Follow-Up and Discipling
From KB, 2004:
- From Carol H. video
Carol tells of God’s love and acceptance,
Teach the people how to express the gospel.
Use opportunities to share Jesus, be aware in all situations
Visit elderly with others, pray for them.
People saw Jesus in Carol and in how she was hardworking, the people saw what God can do through her and were encouraged.
Love – not just in word but also in actions.
Jesus loves through us, provides through us.
Word won’t return empty, God is working and will bring fruit.
- From Todd R. Video, new church planted
The new church and people need to be dependant upon God and not upon the missionaries or other churches.
It is the missionary’s goal to work themselves out of a job.
Pray.
Get the people focused on outreach, they tend to be so excited about their new faith in Christ that they insist on going out and telling neighboring people.
From interview with WF and FF. In working with university students, and discipling them, he helped them try to figure out what student ministries they wanted. He encouraged all that they did to be closely related to the church next door. It is important to stay connected with the church and not become just a group. They spent times of fellowship, sometimes at his house for a less structured evening. He found this important so they could have a place where they could really understand each other, and see where one another was. He wanted them to learn how to pray for each other. The relaxed time was needed, because worship on Sunday was more structured and they needed something more. The fellowship grew and more people were invited. This resulted in new believers and people getting baptized.
Another part of follow-up and discipling is listening. He found that he could witness through listening to others. This led to him learning more about counseling, for that came to be a major part of his follow-up with others.
From 2nd video of the Takagoulo tribe:
they found that having a porch invited visitors in to hang out and visit.
The Pastors of their culture only had 2-5th grade education, but loved to dig into the word and find what God was saying and what it meant for their people. They had a such a desire to learn, that some would travel many miles to come to be taught.
Ideas from BP, 2003
Missionaries make every effort to get local leaders involved right from the start.
The local people need to know how to lead their church after the missionaries are gone.
Health and agricultural problems have the same goal, success after the missionaries leave.
Missionaries encourage local leaders to search Scripture for the answers to their own questions. Missionaries try not to give the answers, but the verses.
Struggle to support local people. Teaching local churches to support themselves and take care of each other.
See national leaders as partners
PRAY!! Pray especially for the leaders being trained. – God Gave the Growth Video
In the story of the Mouk people, the missionary to Papua New Guinea involved the people in the telling of Bible stories. Instead of simply telling the Bible stories, he gave the people the opportunity to act out the stories so the people could watch the stories being acted out by their own people — EE-TAOW! Video
“After translation, what? Many things!
Literacy, of course, since even a New Testament is useless without someone to read it.
And more translation. New Testament translation should be followed immediately by Old Testament translation since so much of the New Testament is meaningless without the Old Testament background.
Leadership training is an urgent and unending need. Training in preaching and evangelism and Christian education is always necessary. For although a select few will be naturally-gifted preachers, evangelists and teachers, others will need to be taught how to communicate effectively.
Missionaries will need to dedicate decades to the writing and publication of literature: textbooks for the leadership training classes, Bible study guides and commentaries, Biblical history and geography, Sunday School materials, and tracts for evangelism. Booklets on natural science, agriculture and health will help the new Christians to understand the world they live in, and give them an alternative to their superstition and poverty.
Medical work usually is very urgent. Establishing village health centers and training Christian leaders to serve as paramedics frees the people from witchcraft, brings relief from suffering, and provides a powerful witness to the non-Christians.
The native evangelists will need tools with which to work. Tracts, cassette tapes and players, filmstrips, projectors and translated scripts will increase their effectiveness. Movie and video evangelism and radio programs can open up new areas rapidly to the gospel.
The tribal church will need to relate to the other Christian churches of its areas. Isolation provides security, but it also brings sterility. Just as the tribal church needs to realize how it fits into the history of God’s kingdom on earth, so also it needs to relate meaningfully to the church of its day. Its leaders need to have fellowship with the leaders of other tribal churches and the church leaders of the dominant national culture. Cross-pollination will bring inspiration and encouragement to all.
Music is so basic to a vital Christian church. Some tribes will spontaneously develop their own Christian hymnology, but others will need to be taught how to sing, how to play musical instruments, and how to create their own religious music.
Consequently, one of the great needs on the mission fields today is for missionaries who are equipped to follow up the translators and evangelists, feeding and strengthening the young tribal churches they have founded.” – Mission Work in Today’s World, pg. 157-158
Follow-Up and Discipling
“We can look at education either as communication of information that returns to us during examination week, or as character formation- education for life, as some people call it. Jesus took the existing model of mentoring and apprenticeship that was extant in his context and perfected it to alevel that has never been surpassed.
Broadly speaking, Jesus’ model included the following steps or elements:
- A mentor with godly character
- A mentor with a perfect blend of word and deed in the power of the Spirit
- A mentor with a mission (seen as a magnetic personality)
- A core of disciples, personally chosen by the master
- Discipleship through common living
- Participation in the mission of the master
- Short projects (without the master’s presence) in the context of discipleship
- Subsequent correction by the master
- A plan for the future- the true mission
- Power from on high- obedience in the absence of the master.
Jesus’ Model of Education- Levi DeCarvalho, Mission Frontiers, March-April
2003
Follow-Up and Discipling
“We can look at education either as communication of information that returns to us during examination week, or as character formation- education for life, as some people call it. Jesus took the existing model of mentoring and apprenticeship that was extant in his context and perfected it to a level that has never been surpassed.
Broadly speaking, Jesus’ model included the following steps or elements:
- A mentor with godly character
- A mentor with a perfect blend of word and deed in the power of the Spirit
- A mentor with a mission (seen as a magnetic personality)
- A core of disciples, personally chosen by the master
- Discipleship through common living
- Participation in the mission of the master
- Short projects (without the master’s presence) in the context of
discipleship
- Subsequent correction by the master
- A plan for the future- the true mission
- Power from on high- obedience in the absence of the master.
Jesus’ Model of Education- Levi DeCarvalho, Mission Frontiers, March-April
- BP
Follow-up and discipling
From interview with Wendal and Faith Friest by KW
In working with university students, and discipling them, Wendal helped them try to figure out what student ministries they wanted. He encouraged all that they did to be closely related to the church next door. It is important to stay connected with the church and not become just a group. They spent times of fellowship, sometimes at his house for a less structured evening. He found this important so they could have a place where they could really understand each other, and see where one another was. He wanted them to learn how to pray for each other. The relaxed time was needed, because worship on Sunday was more structured and they needed something more. The fellowship grew and more people were invited. This resulted in new believers and people getting baptized.
Another part of follow-up and discipling is listening. Wendal found that he could witness through listening to others. This led to him learning more about counseling, for that came to be a major part of his follow-up with others.
From 2nd video of the T tribe, by KW
Found that having a porch invited visitors in to hang out and visit.
The Pastors of their culture only had 2-5th grade education, but loved to dig into the word and find what God was saying and what it meant for their people. They had a such a desire to learn, that some would travel many miles to come to be taught.