Turning Church Members into Disciple Makers

by Tim Wallingford

A distorted view of God will keep your friends and family from hearing or accepting the gospel. This book reveals the eleven spiritual profiles found in the book of Acts, how to correct their particular distortion of God, and then how to share the good news. This book is divided into two (1) God’s Purpose for Every Christian and (2) Engaging My Neighborhood with Good News. The first section defines God’s purpose for every believer. Turning members of the church into disciple makers begins with the member understanding and embracing his or her new identity in Christ. Jesus said, “I will build my ekklesia (church)” (Matthew 16:18). Members are Christ’s body, his “called out ones to be trained to do God’s work.” Christ empowers the members of his body with his Holy Spirit to expand his kingdom family by sharing the gospel. Those added to the ekklesia are to be equipped to make more disciples. We are to continue the process until Jesus returns. The second section moves the disciple makers into the neighborhoods to fulfill their purposes and make disciples within their circles of influence. Sharing the gospel message can be a little complicated. There’s more to it than just telling somebody what the gospel is and how to respond. Each person has his or her own baggage― cultural, intellectual, and emotional barriers―that need to be removed before the simple gospel can take root in the heart. Luke, the author of Acts, revealed to us spiritual profiles. There are different types of people that the various evangelists The religious (Acts 2), the hurting (Acts 3), the occultist (Acts 8), the seeker (Acts 8), the fanatic (Acts 9), the good person (Acts 10), the successful (Acts 16), the skeptic (Acts 17), the misinformed (Acts 19), and the hedonist (Acts 24). Actually, Luke is introducing us to his neighborhood. Every spiritual profile has a certain distortion of God that needs to be corrected before a person becomes ready to embrace the gospel. You will learn all the distortions with biblical responses. It’s amazing how relevant the Bible is today. You meet these people in your neighborhood too. God will use Luke to equip us for effective work redeeming our neighborhood with the very same gospel the Holy Spirit presented in Acts 2. The gospel never changes but we have to package the gospel differently based on the barriers that exist in different people.

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2022