Page 4 - Principles for Discipling Others-Student textbook

teaching with a view toward obedience of all that Jesus said. In summary then, making disciples
includes both evangelism and instruction in the Christian faith.

This is a course about discipling others in Christ. How do we win others to Christ? Then, how do we
nurture a new, born again “babe in Christ” into a strong disciple, willing and able to win and train
others? Why do so many who come to know Christ as Savior tend to at first be thrilled with their new
faith in Christ, but gradually lose that excitement and drift on into being a lackadaisical and non-
influential “average Christian”?

A Failed Discipleship and a Dying Church

This is the beginning of the year 2018 A.D. (Anno Domino).
That is to say 2018 years after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ,
God’s Son, and the Messiah, who died and rose again to become the
first fruits of eternal life for all who put their faith in Him. But it
seems that the percentage of those who do that (put their faith in
Him) is decreasing year after year. Statistics tell us there were about
st
7.2 billion people on earth at the beginning of the 21 Century
(2000). Of these about 2.4 billion are professing Christians. The
largest group is that of the Roman Catholic Church with about one
billion adherents; the second largest is the Greek Orthodox Catholic Church; and the third largest is
Protestant Christians (of all denominations). All together these represent about one-third of the earth’s
population (about 2.4 billion).

However, these statistics don’t tell the whole story. Most Catholics (Roman Catholics and Greek
Orthodox Catholics are counted simply by being born into Catholic families and most have very little
faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. The same can be said about most Protestants. Evangelical Christianity
seems to be very much in a minority in our present world.

Decades ago, on a Sunday morning, church doors were opened and the sound of a multitude of
feet of boys and girls, men and women could be heard entering church sanctuaries. Voices were raised
in hymns and prayers as “the faithful” gathered for worship. Today churches are rapidly becoming
redundant…treated as if they were not needed any more. Times change….footsteps lessen or
cease…and buildings find themselves being put to other uses or bull-dozed to create apartments and
parking garages. This disuse follows the sorrowful pattern of dying spirituality, not just in Europe but in
America and other parts of the world.

Sarcastically, due to failures of the church it is sometimes referred to as the “Great Omission”. Billy
Hanks Jr. and William Shell write, “Historically it is difficult to discover why the simple plan which
worked so effectively in the early church ceased to be used in later generations . . . The challenge of the
future is simply to apply the timeless divine strategy of the past. Nothing less than total victory should
be expected in world evangelization and church growth.” (Billy Hanks Jr. and William
Shell, Discipleship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 12, 13.)

The Scope of the Problem

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