We’re on to point four in this five-part blog series. Harry Brown, President of New Generations, has taken the time to express the five things he wishes he would have known at 35, when it comes to doing the work of the Great Commission.
We hope you’ve been enjoying this series so far! If you’re new, check out the first three blogs below to catch up on the content!
Ordinary People Are The Only Option
And today, we’ll take a look at point number four. Here’s what Harry shared:
Compounding is the key.
You may know the idea of compound interest. Interest becomes principal that earns more interest. Well, that is the game-changing insight that is missing from the missionary enterprise. What we have lost sight of is the idea of chain reactions of disciples making disciples that results in cascades of churches planting churches.
So, we get out there and we work really hard in one space. And we give our life to it, and good things happen, and it dies with us. And that was never the idea.
From the beginning, here’s what Jesus told us to do: Make disciples. Teach them to obey everything. “Everything” means to make disciples and teach them to obey everything. And by doing that, the fly wheel begins to turn, and the compounding kicks in, and it works the way it was designed to. We have lost sight of that.
From the beginning, here’s what Jesus told us to do: Make disciples. Teach them to obey everything.
Because we have collectively lost sight of that, we’re stuck at 15% market share. And it’s not getting better. It’s getting worse.
Here’s a little spreadsheet exercise. If you’ve never done it, it will blow your mind. You get 100 followers of Jesus who want to obey, and you ask them to make one disciple in a year. That’s it. Not some crazy number, not out of reach. One disciple, one year. And put it into the mind and the heart that they will repeat the process without you. Let’s do the math.
First year: 100
Second year: 200
Third year: 400
Fourth year: 800
Tenth year: 102,400
Twentieth year: 104,857,600
How long until you get to 7 billion with people obeying this process? It’s 25 years, which means the Great Commission is actually, practically possible if God’s people do Bible 101: Make disciples. Teach them to obey.
Here’s something that has left the mindset of most of God’s people. They think that the New Testament boils down to two things on which it stands: Love God and love people.
We sing songs about this concept all the time: Love God, love people. But we’ve left out the important third concept: Make disciples and teach them to obey.
We’ve left out the important third concept: Make disciples and teach them to obey.
That is where the Great Commission can be completed. You don’t get the freedom to have one leg missing. All three have to be in that equation: Love God, Love people, and Make disciples and teach them to obey.
We are close to finishing this blog series, but next week is the most powerful. Stay with us as Harry unpacks the fifth and final point: Prayer provides the power.
