about, this is not just for you. We're always looking for a way to get people to the table of knowing Jesus. Exactly. And so, let's number one, preach the gospel in every service. I mean, interject the truth and the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus throughout a message. And, and even, even when we're talking about habit-style sermons, you know, things like, we need to do these habits, but we ought to interject the gospel. But if you ever, if you've ever not done this, or if you've ever said, I will always do this, and you broke, that's why Jesus went to the cross. You know, you can throw in lines like that that just remind people of the goodness of the Lord and the grace, uh, that Jesus gives us through the cross. Number two, giving them a chance to respond. I mean, just ask. Trust me, pastors, leaders, just ask. People will respond to God if you ask them to. And then number three, this sounds so basic, Matt, but I feel like I have to teach it. Get their information. I'm appalled at the number of places that I go and, and maybe I even did the response time. I preached and gave people a chance to, to, to follow Jesus. And then the person who was closing the service never got people's information, never sent them to that next step. I have this personal belief that, um, it's important to get information from people. I'm talking about their, their name and address and phone number and email address, or whatever we can get from them so that we can do this next section I want to talk about, and that is discipleship and follow-up. But it's, I think it's important, honestly, to do it right there where they're seated. So I, I've always believed that if you ask people, you know, they make a decision right there in the service. Hey, now we need to go, you to go to this table, or we need you to come back tonight. I always say, if you can just get that information from them right there where they're seated, where they're seated, and have them fill out something, a card in our case, it's a card, or they can do a digital option. We put on that on the screen now. We can send them information immediately. Send them information so that we can, we can really follow up on these people. And, and I've had people ask me in the past, cuz we, we do keep account of salvations. And they say, hey, how are you getting that? Is it an estimate? Are you just counting hands that go up in the room? And no, that is people that are telling us. Oh yeah, our numbers are not hands and guestmates. That's them responding to us. These are names, addresses, phone numbers. And so how, so if you're wanting to know how it goes, Pastor, it's, it's at the end of the service. We just, you know, had a, had a message. Now we give people a chance to respond. And we have them pray a prayer. And we have them lift their hand, pray the prayer. And then on the amen, we say, now, if you just prayed that prayer, if you just lifted your hand, there's a card right there in that seat, back in front of you, or you can go to the, your phone right now and type in this number. Yeah, text the word commit. I just committed my life to Christ to this number. And we will get you this information. And what it asks them to do is just simply say what decision did you make. And then give us information, email or, or home address so that we can send you information. And I get the resistance to some people saying, well, I don't, I don't want them to feel pressured. And it, the trick is, or the way you do it, is you make sure that something is available for them. Not like you're trying to get information from them. Hey, we want to help you. We're going to help you take your next step. Yeah. We're, we're, we do have this hassle-free guarantee to the visitor. Right. When you're kicking the tires, we're not going to bug you. Look, you're, you just can come and go as you please. But once they make a decision, Matt, I, I'm, I'm not hassle-free. I'm, I'm, I want to take care of you because you made a decision. And I want to do a good job in this next category of discipleship. So again, here's the four steps: preach the gospel in every service, give people a chance to respond to God, get their information, and then finally, go ahead and give them the first of their next steps. Now, I think there are a lot of next steps in discipleship. I'm getting ready to give our listeners about 12, 12 things that I think every new believer or every person needs to do if they want to consider themselves discipled. But when you're right there in that moment, go ahead and give them one of the next steps, or maybe a couple, two or three of the next steps. Like, hey, next Sunday, we have water baptism. If you just prayed that prayer and you just filled out that card, hey, next Sunday, you have an opportunity to make that decision public. And again, I just want us to obsess over this, right? And I do obsess over the fact that the, that these are lives that are important to God, and they're making decisions in their heart, and we can't be unclear about helping them take these steps because Jesus said, Jesus said in Matthew 28, go and make disciples, not attenders, not congregants, not members. He said, Go Make Disciples. I'm not sure how to pronounce the word in the Greek, but the word literally means student, someone being instructed and taught. And people, some people, in my opinion, erroneously, uh, interpret the word disciple as someone who just has a lot of Bible knowledge. Man, you can, you can miss heaven with a lot of Bible knowledge. So that certainly isn't it. We're not just trying to get them smarter. No, no, no. What we want to do is a disciple is someone who's taught in what I call the spiritual journey. And I'm going to go through the four steps of the spiritual journey, and I'm going to give to our listeners, um, the things that we ought to be helping people do in that spiritual journey. As pastors and leaders, you want to grow your church. We have to grow our discipleship process. We have to help people take next steps. And I maintain that the reason why they don't isn't because there's resistance. I think they don't because they don't know what they are, and we have to make those clear. How important is it from, from a communication standpoint? Because you talk about this stuff year-round. I mean, this is not just a post-Easter or a post-Christmas, you know, we see higher rates of new people in church. How important is it for the lead communicator at every place to make this a part of every Sunday? We're constantly talking about, about, hey, there's a process. You can get on. I promise you, there are about 12 things I'm going to share here in a minute. It's every Sunday that we're mentioning a couple, two or three of them. Now, we want people to take all these steps, but we're constantly encouraging people. In fact, if you're, uh, not a pastor or a leader and you're a listener, you need to take these steps. In fact, if there's, if you're a pastor, there's probably some steps that you still need to take, um, in these, because we're all on this spiritual journey. So what are they? Well, I put them in the category of the four things that God has always wanted for people. So if discipleship is the spiritual journey, and it is, if, if discipleship means I'm going to be instructed to observe all that God has commanded me, if, if that is it, if we are helping people take these, um, these spiritual steps, and these, we have to know what the journey actually is. All right. So this is discipleship. And in my, in my mind, I feel like I could defend this cover to cover that God, God has always wanted these four things for people. And that is for us to know him. In fact, in Ephesians, it says, so that you may know him better, right? So the question is, everybody listening to me, could you know him better? And if you can know him better than you currently know him, then you're still being discipled. What an invitation. I mean, you just hear that and you say, if God's saying, you think you can know me better, what a great invitation for all of us. Senior pastor, parent, kid, no matter what. Well, hopefully, every person listening said, yes, I could. Then the next question is, then do you know what you could do to know him better? And if we're not making this clear, Matt, if we're not saying, now you need to know God better, and here's how, and not only here's how, but let us help you. Here's the resources, here's the tools. This is discipleship, my friends. And this is the mode we're going into, uh, in a strong way after, after Easter as well. But we want them to know God. How? Let me give you, let me give you three things that I want to encourage us to encourage people in. If you're a pastor or leader, and if you're a listener who's not a pastor or leader, I want you to do these things. And that is, number one, make your, make your relationship with God public. So if I'm going to know God, I know God by going through this ceremony, like a wedding, where I commit my life to God, right? That's salvation. But then I put on this wedding band. Um, I call water baptism the wedding band of Christianity. It's the moment that my faith now goes public. And so what do we do? For us, the Sunday after Easter is baptism Sunday, and we have baptism experiences all throughout the year. Why? Because we're helping disciple people in knowing God. How? By making that relationship public. Secondly, under know God, we want to teach people how to spend time with God every day. And this is critical, pastors and leaders, because we can, um, we think so much about the food that we're serving them on Sunday, which is great. I want you to do that. That we forget to teach them how to feed themselves Monday through Saturday. So a lot of the people are coming to church starving, right? Because the last meal they had spiritually was last Sunday, right? No, no, no. We want to, we want to create self-feeders. How? Worship, word, and prayer. In prayer. So we want to teach them how to worship. How do you teach them how to worship? Resource them. We actually give people playlists. Hey, if you don't know what to listen to, how to worship, here's a playlist. You can download. You can spend time with God. Would you just spend a few minutes every day in worship? Then in the word, we offer the one-year Bible as a resource. And we tell people, we want you to read the Bible, not on Sundays in church, every day of your life. You don't know what to read? Read what we're all reading. Read this, the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalm, and Proverb out of the, out of the one-year Bible. And then finally, teaching people how to pray, how to have conversation with God. And of course, I've written books on this, and we have so many booklets and resources to help people know what to say and do. This is discipleship, everyone. We're teaching people. We want them to know God by making that relationship public. We want them to spend time with God every day. And then I think we ask for them to be weekly worshippers in a local church. And you think, well, they'll figure that out. But I think more people would do it, Matt, if we asked them to do it. Hey, would you make Sundays a priority? Would you make coming to church a priority? And would you make this a part of your tradition? The Bible says of Jesus that he went to the synagogue as was his tradition. Jesus had a built-in tradition that this was going to be something he would do weekly. And I think we ask people to do it. That's the first step in discipling people as helping them know God. And, and you make, you do such a great job with this. And I think you even trained our campus pastors to do this as well. I think the question you're always asking, if a church out there says, hey, we've decided these are the eight things we want people to do, the question you're going to ask every one of them is, how? Right? Is it easy? Is it clear? Because what we're doing removes the friction. It kind of takes the, if, if they're on a new trail, a new journey, we're kind of getting the, the, the, the trees that have fallen across the trail out of the way and say, this is the way to go. In fact, you even describe us as we're tour guides. Hey, guys, here's the way we're going. Come this way. And make it easy for people. Exactly. So the first one is to know God. The second area of their discipleship is in the area of finding freedom. Freedom from what? All the stuff in their life that, even though they're saved, they're not sanctified yet. They're not, they've not worked out their salvation with fear and trembling, is what the Bible says. So because salvation is this free gift, right? So my works didn't have to change. So, and chances are, when a person gets saved, their works don't all change. So they may still have some habits, some addictions, some, some language. You know, so, so what do we do? We have to start. We have to go through a process. As Colossians chapter 1 says, you know, we, we, we, we preach God, Jesus. Paul says, I preach the gospel. And then secondly, now I warn or admonish, right? Every person. So this is the part where we say, okay, you're saved, your sins are forgiven, but we got to work on your language. We got to work on, you know, we're going to start this process of discipleship. How do we do that? Three things. Number one, we're going to encourage them to get in a small group. And this is, this is so important because human beings were not made just to be in large gatherings. They were made for relational connection. You do any study, Christian or secular, and they will tell you the healthiest people are the most connected people. And of course, it is God's system. Secondly, we teach them to be honest and transparent. That at some point, every person, and maybe some of you that are listening to me right now, need to do this. That you, you have this thing in your life. You're going to heaven, but you have this thing in your life that is nagging, it won't let go. It's a stronghold. It's a, it's a, it's Hebrews called it a besetting sin. It's that, it's that one area of your life that just kind of won't let go. Chances are, you and God are never going to be able to completely work it out. You're going to have to share it with somebody else. You're going to need some form of accountability. You need the reality of James 5:16 that says, confess your sins, not to God, confess your sins one to another, pray for each other, that that's where you find healing. So we go to God for forgiveness, but we go to God's people for healing. I need somebody to know, Matt, I'm going to tell you what I'm struggling with. And we take that mask off and we get some honesty. I'm in this group now, but it's not enough just to be in the group. I've got to have somebody, right, that knows, man, I'm having trouble. I'm clicking here. I'm saying this. I'm spending here. I'm whatever it is. My eyes wander, whatever it is. And let somebody say, man, I got your back. I'm going to work with you on this thing. And the way, as a leader, for your people, the people that you're leading to have that and to do that, is for you to have that and you to do that, then talk about that with them. Because very good. I, I know that you know, Pastor Rick Be, that one of your best friends in the entire world. I know whatever is happening in your mind and your heart, he can tell by the tone of your voice. You're going to talk to him on the phone. He said here on one of our podcasts when he was on, said, hey, be authentic with everybody, but be transparent with a few. Exactly. And I think that's probably where leaders, I know a lot of leaders that, man, they have a lot of people in their lives, but few people. They don't have anybody they're transparent with. That's exactly right. But again, if we're going to be disciplers of people, we have to tell them, hey, I need you to do this. I need you to get in a group. Secondly, I need you to take that mask off and be honest and transparent. And then the third is, Matt, if we're really going to help people find real freedom, we're going to have to introduce them to the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. We're going to have to teach them that the Holy Spirit is here to heal broken places. Is that no counseling session, no therapy can heal? Only the Holy Spirit can heal. And then we need to make room for him to empower us to live spirit-filled lives. That's why one of my favorite things that we offer at Grow Leader, and we give away, we just give this curriculum away, uh, out of Church of the Highlands, is our Freedom curriculum. It's a 12-week peel the layers of the onion back off of all the wounds and hurts and mistakes of our life so that healing can begin. And then we, of course, introduce them to the person of the Holy Spirit. And in my mind, if I'm discipling someone, Matt, I'm going to get them to know God. And I give you the three ways they can know God. Then I, I want to, I want to disciple you in the area of finding freedom. And then the third area, now once they kind of settled yesterday, now we need to start focusing on what's ahead of them. And I call that discover purpose. And I'd like to point out too, by the way, because I know there's, I've been in, I've been in not debates, but I've been in healthy conversations with pastors on how do you really define discipleship? And if it, and if the word literally means student and being instructed, here's my question: when someone is being instructed, why are they being instructed? And there's only one answer: it's so they can do it. If I went to dental school, it wasn't just to know teeth. I probably wanted to open up a dental practice, right? So when we train and disciple people, if you'll do it with the fact that with this in mind, that you want them to actually find the thing that they're supposed to do. And according to Ephesians, all of us have something. Ephesians 2:10 says that God created us with the thing to do in advance. He, he created something for us to do. So the ultimate goal of discipleship is to get a job. Let me say it that way. The ultimate reason why you learn and grow is, is to, is to get a job. How do you do that? Well, we, I think it begins with finding out their unique area for their purpose. So if they're going to do a job, like I'm not mechanically inclined, so it'd be ridiculous for me to go try to learn how to be a mechanic when I'm just really not mechanically inclined. Now, I am musically inclined, so maybe I could have gone in a music degree direction. That's why the first step of discipleship in the area of discovering purpose is, pastors and leaders, I'm begging you, offer a way for them to find their gifts and passions. They have a spiritual gift. Ephesians 4, to each each person, grace, a divine enablement has been given. The Bible says. And we, and we say, you don't have to do it exactly the way we do it, but if you don't have a way that you are doing it, start with the way we're doing it. And that's all available to you at the Grow Leader website. Exactly. It's the Growth Track. It's what the Growth Track really is. It connects them to a local church. But then the very first thing that we do is we say, man, let's unpack your design, because your design is going to reveal your destiny. And I love that phrase, Psalm 139, you are fearfully and you are wonderfully made. Your temperament, your redeemed temperament, maybe I should say, and your, your, your interest, your personality, all points to the spiritual gift that you have. And we need to help people find that. Then secondly, we want them to join a team. Obviously. And, and a lot of churches do this. A lot of churches, in fact, every church I know is asking people to get on teams, but they're not first helping the person find their spiritual gift, which means they're going to end up on a wrong team, frustrated, not motivated. It's so much better when there's gift-oriented ministry. And then the third step in this discover purpose part of discipleship, to me, is grow. Just grow. To me, it's the most exciting part of Christianity is the fact that I can continually get better in the thing that God has called me to do. So I, I love that we get to do this every week. I think you even saying it, you know, the way you're saying it right now, reignites a passion inside of me. Um, and I know most churches, you're doing something like this, but man, to remember what's on the other side of this for people. And go back to when the lights came on for you. Oh, wow. I've got spiritual gifts. God wants to use me in this way. I think remembering your own story will help you get so much more fired up about helping other people in their journey. We're running out of time. So let me bring this to a close. So to, to, to review, I want you to intentionally evangelize, and I gave you four things. And then I want you to intentionally disciple people in four areas. And I'm giving you three steps under each of the four areas of discipleship. And your job is just to make it clear and then provide the tools they need to do it. Period. So if it's a class, or if it's a resource, or just the clarity of how to do it. Our job as pastors, if we're going to disciple people, is to help them, help them take these steps. In the last of the steps, so we want them to know God. We, I gave you the three. We want them to find freedom. I gave you three. We want them to discover purpose. I gave you three things you need to help people do to discover their purpose. And then finally, so that they can make a difference. And, and I would like to say that this is the ultimate mark of a true disciple. So the only places that Jesus said, these are my disciples, is when they're doing this list I'm getting ready to give you. So I want to give you three. The first is to serve. And remember, Jesus says, when you're serving, when you're bearing much fruit, this proves that that you really are my disciples. So we want to teach them servanthood. We want to give them opportunities to give, give of their time, to serve. Secondly, is to give generously. The true mark of a disciple is someone who's incredibly, incredibly generous. And then lastly, to share their faith. Remember, it was Jesus who said, whoever would follow after, if you follow me, I will make you, right, a fisher of men. So if you want to know what my followers do, Jesus said, followers fish. I will show you how you can reach other people with the good news of the gospel. And to me, it's a discipleship point or component that we need to be intentional about sharing with our congregations, which is why my last statement, Matt, is that once a year, we train our congregation in sharing their faith because it's the mark of a true disciple, someone who's making a difference by serving, giving, and sharing their faith. To me, pastors, leaders, if these 12 steps over these four areas became your playbook, and you did it intentionally and provided resources, I promise you, the discipleship in your church will grow, and your church will grow. Look, we, we all do so many things as leaders. I think it's great to get back to the simplicity and the clarity of this is, this is our true job, to, to make disciples, to, to do what Jesus called us to do. Uh, amazing. Hey, just a reminder, don't forget the show notes are available on the website if you need to get the bullet points for all of these. And also check out the calendar. We're coming to some cities near you very, very soon. Several Grow Leader one-day regionals happening for the rest of 2024. We're so grateful you're here with us. I hope you have the best week. We'll see you next time on the Grow Leader Podcast. Hey everybody, thank you so much for listening to this episode. And we also want to say a big thank you to all of our partners that helped make the Grow Leader Podcast happen each and every month. The first is Compassion International. For over 70 years, they have served the most vulnerable children in the world in Jesus' name through the power of the local church. They've impacted over 2.3 million children, and they're not stopping anytime soon. Learn more about how you can be a part of what they're doing at compassion.com/growleader. The next is our newest partner, Studio C. Studio C can help you know your people and grow your church. They combine strategy, technology, and communications to maximize church member engagement. You can bridge the engagement gap and transform your church's impact with Studio C. Learn more about them at their website. It's studioc.org/growleader. And finally, a big thank you to the Wesland Investment Foundation. For over 80 years, the Wesland Investment Foundation has helped churches with their borrowing and their investing needs. Whether you're dreaming of a new opportunity or seeking wise counsel about resource management, WIF can assist you. You can learn more about them at wifonline.com/growleader.