How to Disciple Well

A Discipleship Guide for the Everyday Leader

Assemblies of God Christian Education and Discipleship

• Publisher: Gospel Publishing House
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781607316459
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

What does it mean to "disciple well"? Discipleship is not one moment that takes place during a salvation experience. Instead, it's an ongoing process in by which your ministry shows believers how to live the lifelong commitment to share Jesus with the people all around them. This guide is designed to help the everyday leader successfully disciple believers in their church through three areas: (1) systematic study(2) effective teaching(3) excellence in leadershipEmbark on a journey where you can enrich your faith, equip your ministry, and, most of all, learn to disciple well.

SECTION 1

DISCIPLE WELL THROUGH
SYSTEMATIC BIBLE STUDY

It is true that increased access to information through social media has helped to spread the good news of the Bible. Yet the sheer amount of voices and information we have at our fingertips has also brought challenges. The church faces what L. V. Orman coined the “information overload paradox.”³ In essence, we have a Google problem. The current information saturation allows people to find sources to justify every idea.

This is a problem for the church: Such widespread inferior and even false information about the Bible creates a distraction from the true good news of the gospel. The solution? Disciple people through the systematic study of God’s Word. To produce Christ-centered, biblically literate disciples with high-quality information, we who are discipling must know how to study and teach the Bible.

Though the Bible is made of many different books written in different styles across different time periods, it is one story with a beginning and an end. “The Bible is one epic narrative about how God has appointed humanity as His partners to oversee this amazing world. It is about how we ruined that partnership and how God is restoring us and His world through Jesus…. The Bible is one unified story that points us to Jesus.”⁴

If we want to learn about Jesus through our primary textbook, the Bible, we must know how to study it and interpret it correctly. This is referred to as hermeneutics. To practice good hermeneutics we must read and study the Bible systematically. That means we consider in an orderly way the full breadth, depth, and majesty of God’s grace, Jesus’ redemptive work, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance through the entire Bible. If we attempt to teach the Bible in a haphazard and piecemeal way, we risk teaching misguided truth and missing out on the unified story of Jesus.

For example, when we read Genesis, we might be tempted to look up to Abraham who was called the father of many nations and credited by the writer of Romans with great faith. Although Abraham did have many admirable qualities and great faith in God, he also slept with his wife’s servant, effectively breaking his marriage covenant and imitating the ungodly culture around him. Similarly, we might hold King David in high esteem as a man after God’s own heart who defeated the vengeful King Saul, ruled the Israelites generously, and wrote many beautiful, intimate psalms. Yet, he committed adultery and murder.

Sometimes people read these stories and feel a disconnect with individuals like Abraham and David who were exalted by God though they committed sinful acts. People wonder why they should believe in a God who permitted such atrocious behavior.

Unfortunately, these questions and doubts arise when we read and interpret the Bible in a selective way rather than as one full story of God’s redemption as told from Genesis through Revelation. The story of the Bible illustrates the repeated failure of humanity, as well as God’s love and care for humanity despite our failings. It illustrates humanity’s great need for a Savior, pointing toward the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The stories of Abraham and David illustrate God’s desire to use humanity in spite of our blatant sins. It illustrates that no one, no matter how great, can save themselves. Only God, in His amazing mercy and through Jesus’ atoning death, can forgive our sins. That is the good news of the gospel that we learn by systematically reading and understanding the Bible as one unit.

We want to help church leaders understand the Bible as a unified story so they can teach this to others. We want to give them the necessary tools to study the Bible and teach others to do so as well. The next section will focus on some of these tools, specifically context and genre, doctrines, and avoiding fallacies.

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3 L. V. Orman, Information Overload Paradox: Drowning in Information, Starving for Knowledge (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016).

4 Timothy Mackie, The Bible Project, www.thebibleproject.com.

CHAPTER ONE

CONTEXT AND GENRE

To effectively and systematically study the Bible, we need to understand context and genre. Context means we need to understand what was happening in the lives of the people who wrote the text and the people they wrote it for. They lived in a much different time and culture than our own. To understand what they wrote, we need to understand their culture. Think of it as crossing a bridge from our modern world to the ancient world of the Bible. The Bible was also written in a variety of literary forms, styles, or genres. For example, the style of writing in a poem is much different from that in a story or a text about history. The style impacts the meaning of the text. To understand the correct meaning of a Bible text we need to understand the style or genre the author used. Genres include history, law, songs, poetry, prophecy, and apocalyptic imagery.

We want to consider several types of contexts and genres within Scripture to better understand the Bible’s unified story. (Additional study tools to help with this are at the end of section 1.)

CONTEXT

Historical-Cultural Context—If we want to understand the true meaning of a Bible text, we must first understand what the writer intended it to say to the original audience. It is a bit like going on a journey to discover the meaning, and we must begin that journey by answering a basic question: What were the customs, culture, and language of the audience? These form part of the historical-cultural context. As we understand the different historical-cultural contexts of the Bible, we learn to apply the text to our lives more accurately. “For our interpretation of any biblical text to be valid, it must be consistent with the historical-cultural context of that text. If our interpretation would not have made sense back then, we are probably on the wrong track.”⁵

Our goal is to discover what the writer intended to say. A good starting place is to gather information about the writer and the audience. Other important elements might include the social, political, economic, geographic, and religious contexts that affected the culture of that time.

As you prepare a sermon, discussion, or lesson on a particular passage of Scripture, ask yourself these questions:

• Who was the author?

• What was his background?

• When did he write?

• What was the nature of his ministry?

• What kind of relationship did he have with the audience?

• Why was he writing?

• Who was the biblical audience?

• What were their circumstances?

• What was their relationship to God?

• What kind of relationship did they have with each other?

• What was happening at the time the passage was written?

• Are there any other historical-cultural factors that might shed light on the book?⁶

Literary Context—To consider the literary context of a passage, we notice what is being discussed in the surrounding verses, the message of the book of the Bible where it is located, and how the passage fits into the message of the Bible as a whole. We want to trace the writer’s train of thought and discover why he said what he said and how it relates to the other text that surrounds the Scripture passage we are studying. This helps us avoid the error of taking verses out of context and accidentally misrepresenting what the Bible says.

Part of understanding the literary context of a passage involves knowing the different literary styles or genres used by Bible writers. The following section outlines these.

GENRES

OLD TESTAMENT GENRES

1. Law—According to Paul, the purpose of the Law was to make the Israelites conscious of their covenant with God (Romans 3:19–20). The Law records the customs, rituals, and ethics that distinguished the Israelites from all other people as belonging to God. In teaching from these Scriptures, we must avoid two extremes. The first extreme is applying Old Testament Law directly to the life of the Christian today without regard to the cultural situation of the original audience. The second extreme is to ignore the Law completely, believing it should not matter to the life of a contemporary Christian. It is important to remember that the Law was God’s wise provision for His people in ancient times. It continues to teach us the nature of God, the wonder of His holiness, and the reality of our sinfulness.

Books that contain Old Testament Law include Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

2. Historical Narrative—Historical narratives are true-life stories written from a particular perspective to accomplish the author’s intent. These stories do not teach doctrine directly but often illustrate doctrines found elsewhere in the Bible. They teach us who God is and how He interacts with humankind. When teaching from Old Testament historical narrative, you should remember to focus the application of the story on how God deals with men and women. It is also important to explore the choices people made in the story. These choices often relate to the choices we make in our everyday lives—but be cautious! There are plenty of examples in the Old Testament of people who made extremely bad choices.

Old Testament books that contain historical narrative include Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Many of the books of prophecy also include sections of historical narrative.

3. Wisdom and Poetry—Wisdom literature is a collection of generally short statements about what is true in life. Although this form of Hebrew poetry is different from modern poetry, it is the same type of literature. It uses colorful, often exaggerated, or symbolic language to express the author’s feelings. When teaching from wisdom and poetic literature, remember that these are not literal descriptions, but artistic or emotional records of God’s activity within the life of the believer. We can draw conclusions from this type of literature, but the writer’s purpose was usually not to tell the readers, “Here’s what to believe about God.” Old Testament poetic literature helps us examine our feelings in the light of God’s truth, and wisdom literature helps us make wise choices in the light of God’s truth.

Old Testament books that contain wisdom and poetry include Genesis, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and parts of the prophetic books.

4. Prophetic Literature—Prophetic literature in the Old Testament tells how God’s prophets relayed direct messages from Him to His people. We often associate prophecy with future events, but much of Old Testament prophecy is about telling the nation of Israel what would happen right away or what the consequences are for their current actions. When teaching Old Testament prophecy, remember that the words of the prophets were directed to people under the old covenant of the Law and were written to reveal God’s plan to His people. To apply these prophecies to our lives today, we must emphasize what they tell us about God, His relationship with people, and how they might relate to Christians under the new covenant.

Books in the Old Testament that include prophetic literature are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

NEW TESTAMENT GENRES

1. Gospels—The Gospels are narratives combined with the direct faith teaching of Jesus. Each G...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Section 1: Disciple Well through Systematic Bible Study
• Section 2: Disciple Well through Effective Teaching
• Section 3: Disciple Well through Excellent Leadership
• Conclusion
• What’s Next?
• Sample Test