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May 16 - July 4, 2025
When God determines the maturity of a church, he doesn’t count the Christians — he weighs them, and the weight is measured by how deeply his teaching has penetrated into a person’s life.
Jesus didn’t draw large crowds for the sake of counting heads or logging attendance.
Multipliers, authors Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown describe the mentality of a multiplier:
What if we shifted the focus from running out and grabbing as many people from outside of the community to bringing them in and spending more time discipling the people whom God has already entrusted to us? What if we decided to invest in those already attending week after week?
“He who studies the Torah and does not review is like one who plants and does not harvest.”
the rabbi thought the student could make the cut, he extended an invitation to follow him until the age of thirty, which is when most rabbis began their own ministries.
The task of the disciple was to become as much like the rabbi as possible.14
God knows what we are going to say before we ask, but still he commands us to pray.
When a rabbi tells a story, he speaks to the heart first and the head second.
When you follow the advice of the wicked, you stop walking. When you take the path of sinners, you move from standing to squatting. When you squat, you’re frozen. Your growth is at a standstill. Your devotional life is nonexistent, and your affection for the Lord is cold.
Hebrews think in pictures; Westerners think in bullet points and lists.
the Land of the Seven was named so because it represented the seven pagan nations driven from Israel in Joshua’s day. Jews believed that the area was dominated by the devil. The pagans were known for worship of fertility gods, and many of their practices were detestable to God’s people.6
Keshers are connections or linkages that a rabbi would make in his teaching, connecting it back to the Old Testament.
You cannot know the God of the Word unless you know the Word of God.
Jews, however, typically did not speak of salvation as an individual experience; for them, it is corporate.
the disciples were most likely young men, ranging in age between 13 and 20 at the time of their calling.
In this we learn that obedience precedes service.
the model practiced by Jesus: (1) lead while the disciples watch, (2) lead while the disciples assist, (3) assist while the disciples lead, and (4) watch while the disciples lead.
The group must live together in unity • The community itself is a means of spiritual growth • Growth is facilitated by Christian friendship • The group is a model for the church
A great leader is a great learner. The moment we stop learning, we cease leading.
the elevation of the clergy and the loss of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers led to a divide in the church and the neglect of discipleship.
Spiritual truths were conveyed through the stories of the apostles and their letters to the churches.
The common understanding of the church changed from being a people to a place, from a body to a building.
Preaching more than 44,000 times, Wesley averaged an incredible three sermons a day for fifty-four years.
being thoroughly convinced there was no medium but that every part of my life must either be a sacrifice to God or to me.
who began referring to the group as “Methodists” because of their methodical approach to the Christian life.
the idea of transformational small groups had begun to form in the Protestant church.
Wesley was struck by the certain confidence the Moravians had in the sovereignty of God, and
Into about ninety bands, each of which meets twice a week at least, but most of them three times a week, to “confess their faults one to another, and pray for one another, that they may be healed.”
Elton Trueblood, a noted twentieth-century theologian, once commented on the central problem facing the church, even as the membership rolls grew in number: a profound lack of involvement and the lack of serious commitment to the mission of Christ:
If you wonder why the people lack any sense of investment in community, it may be because the leaders lack it as well.
Discipleship must be the ministry of the church and not a ministry of the church for a world-changing movement to emerge.
Simple Church
The Master Plan of Evangelism
Discipleship is intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ.
Scripture tells us that the spiritual birthmarks of a person are the works they do. This does not mean that we are saved by our works. Rather, our works are the display of our salvation. We don’t work for salvation; we work from salvation.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
We have nothing to fear because we know how the story ends.
You cannot judge a rabbit’s aptitude at rabbitness by how it performs against a fish in a swimming race.
In every occurrence, the filling of the Holy Spirit is followed by an immediate proclamation of God’s glory, either through prophecy, speaking in foreign tongues, or hugely receptive Spirit-filled preaching.
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Evangelism
Don’t expect what you don’t inspect.
[The church] is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together . . . because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ. They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake.
The church may look like Shrek (an ogre), but it’s still the bride of Christ.
They pointed out that when we pray, we speak to God, but that when we study the Scriptures, God speaks to us.
Study the Scriptures slowly, • Journal the Scriptures daily, and • Memorize the Scriptures weekly.
H.E.A.R. method of studying the Bible: Highlight a passage, Explain it in context, Apply it to your life, and Respond in prayer.
