Defining and Strategizing Outreach to UPGs in NYC - Part 3: Defining "Disciples" in the Gr
The second term in the Great Commission which we should clarify before we can discuss strategy is the term “disciples”. What did Jesus mean by using this term in His first century, Jewish context?
Much of this is explained right in the Great Commission itself when He says we are to “baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. This was an initiation in which the new believer is to be immersed and surrounded into the Trinitarian community – it was not simply dunking a person in water. Following this, Jesus tells us we are to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20 NIV). As Brian Jones wrote on Seniorpastorcentral.com (in a follow up to his article entitled Why Euthanize Small Groups):
Discipleship is not about teaching people Jesus’ teachings, but it is about teaching people how to obey Jesus’ teachings. In fact, that’s probably the simplest definition of a disciple I can give: A disciple is someone who knows and obeys Jesus and his teachings.
Who cares if someone can lead a small group discussion on worry? People become disciples in the presence of someone who can teach them how to stop worrying, from experience, by the power of Jesus.[11]
The meaning of the word “disciple” in Jesus day was not what many have come to associate with that word today. A disciple in Jesus day would probably best be described by our word “apprentice” today.[12] Merriam-Webster describes an apprentice as “someone who is bound by indenture to serve a [skilled master] … with a view of learning an art or a trade”.[13]
Perhaps we who consider ourselves Christian should ask ourselves what being a disciple of Jesus really means to us. In your own walk with Christ, do you see yourself as an apprentice? More to the point, do you view yourself as an “indentured servant” of Jesus Christ, striving to reach the goal of obeying everything He commands; following the examples that He has set so that one day you will become just like Him? For the most part, this is not what discipleship means in our western churches. Dallas Willard put it this way:
… I do not know of a denomination or local church in existence that has as its goal to teach its people to do everything Jesus said. I’m not talking about a whim or a wish, but a plan. I ask you sincerely, is this on your agenda? To teach disciples, surrounded in the triune reality, to do everything Jesus said? If that is your goal, you will certainly find a way to bring theological integrity and spiritual vitality together. But as you do so, you will find both your theology and your spirituality refreshingly and strongly modified.[14]
In the western church our model of discipleship seems to be mostly concerned with information transfer as opposed to the obedience and imitation of Christ. We go to church on Sundays, listen to a sermon and sing a few songs with some skilled musicians. We go to a bible study to le
arn more and immerse ourselves in an environment where we can ask knowledge-based questions. We are encouraged to read our Bibles so that we can increase our knowledge even further. But rarely are we expected to actually obey and put into practice what Jesus taught. The emphasis of such learning is certainly not obedience.
This is much different than what discipleship looked like in Jesus’ day. As Dallas Willard goes onto explain:
When Jesus walked among humankind there was a certain simplicity to being his disciple. Primarily it meant to go with him, in an attitude of observation, study, obedience, and imitation. There were no correspondence courses. One knew what to do and what it would cost. Simon Peter exclaimed, “Look, we have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). Family and occupations were deserted for long periods to go with Jesus as he walked from place to place announcing, showing, and explaining the here-and-now governance or action of God. Disciples had to be with him to learn how to do what he did.
Imagine doing that today. How would family members, employers, and co-workers react to such abandonment? Probably they would conclude that we did not much care for them, or even for ourselves. Did not Zebedee think this as he watched his two sons desert the family business to keep company with Jesus (Mark 1:20)? Ask any father in a similar situation. So when Jesus observed that one must forsake the dearest things —family, “all that he hath,” and “his own life also” (Luke 14:26, 33)—insofar as that was necessary to accompany him, he stated a simple fact: it was the only possible doorway to discipleship….
[So], there is still a decision to be made: the decision to devote oneself to becoming like Christ. The disciple is one who, intent upon becoming Christ-like and so dwelling in his “faith and practice,” systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end.[15]
Oddly enough this IS the kind of discipleship that can be found in places where we see the most persecuted churches on earth. Yet, in spite of their persecution, and because of their radical obedience to Christ, we find that it is in these areas of the world that the church is growing the most rapidly. While the evangelical churches of the West are shrinking, theirs are growing. While the evangelical church in America has shrunk from being a majority of the population to a minority of only 7%, and while American Evangelicals are losing their children to a plethora of non-Christian beliefs,[16] we can see first-hand how single house-church movements in places like China and India are winning and discipling new believers by the millions. Many of these movements no longer count their newly baptized believers by the hundreds, or by the thousands, or even in the hundreds of thousands; rather, many of these movements are measuring their baptisms in the millions. Such movements are now being observed in various places throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, China, and Northern and Western Africa.
In his book From Megachurch to Multiplication, Chris Galanos asked one of his friends who was involved in one of these movements what the difference was between our churches and theirs, and here is what they had to say:
“You guys focus on knowledge. We focus on obedience.” These friends call what we had been doing knowledge-based discipleship and what they do obedience-based discipleship. Their words stung a little, but I knew it was true.
He went on to explain:
In case it stings you a little too much, and you feel the urge to resist that characterization, I’d encourage you to think about this: In the American church, how do we decide when to move on to the next sermon or the next Bible study lesson? We move on once we’ve heard it, read it, or learned it, regardless of whether anyone has obeyed it. In fact, we would be insulted if the pastor preached the same sermon he preached last weekend because we didn’t obey it the first time. Or if our Bible study leader said the group would be repeating the lesson from last week because we didn’t obey it. In traditional American churches, obeying is not the goal. We move on once we’ve learned, not once we’ve obeyed; hence the term knowledge-based discipleship.
But in many DMM (Discipleship Making Movement) churches overseas, guess how they decide when to move on? When they’ve obeyed! In fact, they will often repeat the same lesson until everyone has obeyed it.[17]
If there is anything to be learned from this it is that, in designing a strategy to reach UPGs in New York City, such a strategy must include some kind of Obedience Based Discipleship. Because of the amount of oppression that many UPG background Christians face, even in the West, there is a tremendous need for a practical step by step, day by day, application-based discipleship that shows them how to practice the Presence of Christ in practical ways, especially in the midst of difficulties and persecutions.
Sharing Christ and Discipling UPGs in New York City
Before we get into methodology it is important to understand the reasons why urban cities with UPG populations are so strategic for missionary work. To put it simply, one of the best reasons is because the best missionaries to people groups that are Unreached usually tend to be individuals who are already part of that people group. Although there are exceptions to this rule, for the most part there is a shorter learning curve for people who already are familiar with their own culture. Even for second generation immigrants who serve as missionaries returning to their parent’s country, cultural adaptation and language acquisition is much faster and burn out is much less likely. Immigrants that come from Unreached People Groups and find a new life in Christ here in the west, and then return to their own people groups as missionaries tend to be very successful. They are able to bring people to the Lord and plant churches at a much quicker rate than a non-cultural missionary that may need to spend five years or more simply learning the language well. The opportunity we have in doing missions in western urban areas with UPG populations is huge.
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In February of 2006 a group from our church was doing an outreach in Astoria, Queens. We would go to Astoria every Wednesday night and knock on doors with Arabic or otherwise Muslim sounding names. Astoria is known for its Muslim population with several mosques open all week long. They have large Moroccan and Egyptian populations as well as Bengalis, Pakistanis, Indians and just about every other Muslim country you can imagine.
This particular night my sister and I knocked on the door of a Bengali woman who, seeing us out in the cold, felt sorry for us and let us in. She told us that her name was Parveen and we gave her a copy of the Jesus DVD and a New Testament in English (though we promised to come back with one in Bengali). Unbeknownst to us, Parveen had just given up on her religion. She had prayed the night before asking Allah why he had put her in a difficult work situation where she couldn’t practice her religion because her husband had her working eight hours a day, seven days a week. She had told Allah the day before that she was done with his religion (Islam) and that she wanted him to show her the truth.
Well, she didn’t come to the Lord right away, but that one meeting developed into a long-term friendship. My sister would go and visit her at least once a week and since she couldn’t come to church, we started having church services in the park and we would invite her to come as well (along with several other Muslim friends that wouldn’t be caught dead in a church). The service was short, but we would stay the rest of the day in the park getting to know our Muslim friends.
After five years of friendship Parveen started opening up about problems she was having in her marriage and with distant family members. We started to pray with her until one day she gave her life over to follow Jesus and was later baptized. Although she was dramatically transformed, she lived in fear of her husband and her father back in Bangladesh. After three years she finally picked up the courage to tell her family what Jesus had done for her. Needless to say, they were not very happy (although being in the United States made it much easier). Her father, who was very devout, disowned his daughter and said that he would never speak to her again. But God started working in the family.
Parveen returned to Bangladesh to visit the family and was praying that God would provide an opportunity for her to reach out to her mother and her brothers and sisters. While she was there her mother accepted Jesus as her personal savior. A while later her father also came to the Lord, and then her brother who was imprisoned in Dubai. After her brother accepted the Lord, he was miraculously freed and returned to his family in Bangladesh where he was baptized. And just this last week (8 years later) her sister, who immigrated to Germany, accepted Jesus as well. They are now have house church services in their home in Bangladesh.
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This is an example of what we can do as American missionaries reaching out to Bengalis here in the United States. Notice how quickly Parveen was able to work in Bangladesh, whereas it would have been much more difficult for an American missionary going to Bangladesh and trying to plant a church themselves. And we have seen this phenomenon happen with different people.
It’s also important to mention that New York City is a great training ground for missionaries that will be serving overseas. We had one young man who was studying at Nyack College and was planning on going to Morocco as a “undercover missionary” after graduation. For four years he trained with us and practically lived among the Moroccan population in Queens. Although he was American, he became fluent in Moroccan Arabic before he ever left the United States. When he arrived in Morocco the mission agency that sent him said that they had never had a missionary so well prepared to reach out to Moroccans as what they had in this young man.
We have also worked with several interns in the past and it has always worked out well. They always return to their schools or churches with a new heart and a vision for reaching the Unreached.
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[11] https://seniorpastorcentral.com/953/why-churches-should-euthanize-small-groups
[12] Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission (p. 44). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
[13] Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary, 1999
[14] Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission (p. 61). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
[15] Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission (p. 6-7). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
[16] Dickerson, John S. The Great Evangelical Recession (p. 26, 28, 97-104). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[17] Galanos, Chris. From Megachurch to Multiplication: A Church's Journey Toward Movement (loc. 819). Experience Life. Kindle Edition.