Daydream-(n) a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake.
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If daydreaming were a real class at school, i’d pass. If a grade were given for how much time i spent thinking about hopes, dreams, and ambitions…college would be a breeze. In the world of school, daydreaming has kind of gotten a bad rap, but is it really that bad?
As much as i love being a student and learning new things, there is something so much greater at stake than my latest lecture class. (Mom Moment: make the grades you need to stay in school) It’s my life mission…
Maybe we should break the rules on daydreaming. Especially if we’re daydreaming about one thing…making Jesus famous! There is one BIG question about our life purpose that causes my mind to shift from the economic policies and theories up on the Powerpoint to dreaming beyond this lifetime.
The BIG Question: How is this accomplished?
Big Answer: Discipleship.
i feel like this is a word we may hear quite a bit, or at least in reference to Jesus and the disciples…but let’s do a little Discipleship 101.
What is Discipleship?
Basic Terms: Training people to reach other people with the gospel.
It all started with Jesus calling a few men to follow Him. His concern wasn’t creating programs or bibles studies, but with men who people would follow. Jesus’ objective was to win and enlist people who could witness to His life and carry on His work after He returned to the Father.
I will make you fishers of men. ~Matthew 4:19
In preparing to be a group leader this summer we’re reading “The Master Plan of Evangelism” by Robert E. Coleman. Here’s an excerpt:
Christ is the perfect example. His objective was clear: He intended to save out of the world a people for Himself and to build a church of the Spirit which would never perish. No one was excluded from His gracious purpose. His love was universal - He died for all sins and all people; to him there was no distinction between home and foreign. To Jesus it was all world evangelism. He planned to win! His life was ordered by His objective. Everything He did and said was a part of the whole pattern. He never lost sight of His goal - to redeem the world for God. We must carefully consider His strategies, for He designed a plan that wouldn’t fail.
Why Discipleship?
The simple answer, it’s how Jesus did it. But more directly, this was the plan that God chose to use to reach the multitudes of people He created.
I have given you an example. ~John 13:1.
Knowing that time is always a factor, we have to use our time strategically and with purpose. Discipleship is strategic.
For the math geek in me, check out these #s.
- In Year 1 of making disciples, 1 person is won to Christ and a vision is trained and equipped into Him.
- In Year 2, both you and your disciple win and train a person.
- In Year 3, each of the four of you win and train a person.
- In Year 4, each of the 8 of you win and train a person.
- At the end of 30 years, 1 billion people will know Christ and be trained to teach others.
Is there another option?
--David Platt in the book ‘Radical’ puts it best.
“We are plan A, and there is no Plan B.”
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Everything starts as somebody's daydream. So dream away friends, dream away!
~Larry Niven
