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disciplemakingdnaseries1 • Becoming a Disciple-Maker

To Multiply or Not Multiply – That is The Question

Shortly after my wife, Virginia, and I became Christians, we met Waldron Scott, a young man about our age who took a personal interest in us. He had been helped in his Christian life by a fellow serviceman while stationed on Guam with the Air Force in World War II. We were classmates in college, and he came over to our home once a week or so to share spiritual truths with us and to help us in our growth.

His actual working with us began on the day I asked him why there seemed to be such an obvious difference in our Christian lives, why he was like he was and Virginia and I were like we were. He was able to quote the Scriptures; fairly regularly he would tell how God had answered his prayers; he seemed to know his Bible well.

He came over that night and asked me some questions. Did I read my Bible regularly? No, hardly ever. Did I study it? Again, no. Did I memorize it? Aha, here I had him. The previous Sunday our pastor had preached on Matthew 6:33, and I had been so impressed by the verse that I memorized it when I got home.

“Great,” Scotty said. “Quote it for me. Let’s hear it.”

I couldn’t remember it. I realized then that there was something lacking in my Scripture memory program.

Then he asked, “Do you pray?”

“Well, yes,” I told him. “At mealtimes I repeat a prayer I have memorized.” We were just sitting down for some refreshments, so I said my prayer: “Bless the food which now we take to do us good for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

During the course of the evening it became obvious that there was much more to prayer than that. He offered to meet with my wife and me and share some of the things that had been of help to him. We were eager to do so.

We began. Scotty taught us how to read the Bible and get something out of our reading. He taught us how to do personal Bible study and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, apply its lessons to our lives. He taught us to memorize the Word so that it would be available to the Holy Spirit twenty-four hours a day. He taught us how to assimilate the Scriptures into the spiritual bloodstream of our lives through meditation on the Word. He taught us how to pray and expect answers from God. That was a blessed year for us. We were eager to learn, and Scotty was willing to spend time with us.

The next year I began my sophomore year, and Scotty continued to meet with us. We were continuing to grow and my Christian life was full of new discoveries. We had discovered the high adventure of abundant Christian living as the Lord was becoming more personal and real in our lives.

Midway through the first semester, a classmate came up to me and said, “You know, LeRoy, I’ve been watching you. Your Christian life is sure on a different plane than mine.” And he began asking some questions, essentially what I had asked Scotty the year before.

I smiled. “Well, do you read your Bible regularly?”

“No.”

“Do you study it?”

No again.

“Do you memorize the Scriptures?”

No, he didn’t do that either.

“Do you pray?” Still no.

I suggested we get together and talk about these things. He was eager and enthusiastic, so we began. I shared with him the things Scotty had shared with me, and he began to grow in his Christian life. He began to dig into the Word, pray, and witness, and the Spirit of God worked mightily in his life that year.

The following year I transferred to the University of Washington, and my friend transferred to another school. A few months after school began, I received an interesting letter from him. He had been attending a Christian fellowship on campus, and a fellow student had come up to him and asked him about his Christian life. It seemed this student had noticed a difference and wanted to find out about it. So my friend asked him some questions that had to do with Bible reading, study, memory, and prayer. He had shown a keen interest in doing these things, so my friend had begun to share with him on a regular basis the things he had learned from me and that I had learned from Scotty.

Meanwhile, a Christian student had come up to me on the University of Washington campus . . . and so it goes. For many years now, I have been involved in helping others personally in their Christian lives. I’ve watched the interest that pastors, missionaries, dedicated laymen, college and seminary students, and servicemen have shown in helping others individually as well. Today, a growing groundswell of interest in multiplying disciples is to be seen in many churches and by many people.

 

– From “The Lost Art of Disciple Making ,” LeRoy Eims.  Used by permission of the author.

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