I trust you to tell me if I am crazy for taking Back to the Bible in this direction (knowing full well that many of you will let me know😊).
Basically, I believe from the bottom of my heart that you and I have been mis-led. And it has robbed you and me of one of the greatest joys in life in the process.
It all started years ago. Many well-intentioned, professional Christian people, saw a need and thought you and I would never be motivated to do what God asked—namely to continually disciple ourselves and those around us.
Our latest research is pointing out that discipling others is one of the greatest joys in life as Christ Followers. However, over 76% of us are missing out on that joy because we do not share our faith in a year’s time. Instead, we are satisfied to essentially pay to have someone else do it. This little lie has had a devastating effect on your life and mine—as well as the church in America.
Thus, as a fellow Christ Follower, we each need to be reminded of the old saying:
Fool me once, shame on you;
Fool me twice, shame on me;
Fool me continuously, shameless & powerless we both be.
Bottom Line Upfront: No matter what Jesus tells us in the Bible, you and I have been convinced that someone else is much better equipped, and can do a much better job, of evangelizing and discipling others—especially for us Christ Followers here in the U.S. In fact, the ministry industry has created a science around telling stories that are so compelling that all we have to do is send money for their machine to do our work. Please consider this and email us to let us know what you think.
To dig further into these ideas together, consider how we are all a work in progress spiritually. Daily discipleship of ourselves, and the people around us, is sometimes just plain-old hard work. It’s not the stuff of which heroes are made. Spiritual growth and life transformation is pretty messy. For many of us, it takes a lifetime. So really, what huge accomplishments are there to brag about?
In reality, however, we all love a good salesperson and the big stories that sound like huge accomplishments. Who wants to be a part of something that encourages a person to do little things each day? Where’s the pizzazz in teaching one individual at a time to develop a daily, life-changing habit that could take over a year to solidify?
I have a video of our lab where we are figuring out these little things that add up to daily habits and significant life change—if given time. To be honest, I have been advised by experts not to show it to you. It starts simply by looking at a group of people, like you and me, and how they are doing spiritually in Back to the Bible’s personalized, 4-step spiritual fitness program.
The entire goal of the 4-steps is to help motivate anyone, within a year, to develop the daily habit of growing in the Lord as well as reaching out to others in a mentoring/discipling way (also daily). Call me crazy, but we wanted to see how, why and if it could actually work. So, we built the most sophisticated spiritual fitness lab in the world, and started documenting the process of how people are doing spiritually on a daily basis. I mean really…who does that?
Thus, it’s a little ironic that I bring this topic to you just as we are setting out on our first ever case-building, email series of why your partnership is important and needed at this time. As a ministry, we have risked everything to discover and create more effective outreach and discipleship. It’s a dream that has been developing over the last 18 years. With your interest, prayers and gifts, I am glad to say that all of the effort has resulted in this methodology and platform for print and digital.
Small Steps Towards Everyday Discipleship
Know up front that the results, at first, are pretty detailed. And like our own spiritual lives, somewhat routine, boring and lacking sizzle. Hmmm, that sounds like most of our everyday lives, too. But here is the great news: It helps motivate people like you and me to become Biblically engaged and disciple makers.
When Joe finally stops watching pornography for a day, or Sally stops worrying about everything for a day, no one is going to cry. But these are actually really small, repeatable miracles. Joe and Sally started focusing more on Jesus for the day than either did the day before! Plus, they reached out to someone to tell them about Jesus in the process!
Isn’t that the whole point? Back to the Bible wants to get into someone’s daily routine—knowing each has real struggles and how they’re probably not the Bible Answer Person. But it’s in the daily routine where motivation helps establish the habit of focusing on Jesus and others instead of on oneself. It’s really an “each one win one” type of concept.
It’s not about millions of people here at the start. It’s only going to start small while we’re all relying on God and the Holy Spirit to bring the real exponential growth. We do the small things now trusting they’ll scale up to the big numbers in a few years. I know that God and the Holy Spirit will bring the big growth at the perfect time, but it starts in you and me today. That’s all full of logic, but certainly no sizzle or tears streaming down our cheeks.
I hope you’re not too shocked. This notion is counter-intuitive to just about everything you have been led to believe about lives being transformed with the Gospel. However, if our world is going to change, if the church is going to be revitalized, if those we love are going to turn to the Lord, you and me starting today, one life at a time, is what it will take.
Our role as Christ Followers is not limited to just being financial contributors. Right now, you and I are gifted and equipped by God to reach others and make disciples. He crafted each of our personalities with a sense of compassion, gifts and talents to be used in reaching someone else. We must stop believing others can do these things better. Will there be discomfort, risk, and potential awkwardness in sharing our faith? Yes. But it’s just as Jesus intended (and what He wants to help us through).
He never told us to “Write a check, and let others make disciples.” In Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….” His command was not directed solely at pastors, missionaries, or parachurch organizations. It was directed at each and every one of us.
I’m going to ignore the experts and show you the video of our lab: https://bttb.org/LabTour
Please take a look. It demonstrates my commitment to you and how important this “each one win one” concept really is. Know too, it demonstrates how Back to the Bible will be here to help you each step of the way. Let’s not be mis-led anymore.
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