Jeff Adams

I love it when people buzz about making disciples of Jesus Christ. Making disciples is our mission and my personal passion. Yesterday I shared some neat things that happened recently. Directions is in its second printing, has been released in Spanish, is under consideration to be printed and distributed in the southern cone of South America and is about to be translated into three or more of the languages of India and of the Kurds. This is my report from the last two weeks.

Yesterday someone asked if people were buzzing about making disciples, if this is really the passion of the church. Here’s what has come to me just this week. I got an email from a lady who is using Directions to teach a group of ladies at a nursing home. She is so excited that this tool is able to be understood by those who are well advanced in years. Every so often, I see some of our students at a local coffee house using Directions to make their way through the discipleship process. We just spanned the generation gap there!

Just this morning I was in the same coffee house where I meet weekly with my disciple, a Korean brother in our church. He is so excited about what he is learning and how he is growing he can barely contain himself. He gave me example after example of how what he is learning is changing his life, and he has been a believer for many years. As he left and I remained there to read for a bit, a lady from our church came in and was buzzing about how Directions is enabling her to do a better job of making disciples. Back in the office I got an email from a lady who has just taken over a Sunday School class at the retirement towers next door to the church and is excited to use Directions to move her entire class through the discipleship process.

Not much later I got another email from a missionary in Italy who captured a passion for making disciples form us and is getting incredible response from his Italian disciples. He is interested in translating Directions in to Italian. Next, an email from India. Some Latin American missionaries had identified lack of understanding and training in making disciples to be one of the greatest needs of the ministry in their area. They are asking for a team from our church and perhaps others to come and train leaders in their area. They will benefit from one of the translations I mentioned above.

Still another email from some former members who now have a jail ministry in southern Missouri. They report that since using the new material, Directions, their ministry is exploding. They just wanted to share their excitement. Sunday morning the wife of one of our pastors was buzzing about the class her husband teaches and how people are getting connected with God and the church and getting plugged in to the Directions study.

I don’t want to sound repetitious, but I got a comment on this blog from some missionaries in language school in Costa Rica. They have been sharing Directions with fellow students and report that many of them are very interested in learning more. One of their teachers has just become a follower of Christ and the wife is going to take this teacher through the Directions study.

This morning I was speaking with one of our pastors about a gentleman who was baptized Sunday and surprised his wife. It was a beautiful thing! This pastor has agree to take this man through the Directions study to set him on the pathway of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Motivated by her husband’s example, his wife is going to go through the same study with the pastor’s wife. They are both very motivated to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. Very cool!

After I finished teaching the Spanish Bible study tonight a lady stopped me in my office and was highly motivated by her experience discipling a new believer, a very competent woman who had no Bible background, but is “getting it” thanks to Directions. At the same time, she is working with another woman who did not complete the previous lessons we used, but is now motivated to continue her growth as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This is what has been happening this week, and it’s only Wednesday! This has not been an unusual week. I am constantly hearing the buzz about people who are figuring out what making disciples is all about. The scary thing from a human standpoint is that the Directions study is so flexible. There is no “one” of “official” way to do it. This means we can’t “control” it or even be completely accurate about measuring it. Great! We just have to trust the Holy Spirit to do his work. One-on-one, small group, class, individually — people are getting buzzed about using all means available to make disciples of Jesus Christ. I love it when the Holy Spirit is at work and no one can take the credit.

Have you caught the buzz?