The Best Way To Impact The World

God has a plan to impact the world, and you have a key part to play in the plan.

Your role is to help the people around you connect with Christ and grow in godliness. That includes your spouse, your children, your extended family, your coworkers, and your neighbors. It is a slow, messy process that means you will have to invite a small number of people into a relationship with you so that you can share life together. Though there were many that influenced me, I had three key people do this for me – two of them were my parents and the third one was Richard.

Richard invited me into his “circle” though I was an immature, know-it-all college student. And he walked me through discipleship by letting me walk beside him in everyday life so I could see how a Christian adult man should live with Jesus and for Him. Richard did a great job of putting his own interests aside for the express purpose of helping me grow in my knowledge of God’s Word and in developing Christ-like character. It took time because I was dense and stubborn! (I still am!) But he was patient. I have attempted to take what I learned from walking beside Richard and invite others to walk beside me. But this is a slow process that can become frustrating to us since we like to see things happen quickly. But lives just don’t change that fast. Are you willing to impact the world one-life-at-a-time in this slow, messy process called discipleship?

Here is an excerpt from an article on this idea of walk-beside-someone-discipleship:

     The fundamental way that we are going to see Jesus save people across the globe is through discipleship.
      That’s right, the good old fashioned, life-on-life, person-to-person, dirty, messy process of teaching people to obey all that Jesus had commanded. Showing people with our words and our lives how to follow and magnify the Risen Savior.
      That’s it – it may not be sexy, it may not sell books, but it is how God designed his redemption plan.
      We’ve all heard this before, I know. But think about it. To most of us, it seems nuts. The Son of God comes to earth and rather than staying and preaching for 40 years, He spends three years investing in 12 men and then he leaves! …What?! Surely we could come up with something new, maybe more efficient, maybe even as a backup plan? No. There isn’t a plan B, and there doesn’t need to be one. Discipleship is God’s choice plan for redeeming the world.
      This is not profound. It’s not new. It’s simply not finished. And most of us simply refuse to accept it. When it comes down to it, for most of us being as successful as Jesus was at developing leaders would feel like a wasted life.
      See how that’s a problem? To think little of this model and to reject this model is to reject God’s ordained means to accomplish His mission.
      The reality is if you reach only 12 in your life, it’s a win. It will probably feel like you’re spending too much time with a few and neglecting the many, but this is precisely how God will redeem every last one of His own!

Jesus’ model definitely seems time-consuming and difficult in our “I want it now” society. The reason it seems so time-consuming and difficult is because it is so time-consuming and difficult to walk beside another person in this slow, messy process. But it is the model He used and the one He expects us to use. It’s time to get your hands dirty. Who can you invite to walk beside you in discipleship? Who does God want you to be responsible for training in Christlike living and God-honoring character?

(article excerpt by Kevin Peck – “Without This Your Missional Movement Will Fail”)