STEP 1 · THE SCOPE
The Ebook Overview
← Wall of Ideas · Next: The 31 Day Challenge →
Disciples University
3-Step Discipleship Process
Acknowledgements
Thank you for your friendship, prayer, technical, and financial support in the
development of Disciples University, a discipleship strategy.
RK & JoAnn Ackerman, Mike & Vanessa Carroll, Rob Cazin, Stephen DeSantis, Anthony & Rachel Digiovanni, Sarah Ewald, Joseph Eisentrager, James & Beth Eisentrager, Chris & Marina Graeve, John & Beverly Harris, Jason Marie, Jeff and Lisa Masters, Mike & Nabila Mckeehan, Dan & Lee Rodden, and Nick VanNice.
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The 3-Step Discipleship Process
Step 1 — Understand the vision → this ebook
Step 2 — Learn the content → 31-Day Challenge
Step 3 — Multiply → 153 Fishing Strategy
Step 1 – Understand the vision
A disciple-making leader sees beyond himself to the faithful men who will teach others also. According to 2 Timothy 2:2 our vision should be to find faithful men. These men learn the content of a discipleship plan so they can find faithful men who can repeat the process.
Introduction:
At age 18 we were students at Moody Bible Institute in the late sixties. We were addicted to fun so we made videos with a Super 8 camera to record our fun lives … until the riots in Chicago shut down our school. That was a wake up call that forced us to think about our times.
Today our 18 year old grandchildren encounter people who embrace Sharia Law, Woke Marxism and radical gender issues. They need a discipleship strategy that gives them tools to address any worldview.
How does a Biblical Worldview do that?
Francis Schaeffer explained that our two impoverished values of personal peace and affluence led to a worldview shift. At one time in American history Biblical truth was applied to science, to government, to family, to business, etc. But many Christians drifted into a life of personal peace and a focus on earthly things.
So, we are the Problem?
Yes, if we neglect being salt and light in the culture, then self-government under God will be replaced with some other worldview. Worldviews that are led by self-serving tyrants who will take us captive.
What kind of people should we be?
Paul told Timothy to think about a soldier, an athlete and a farmer, These people have Courage, Conviction and Competence. They have a big goal and they know how to reach that goal. So the scope and sequence of a discipleship plan is important to understand.
What is the scope and sequence of a discipleship plan?
The scope is five big points (meta-narratives) and the sequence is a 31-day challenge that is given to others who repeat the process.
Here are the five big points.
Point 1 – The 1 Plan of the Trinity
Point 2 – The 2 Testaments that explain this Plan
Point 3 – The 3 Parts of a Biblical Worldview that frame the Plan.
Point 4 – The 4 Cities of thought that resist the Plan.
Point 5 – The 5 Partnerships that advance the Plan
Why do we call this discipleship plan Disciples University?
Jesus said to his disciples: “Follow me, and I will make you Fishers of men.”
A Disciple is a person who is willing to follow, willing to learn, and willing to fish.
A University teaches that All Truth is God’s Truth. Many fields of knowledge ultimately belong to one coherent reality.
Pluralversity — embraces many competing “truths” and perspectives without
acknowledging a final standard by which they can be judged.
Multiversity — contains many disciplines, philosophies, and purposes under one
institutional roof without necessarily possessing a unifying worldview.
Disciples University provides arguments, illustrations and applications of God’s Universal truth. We use videos, charts and links to explain God’s view of reality, truth and value.
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Step 2 – The Five Points of Discipleship – covered in 31 days
Logically, all education, discipleship, and evangelism begin with the plan of the Trinity. This great plan to redeem us is taught in all ten sections of the Bible: five in the Old Testament and five in the New Testament.
Then we study the three parts of a Biblical Worldview; the foundation, the formation and its function. This equips us to understand those trapped in the worldviews of four “Cities of thought”
Finally, we use a “Fishing Strategy” in all five partnerships to give others the reality, truth and value of God’s Worldview.
Summary:
One Great Plan of the Trinity 3 days
Two Testaments reveal this Plan 10 days
Three Worldview components of the Plan 9 days
Four “Cities” (mindsets) that need the Plan 4 days
Five Partnerships that advance the Plan 5 days
_______
31 days
When you finish day 1, the system asks you when you want the next day
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Step 3 – A 153 Fishing Strategy
This strategy is based on the last chapter of the Gospel of John where we find our Lord providing Breakfast on the Beach.
Chapter 21: 4- 6
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it,
21:8
The disciples dragged the net full of fish – large fish, 153 of them.
21:12
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
21: 20 The breakfast on the beach conversation centered on the life disciples would live as they “fished for men.
Summary:
Jesus tells us where to fish. And when we catch fish the net does not break. We realize that as we follow the master fisherman we become like our Lord. We find faithful men who can join the process.
153 – 1 Leader asks 5 people to take 3 steps
3 Steps:
Step 1 – give them the overview
Step 2 – give them the five points of content
Step 3 – give them the opportunity to join us.
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Seven Benefits of the 3 step process
Benefit 1 – Learn a fixed goal for life as a follower of Christ.
D.L. Moody said, “I do not fear failure, rather I fear succeeding at something that does not really matter.”
Lead five people into the three step process. Assist them as needed.
Benefit 2 – Learn the skill of asking Questions.
3000 questions are asked in the Word of God
300 questions were asked by Jesus
3 foundational questions of Jesus are:
1. “Who do you say that I am?” — Matthew 16:15
2. “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits
his soul?” — Matthew 16:26
3. “Do you love Me?” — John 21:15–17
Benefit 3 – Learn Apologetics (R.E.A.D.)
REASONS
a “reasoned defense” is explained in 1 Peter 3:15: “be prepared to give a reason for the hope within you, while doing so with gentleness and respect.”
Why should I believe it? Eyewitness testimony, investigation, and a reasoned defense. – Luke 1:1–4; Acts 17:2–3; 1 Peter 3:15
EVIDENCES
Jesus essentially says that if people struggle to believe His words, they should consider His works: “though you do not believe Me, believe the works. John 10:37–38
Fulfilled prophecy is evidence — Isaiah 41:21–23; 46:9–10 .
ANSWERS
The 31 Day process provides clear answers in these categories:
CREATION — God Created
SCRIPTURE — God has spoken.
CHRIST — God has acted.
DEFEND
Good communicators follow 3 basic rules:
Level 1 – Develop a good argument (reasoned defense).
Level 2 – Develop good illustrations of the argument.
Level 3 – Apply this argument with clear language.
The Bible warns us “to no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Ephesians 4:14
Summary:
Reasons, Evidences and Answers Defend the Biblical Worldview. (Apologetics)
Benefit 4 – Learn to “Stand in the middle and fight both ways.”
Some in the church are so influenced by various world systems, or their own sinful flesh, or the whispers of the enemy…. that they live in fear or disillusionment. Making disciples is the cure. It keeps us focused on the goal.
Many outside the church resist the message. They focus on the cares of this world in a sea of competing ideas.
Illustrations of taking a stand
One Christian parent complained that passing out Issues and Answers newspapers to students getting off buses in secular schools was not a good idea. Sadly, she had no idea of what was in her children's textbooks, or the content of movies or TV programs her children were watching.
Another leader was shot and killed for putting up a sign on a university campus that read, “Ask me Anything”
Another leader told me that it was a waste of time and money to start crisis pregnancy centers, yet over 300 women accepted Christ as their Savior and many of their babies are now adults.
How do we avoid controversy? Do nothing, Say nothing, Be nothing.
Benefit 5 – “When Disciples Build, Culture Benefits.”
Where faithful churches grow, communities can flourish. Christians proclaim the Gospel, but they also build hospitals, establish schools, care for orphans and widows, feed the poor, advance literacy, strengthen families, defend human dignity, pursue justice, and serve their neighbors.
Advancing a Biblical Worldview is loving your neighbor.
Benefit 6 – The Wall of ideas
People trapped in all kinds of ideas need us. We use four essential tools:
Tool 1 – How to proclaim the book of beginnings – Genesis
Tool 2 – The Four Laws of a Worldview
Tool 3 – The principles of Bible Study – Hermeneutics
Tool 4 – Reasons, Evidences Answers, that Defend Christianity – Apologetics
(R.E.A.D)
Got Questions – At this site ask what is Hermeneutics? Ask what is Apologetics? Ask what is a Worldview?
Answers in Genesis – In the 31 days you will find a map called The Genesis Map. It has links to Seven Creation organizations that offer hundreds of answers that people ask.
The phone shaped “window” moves around the wall to address any worldview
Note: When Joseph Overton created a Window into culture his goal was to identify things outside what the public would accept. It became known as the Overton Window which is used by business and political leaders.
Outside the window…
- Some ideas are considered unthinkable.
- Some are considered radical.
- Some are acceptable.
- Some become popular.
- Some become public policy.
Christians use Psalm 1 as the “Window” “Blessed is the man who
walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor
stands in the way of sinners, nor
sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the
Law of the Lord,and on his
Law – He meditates day and night.”
Benefit 7 – A Young Man’s Quest
A young man spent time getting to know a young lady. One day he asked her … Would you go for a walk with me? I have been thinking about my future and would love to know your answers to a few questions.
Later that week as they were walking he explained that he had just finished the DU (Disciples University) 3 step strategy. She asked, What is that? He took his phone out and texted her a link to this ebook.
Then, he pulled out of his pocket a list of his four goals:
- To join people that would imitate Christ in the battle for the mind, the family, the church, and the culture etc.
- To learn how to understand Scripture, recognize competing ideas, defend truth, and explain a biblical worldview to others.
- To find skilled thinkers who could explain the traps of Radical Islam, Marxism, and Gender issues that are impacting our country.
- To understand the summary in the 31 day process entitled … Five Books that Shaped the Modern MIND.
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed — Paulo Freire (1970)
Education — reframed education around oppressor/oppressed categories and social transformation. - Rules for Radicals — Saul Alinsky (1971)
Organization & Power — strategies for organizing people, creating pressure and conflict, and pursuing political/social objectives. - After the Ball — Marshall Kirk & Hunter Madsen (1989)
Media & Persuasion — proposed a media strategy for changing public attitudes toward homosexuality through normalization and emotional persuasion. - How Should We Then Live? — Francis Schaeffer (1976)
Biblical Cultural Discernment — traced what happens when Western culture moves away from biblical revelation toward autonomous reason and relativism. - The Lie — Ken Ham (1987)
Genesis & Biblical Authority — argues that the foundational issue behind the creation/evolution debate is the authority of God's Word, beginning in Genesis.
She laughed and asked him, “So… you want to become the next Charlie Kirk?
He replied, I want to help thousands of men follow Jesus like Charlie did?
Over the next few months it became clear… Jesus says…
- Come and See (Curiosity)
- Follow Me (Commitment)
- Be With Me (Relationship)
- Learn From Me (Transformation)
- Go and Make Disciples (Multiplication)
They began building teams who were willing to take the three steps.
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Does this ebook clearly explain the problem, the five point plan, and the three steps of a discipleship strategy?
Thank you for completing Step 1.
Are you ready for Step 2 ?