Multiply

Bible

In my discipleship group at church, we are going through Francis Chan’s book “MULTIPLY” and it is amazing! This past week, we came to a section in the book entitled “Why Study the Bible?”. I thought that was an interesting title until I began to read the chapter.

I am not going to talk about the whole chapter today, but I do want to share with you several quotes from Francis Chan regarding the Bible and why we should be in God’s Word.

… an important part of making disciples is teaching people to obey everything Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20). This means that we need to know Jesus’s teaching and commands.

When we talk about the Bible, we’re actually talking about something that the all-powerful, all-knowing, transcendent God decided to write to us! What could be important?

If we really believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then it should be much more than a book that we are familiar with. It ought to shape every aspect of our existence. It should guide the decisions we make in like. If God is the designer and creator of this world, if He made us and placed us on this earth, and if He has taken the time to tell us who He is, who we are, and how this world operates, then what could be more important to us than the Bible?

As our group discussed this chapter, I began to wonder just how often Christians are in God’s Word. If we truly believe that the Bible is God’s Word, just like Chan said, should that not drive us to read it everyday?

So, I want to know – How much are you in God’s Word? How important is it to YOU and do you let it shape “every aspect of your existence”?

(Don’t worry, this is only a vote and no names will be collected in this poll. I will not be able to track down IP address or anything that may be traced back to you – so be honest!).

Please take the time to vote and then share this poll with other people! I’ll post the results in a few weeks.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being a part of “Multiply” with David Platt & Francis Chan. David Platt (author of “Radical”) and Francis Chan (author of “Crazy Love”) talked about what is missing and needed in most churches today – discipleship. The two of them have come together to shed light on this area of the church that we have not done a very good job of over the last few decades.

So what is “Multiply”? (Watch “Multiply” video)

Jesus’ command to make disciples in the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) was not intended solely for the early disciples, nor is disciple-making the responsibility of a special class of Christians. Rather, all followers of Christ are called to make disciples, to fish for men (Matthew 4:19). Many don’t actively make disciples because they don’t know what it means to be a disciple.

On a practical level discipleship means that we look at other people and say exactly what Jesus said to his disciples: “Follow me.” To make disciples is to intentionally show the life of Christ before others, to share the gospel of Christ with others, to teach the Word of Christ to others, and to do all of this with a view toward reaching every people group in the world with the gospel.

Our desire is to come alongside local churches by emphasizing this glorious and much-neglected aspect of our calling as followers of Christ. With Multiply we want to encourage because some are unaware of their biblical responsibility to make disciples, and we want to equip because many do not know how to make disciples.

As “Multiply” was going on, I was tweeting some great quotes by both David Platt & Francis Chan, along with other people who had some great quotes regarding discipleship. I wanted to share some of them with you: