Stephen Smallman

10 Building Blocks for On-going Discipleship

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Following Footsteps

by Stephen Smallman

I went away with our elders for a time apart to re-examine our priorities as a church. The word “discipleship” started as one of many things on a “to do” list, and the more we talked and prayed, the more that word pushed its way to the top of the list.

That was all well and good, but almost immediately the discussion turned into a program — how could the elders begin “discipling” people, and how could that, in turn, multiply discipling throughout the congregation? Before we got too far down that road, I encouraged the group to substitute the phrase “making disciples,” from the Great Commission, for the word “discipleship.” That makes us stop and think biblically and comprehensively about just what Jesus’ mandate should mean in the life of our congregations.

A disciple of Jesus is a person who has heard the call of Jesus and has responded by repenting, believing the gospel, and following Him.

The positive reaction of our elders to the call to “make disciples” is part of a healthy refocus by many PCA churches. The importance of discipleship as a core activity of church life is certainly not new, but it doesn’t hurt to ask ourselves whether this clear biblical mandate has been relegated to a Wednesday-night men’s group, or some such program. Several months ago Presbyterian & Reformed (P&R) Publishing invited me to speak to this question in a booklet for its “Basics of the Faith” series. Here is a brief summary of what I wrote, trying to form a list of key issues to be included in a discussion of “making disciples” in our churches. I hope this serves as a conversation starter that leads to reflection and action on the part of ministry leaders.

1. True believers must think of themselves as disciples of Jesus.

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Gospel Discipling: Gospel & Evangelism

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Another area of major concern within the evangelical church today is the ineffectiveness of much evangelistic effort – when it is undertaken at all.

I think one key element in this ineffectiveness is the mindset evangelicals have established that concludes that the unbeliever needs an entirely different message from the believer. When there is a recognition that, in fact, we both need to hear the same message, an important change takes place both in the attitude of the Christian and in the atmosphere of the church. Instead of thinking we need to preach the gospel to them, the environment becomes one of mutual seeking to know the gospel, and the recognition that we are at different stages of understanding.  Furthermore, the proclamation of the gospel means more than evangelistic appeals.

Pastors and teachers who understand grace personally, and know how to distinguish Law and Gospel in their proclamation, will teach the gospel from anywhere in Scripture.

For all of the cultural changes we are experiencing, I still believe the church is a place where conversions can take place. But this requires that we have a setting in which all who come, come to hear and believe the gospel. This is happening today, and there are wonderful examples of churches where there are numerous conversions both in the services of the church and through the joyful overflow of the gospel in the daily lives of members.

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This is Part 5 of a 5-part series titled Gospel Discipling. This series is taken from an essay by Stephen Smallman, author of Spiritual Birthline and past Executive Director of World Harvest Mission. Some of the content has been edited. 

Thanks also to New City Fellowship of St. Louis, who posted Smallman’s essay on their web page.

To read Parts 1-4 click: Introduction; Romans as Model; Gospel & Adoption; Gospel & Renewal

Gospel Discipling: Gospel & Renewal

/ Dennis Griffith / 12 Comments

Not only is Gospel discipling the very heart of discipleship within churches, it is also the critical issue in the matter of renewal or revival in the church at large.

Dr. Richard Lovelace, in his modern classic work Dynamics of Spiritual Life, asks why the Church must think in terms of what he calls “cyclical renewal” when the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit should allow “continuous renewal”.  As he explains his “primary elements of continuous renewal,” they are summarized in what he calls a “depth presentation of the gospel”.

Lovelace writes:

Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. … Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.

In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church, multitudes within it must be led to build their lives on this foundation.

This is another way to speak of gospel discipling, and we are seeing evidence of such quiet but deep renewal in ministries in the United States and in other nations.

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This is Part 4 of a 5-part series titled Gospel Discipling. This series is taken from an essay by Stephen Smallman, author of Spiritual Birthline and past Executive Director of World Harvest Mission. Some of the content has been edited. 

Thanks also to New City Fellowship of St. Louis, who posted Smallman’s essay on their web page.

To read Parts 1-3 click: Introduction; Romans as Model; Gospel & Adoption

Gospel Discipling: Gospel & Adoption

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

World Harvest Mission was founded in 1983 under the leadership of Dr. C. John (Jack) Miller. Dr. Miller’s ministry had been revolutionized by his own rediscovery of the Gospel through studies in Galatians and the work of Martin Luther, and the results of that revolution became evident in multiple conversions in his church and subsequent interest in missions and evangelism. Dr. Miller asked, “How can we take the Gospel to others if we have not been mastered by it ourselves?” And so as part of its ministry preparation, the church began discipling people in the Gospel in a program now known as “Sonship”.

Key to the concept of Sonship is the recovery of the doctrine of Adoption.  The central ideas taught in Adoption include:

  1. The glorious truth of our sonship, even though we often act like orphans;
  2. The basis of our sonship in the finished work of Christ–this includes not only receiving the passive, or alien, righteousness of Christ for our forgiveness, but also understanding that because of the active righteousness of Christ we are actually welcomed by the Father as well-pleasing in his sight;
  3. A careful look into the true demands of the Law as a prerequisite for a full appreciation of our constant need for the Gospel;
  4. Repentance as a lifestyle for the Christian;
  5. Sanctification as well as justification by faith. This leads to a new paradigm for Christian living rooted in believing the gospel rather that the futile attempt to destroy the “flesh”;
  6. Faith expressing itself through love;
  7. The absolute centrality of prayer.

Just as critical as the truths taught in Adoption is the commitment to see that the gospel truths actually penetrate the heart and are beginning to affect the life, relationships and ministry of participants Believers. When people are actually discipled in the Gospel, not merely taught it, REAL change takes place. Continuously believing the gospel allows one to be frank about the reality of our own sin because any hope of righteousness is found in Christ and not in our outward performance.

The Gospel is for sinners. We must recognize that living in the reality of the Gospel is a constant battle. In fact, it could be argued that the essential issue of spiritual warfare is unbelief. Therefore we are in constant need of repentance and being renewed in the Gospel ourselves. Much of our joy in Gospel discipling is the way it encourages our faith as we witness the power of the Gospel transforming others.

Another challenge to the ministry has been to discover how easily Adoption can be divorced from its missionary setting. The mission of World Harvest Mission is still to take the Gospel to a lost world through our own evangelism as well as encouraging the witness of others. Sonship has been a means to that end, as was certainly the case with the Apostle Paul’s preaching the Gospel to the church of Rome. To lose the missionary character of the Gospel in the process of Gospel discipling is to attack the essence of the Gospel itself.

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This is Part 3 of a 5-part series titled Gospel Discipling by Stephen Smallman. Steve Smallman is a past Executive Director of World Harvest Mission and author of the book Spiritual Birthline.

Thanks also to New City Fellowship of St. Louis, who posted Smallman’s essay on their web page.

To read Parts 1-2 click: Introduction; Romans as Model

Gospel Discipling: Romans as a Model

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

It would be presumptuous to claim that we can discern precisely the approach Paul and the first missionaries would have used under direct leadership of the Spirit. But I would encourage a view of his letter to the church(es) of Rome as essentially intending to take those who already believed the Gospel, and who were therefore “saved”, back to that very Gospel, but at a more complete level of understanding.

It is clear from the explanation of his purpose in writing the letter (Romans 15:14-33) that Paul was intending to shift his center of ministry from the Eastern to the Western Mediterranean, since he had completed his work in the East. His particular vision and calling was to “preach the Gospel where Christ was not known,” and therefore following his visit to Jerusalem and a stop in Rome, he was heading for Spain (Romans 15:24-28). The clear implication of the letter is that just as other churches had an opportunity to contribute to the offering for the saints of Jerusalem, he was sure that when he visited them they would want to “assist” him on his journey to the new mission field.

Given Paul”s stated ambition to take Christ to those who had never heard, it is curious that he was “eager to preach the Gospel also to you who are at Rome” (Romans 1:15) when he came for the long overdue visit. I would argue that this did not mean that he wanted to do evangelism with them among the people of Rome (no doubt he would do that, too), but that he wanted to preach the Gospel to the church of Rome. In other words, he wanted to give the Gospel to those who had already believed the Gospel, who were “called to belong to Jesus Christ…called to be saints” (Romans 1:6-7). As he moves into the body of the letter, it becomes clear that there is far more to the gospel than is immediately apparent to a newly awakened believer. It reveals a righteousness of God that leads from faith to deeper faith (Romans 1:17).

In the chapters that follow, the Apostle unfolds with great precision the righteousness revealed in the Gospel. The exposition of this deeper understanding of the Gospel begins first with justification, then an explanation of our union with the risen Christ (often labeled sanctification), then the extraordinary privilege of adoption or sonship, and climaxing in the celebration of the predestinating purposes of God. Chapters 9-11 continue to wrestle with the Gospel and its relationship to the Jewish people. Throughout his explanation of the Gospel, Paul makes application, but it is not until ch. 12 that he begins specific teaching about the “doing” of the Christian life.

Here then is a demonstration of just how Paul worked out his constant prayer that believers would grow in the “knowledge of God”– he was eager to preach the Gospel to them. In this light, his reference to the gospel as the “power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16) should be understood as empowering believers through every aspect of that salvation. Our more limited idea of gospel has resulted, it seems to me, in a similarly limited view of the power of God for salvation–we only think of this verse in terms of conversion, when we first believe. So understanding and continuing to believe the gospel is not only the essential task of discipleship, it provides the basis or power for attending to the doing of the Christian life–a life appropriately identified by Paul as the “obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5).

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This is Part 2 of a 5-part series titled Gospel Discipling by Stephen Smallman. Steve Smallman is a past Executive Director of World Harvest Mission and author of the book Spiritual Birthline.

To read Part 1 click: Introduction

Gospel Discipling: The Crying Need of the Church

/ Dennis Griffith / 2 Comments

by Stephen Smallman

“Thirty years of discipleship programs, and we are not discipled.”

This is the startling assessment of Jim Petersen, the visionary leader of the esteemed discipleship ministry, the Navigators. Petersen goes on in the first chapter of his important book, Lifestyle Discipleship, to ask some very hard questions about the real effectiveness of our various attempts at discipling believers.  But if the situation in most of our American evangelical churches is lacking with respect to discipleship, the condition of many churches in developing nations is nothing short of tragic. Instance after instance can be cited of young and vital churches sliding quickly into debilitating legalism, with Christianity being defined by believer and unbeliever alike as essentially little more than the keeping of certain rules.

There is little need to draw out this lament about the current condition of “discipleship”. Almost anyone in ministry recognizes the need to rethink assumptions and approaches to this critical aspect of the work of the Church. In this article I would like to make the case for a fundamental shift in the paradigm we use with respect to the content of our discipling ministries. It seems to me that most of the work being done to improve the discipleship component of our churches or missions focuses on the matter of methodology – how to secure greater commitment from participants, whether we should work in small groups or one-on-one, how pastors should redefine their roles, etc..But the actual content of what is imparted can be largely described as the “doing” of the Christian life. It is my contention that before methodological issues are discussed, we need to recognize that the essential content of our discipleship is to be the Gospel – taking people who have believed the gospel back into the Gospel again and again.  This is what I will call “Gospel discipling”, which could just as easily be termed “discipleship in the Gospel.”

I believe it can be demonstrated that this was the approach of the Apostles, as evidenced by their letters to new churches.  In particular I want to use the book of Romans as a model of Gospel discipling. I believe it can also be demonstrated that it is the Gospel itself that supplies the power to enable believers to become meaningfully engaged in the “doing” of the Christian life. Once I lay out these foundational issues, I will then explain briefly how World Harvest Mission, building on the seminal thinking of Dr. Jack Miller, has attempted to address the issue of Gospel discipling in a practical way.

Definition of the Gospel

At the outset, it is essential to contend for a much broader understanding of the word “Gospel” than is commonly held by evangelicals. In its essence the Gospel is the glorious announcement that God has kept his promise to bring salvation to the earth (Isaiah 52:7).  The fulfillment of his promise is a person, his own Son, named Jesus, who is Messiah and who died for our sin and was raised to life. Remarkably, by believing this Gospel we are granted eternal life, and the break caused by the original fall and our personal sin is restored.

But the Gospel is more than the announcement about the person and work of Christ, it is used by Paul and others to include all that comes to us when we believe the Gospel. In the words of Galatians, it includes not only God sending his Son to redeem those under the law, but also his sending the Spirit of his Son into our hearts that we might experience the privileges of sonship. (Galatians 4.4-7)  In Colossians 1 Paul talks about the “word of truth, the Gospel” and seems to equate it with “God’s grace in all its truth”. (Colossians 1.5-6) It is also worth taking time to reflect on Paul’s use of Gospel in 2Timothy 1.8-2.10. I believe in the light of that context, Paul’s exhortation to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2.1) can be understood as challenging Timothy to find his strength to endure by returning again to the Gospel.

All of this points to a need to understand the Gospel as much more than rehearsing the facts of Christ’s death and resurrection – as wonderful as they are. Furthermore, teaching or preaching the Gospel is more than inviting unbelievers to put their trust in Christ for salvation. The Gospel is the word we should use for all that has been given us in Jesus Christ, which is why it is frequently called “the Gospel of grace”. This broader use is much closer to the historic distinction of Law and Gospel, which was commonly understood in earlier generations, but seems to have been largely ignored by ours.  To be sure, the benefits of the Gospel are being taught today, but I believe our discipling of believers will be helped by recognizing that biblically, these are still to be thought of as Gospel. The posture of simply believing in Jesus as we learn of Him in the Gospel is as fundamental to our progress in the faith as it was to our initial receiving of it.

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This is Part 1 of a 5-part series titled Gospel Discipling. This series is taken from an essay by Stephen Smallman, author of Spiritual Birthline and past Executive Director of World Harvest Mission. Some of the content has been edited. 

My thanks to New City Fellowship of St. Louis, who posted Smallman’s essay on their web page.

To read Parts 2-5 of this essay click:

Romans as a Model

Gospel & Adoption

Gospel & Renewal

Gospel & Evangelism