Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Books

How Do You Disciple Others?

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When was the last time you reflected on the way that you personally disciple others?

  • Are you more of a teacher or a shepherd?
  • Do you like to take people through formal curriculum, or do you use their life situation as the starting point?
  • Do you like to disciple one-on-one, in triads, in small groups, or in classrooms?
  • When are people most apt to change?
  • What role does the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and prayer play in the discipleship process?

Unless you have intentionally spent time studying the way people learn and different methods for discipleship, you probably disciple others the way you were discipled (or in the exact opposite manner). This is because our natural bias is to start with what we already know and have personally experienced.

Our natural bias is to start with what we already know and have personally experienced.

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If you are a parent, have you ever caught yourself saying or doing something to your children that your parents use to say or do to you?

I catch myself doing this all the time.

When my children are not listening, I just begin counting down from the number five. It’s not like my parents told me this is what I should do, but it’s what they did to me, and it worked.

When I stop to think about it, I don’t even feel like this is the best method for discipline; in fact, my wife, Christina, and I agree that it’s not! But I often catch myself still doing it because of that natural bias.

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5 Myths That Block Disciple Making

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“I want to make my life count. I want to do big things for the kingdom. I only want to do things that have an eternal significance.”

Have you ever prayed such prayers? I know I definitely have.

In fact, when I was getting serious about my relationship with Christ, this is what I regularly prayed for because I wanted my life to count. I wanted to make a difference in this world. I didn’t want to live for what was temporal—my fame and my glory—but for what was eternal.

And the only way that I knew how to judge whether or not something was a “big thing” for the kingdom was by its size. This is what I thought:

  • Small churches = small impact
  • Small conferences = not significant
  • Small platform = lack of the right gifting

Years later, after God broke me and stripped away everything I had, I realized my ambitions weren’t as pure as I made them out to be.

Sure, I said that I wanted to make a big impact for the kingdom, but that was contingent upon me making the big impact for God. Yes, I obviously wanted to do things that had an eternal significance, but only if I could share that eternal significance with God…

I tried to sanctify my ambition with the right words, but it was all a sham.

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Becoming Fluent in the Gospel

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Three months…

It was going to be three months of doing my own laundry. Three months of cooking my own meals. Three months of working a real job. And three months in French…

It was the summer before my senior year in university, and I had signed up for a three-month mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was called Montreal Project.

The idea is that we would learn how to see life as mission and mission as life.

During the day, we would work a real job. During the evenings, we would be discipled, disciple others, and evangelize. On the weekends, we would do outreach and bless the community.

It was a missional missions trip before missional was cool.

Do you see life as mission and mission as life?

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Instead of just seeing the mission field as “over there,” we learnt how to see it as also “being here.” After all, the nations had come to us, and I was living in one of the most unreached cities in the Western world.

However, it wasn’t until the end of the third month that I began to understand the importance of fluency.

No I’m not talking about French—as important as that was for the mission’s trip. I’m talking about fluency as my friend, Jeff Vanderstelt, defines it in his latest book, Gospel Fluency.

I believe such fluency is what God wants his people to experience with the gospel. He wants them to be able to translate the world around them and the world inside of them through the lens of the gospel—the truths of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus. Gospel-fluent people think, feel, and perceive everything in light of what has been accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

They see the world differently. They think differently. They feel differently.

When they are listening to people, they are thinking, “How is this in line with the truths of the gospel? What about Jesus and his work might be good news to this person today? How can I bring the hope of the gospel to bear on this life or situation so this person might experience salvation and Jesus will be glorified?” (41-42)

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We Fail. Jesus Restores.

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When have you really enjoyed making a mess?

Making a mess in the kitchen is one thing. Making a mess of life is quite another. I can clean the kitchen to the point you’d never know I was in there. But when I make a mess of my life, I can’t just wipe away the evidence—or the consequences—with a good disinfectant.

Have you ever found yourself at rock bottom?

It may have been because of an inappropriate relationship, a string of lies, or a temptation or habit that seemed to gradually take over everything in life. At that moment, you stand at a crossroad. Do you continue down the road you’re on, continuing to repeat the mistakes because the pain of changing seems greater than the pain of remaining the same? Or do you look to Jesus for a way out?

Have you ever found yourself at rock bottom?

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Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, knew what it meant to mess up. He failed in a big way. But Peter’s story also offers us encouragement and points us to the way out—a fresh start in Jesus Christ.

Let’s take a look at John 18:15-18, 25-27 from the CSB translation,

15 Simon Peter was following Jesus, as was another disciple. That disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest; so he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. 16 But Peter remained standing outside by the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who was the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. 17 Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” “I am not,” he said. 18 Now the servants and the officials had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold. They were standing there warming themselves, and Peter was standing with them, warming himself. … 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Peter denied it again. Immediately a rooster crowed.

Peter had been through a lot on this particular evening:

  • The last supper
  • Failing Jesus by falling asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane
  • Witnessing Judas’ betrayal
  • Fighting the temple guards
  • And watching Jesus allow Himself to be arrested and taken away

None of these events excuse Peter’s denials, but they do help us recognize that he was surely exhausted and confused. His whole world had been turned upside down. Still, after all the disciples initially ran away from Jesus’ arrest (see Matt. 26:55), Peter at least made an effort to get near enough to see and hear what was going on—as long as he could do it undetected.

Question: What emotions would you have experienced in Peter’s situation?

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Broken Vessels

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Brokenness and pain.

Unfortunately, both are universal in our experiences as human beings. We may have been hurt by a love that ended prematurely, by abandonment and isolation, by chronic illness or death, or by circumstances we bring on ourselves through our sin and failure—but we all know what pain feels like. It feels like something has been broken inside us. It feels like we are broken.

Like clay jars, we’re fragile. We can be easily broken—but we don’t have to remain “broken vessels.” We’re never beyond the healing and redeeming power of God. In the face of failure, God responds with restoration. In spite of our shortcomings, God will work in and through us. In the midst of our circumstances, God will help us endure.

You’re never beyond the healing and redeeming power of God.

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Yet God doesn’t stop there!

He uses us to speak into the lives of other “broken vessels.” He uses our experiences with His grace and power to comfort others. He desires to use us to help our neighbors and loved ones encounter the God who brings hope and restoration.

Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us (2 Cor. 4:7).

We are broken vessels, but this great treasure—the good news of Jesus Christ—shines through our brokenness. And that’s a truth worth celebrating.

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