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Thoughts On...
How PLACE Fulfills the Great Commission
By Mary McSwain
At the beginning of every PLACE workshop, and every coaching session, we ask people to share their purpose and objective for our time together. There were two recently that struck me.
Two gentlemen, who had never met before, were there for the same reason. Their answers reminded me of something that we often forget about when it comes to our shared purpose and objective as Christians.
The two men both had a desire to bring PLACE back to their church as a part of their discipleship process. Their purposes for being there, in short, were this:
“Help others identify and use those gifts and abilities in their discipleship”
“Take it back and reproduce it in other leaders for our discipleship strategy”
While, in the grand scheme of things, this is many people’s purpose for using PLACE, in all the workshops I have been in the last year, this was the first time I’d specifically heard the word discipleship in the context of this particular question.
These two men, faithful followers, disciples of Jesus, came with this reason: to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. They came to [continue to] learn how to make disciples.
“A disciple is a person who has decided the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do”
One of the last things Jesus told us to do while He was here on earth was to make disciples. In his book, Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer defines a disciple as an apprentice who seeks to “Be with Jesus. Become like Jesus. And do as he did.”
Not only are we, as Christians, called to be disciples who apprentice under Him, we are also called to make disciples who are equipped and encouraged to be with Him, become like Him, and do as He did.
One of the ways we can encourage people to do as He did, and serve others, is to help them discover how they have been uniquely equipped through what they’ve already been given, or gifted, in this case.
If the goal of discipleship is to be with Jesus and become more like Him, PLACE can be a tool to help people do just that. Saturated in Scripture and biblical principles, it not only immersed you in His Word, it can also serve as a lens to see yourself in and through His words.
If the goal of discipleship is to become more like Him, we must find our identity not only in who He is, but also who He created us to be. PLACE can be a tool to do just that. It helps you see how to become who He created you to be.
If the goal of discipleship is to become imitators of Christ and do as he did, we must learn to consider and pursue the ways we can serve His people, His church, and His kingdom. PLACE can be a tool to do just that. When you know who He created you to be, you are better equipped to be and do all He created you for.
In the Great Commission, Jesus calls us to go and make disciples. We know what to do, but how to practically go about that requires consideration and intentional pursuit.
How do you equip your leaders to fulfill the Great Commission? How do you practically go and make disciples who are learning to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do as He did.
W.E. Vine described a disciple as “a learner (from mathano, from the root math–, indicating thought accompanied by endeavor)”.
How are you equipping the people the Lord has placed around you to learn? How are you providing them the opportunity for thought accompanied by endeavor, to learn about who they are, what they’ve been given, and how they can use that for eternal purposes?
The PLACE Experience can not only serve as an opportunity to learn about who they are in Christ, but also what they can do. Thought accompanied by endeavor. It can be a way you can fulfill the Great Commission, a way you can go and make disciples who learn to become more like Jesus and do as He did.
To attend the next PLACE Workshop and learn more about how Jason and Colby accomplished their purposes and objective click here to register.
Want to learn more or Experience the teaching and implementation yourself?
