Lesson 1: Watch & Read

Receiving the gospel by faith is a work of the Holy Spirit, and it’s not in our power to cause someone to believe. Finding a “person of peace,” therefore, is crucial. This understanding of disciple making can be quite helpful. It makes it clear that our job is NOT to convert people—that’s God’s job. Rather, our job is to be aware of those who are already sensitive to God’s stirring. We just have to have eyes and ears that are open to what God is already doing. 

A. Read the following scripture passage along with the blog extracts below and answer the reflection questions afterward

Acts 16:13-15

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.   

Blog Extract 1:

Another important aspect of a DMM is the focus on “persons of peace.” These are individuals who are open and receptive to the gospel message, and who have a network of relationships that can be leveraged for evangelism and discipleship. Disciples are trained to identify and engage with persons of peace, building relationships with them and sharing the gospel in a way that is relevant and contextualized to their culture and worldview.

(“What is a disciple making movement and why does it matter?”; multiplyingdisciples.us)

Blog Extract 2:

In the New Testament, Jesus discipled his followers in his missionary methods. Not only did he call them to become ‘fishers of men’, he provided the example for them. He trained them thoroughly through example and instruction, and after the climactic events of the cross and resurrection, he sent them out with the great commission to continue the process of making disciples.

With this great commission firmly in our minds, we need to examine closely how Jesus trained his disciples. Many people have read through these passages (listed below) and assumed Jesus' teaching is not applicable to us today. Two reasons prevent us in applying Jesus’ teaching practically.

1. We have already been trained in how to do mission through our church experience. The way Jesus trained his disciples seems a world away from our experience… so surely it doesn’t apply to us… right?

2. The other problem is that we have traditionally read the Bible, the gospels in particular, as a devotional book. We have been taught to read it asking devotionally what does God want to speak to me? We rarely look at the way Jesus did ministry and see it as paradigmatic to our own ministry.

‘How did Jesus actually do this?’

In missionary writings, much has already been written about Paul’s missionary methods, but scant regard has been made about Jesus’ missionary methods. It was only once I had sat down and re-read the gospels, asking ‘how did Jesus actually do this?’ that I went through the paradigm shifts necessary for Disciple Making Movements. We need to reset our thinking, sit at the feet of the master and learn afresh what it means to become a fisher of men.

One important principle in which Jesus trained his disciples (and thereby vicariously trained us) was the principle of the person of peace. In Luke 9, and 10, Matthew 10, and Mark 6 Jesus gathered his disciples, trained them, gave them authority over the evil one and then commissioned them. Among a number of instructions, he told them to find a house, and stay there until they moved on to the next village. To find a ‘worthy person’ or a ‘man of peace’. Finding this household, or person of peace, was core to his instructions on how to enter into a community with the message of the Kingdom of God.

A Person of Peace can be a man or woman, young or old, rich or poor. They are the person prepared by God to provide entrance into their community for the gospel. Jesus modeled this in the way he called his disciples. We first see how the gospel spread along relational lines when he called Peter and his family. Peter’s house becomes the first ‘house of peace’ from which the gospel spread. 

(“Person of peace” blog entry; praxeis.org)