The Bonhoeffer Project Presents – Disciple Making Gaps

The Bonhoeffer Project team will work with attendees to point out gaps in typical disciple making efforts. These gaps create frustration and discouragement, have led to ministries running hard, spending money, wearing people out, and have very little to show for it. Faithfulness is not enough, because faithfulness without fruitfulness is not actual faithfulness to what Jesus told us to do. There are many gaps that must be closed, and greater clarity is needed. Ambiguity is the enemy of effectiveness. The following sessions represent a starter course on the basic gaps in disciple making.

Track Session 1 – Thursday, April 30th 12:30pm – 1:30pm: The Gospel Gap (Pacific Time): Bill Hull & Ben Sobels

The Gospel we believe determines the disciples we make. The de facto gospel that dominates worldwide separates salvation from discipleship. This separation is a huge mistake that almost ensures that the vast majority of Christians will opt out of a serious life in Christ. If you want to get to the bottom of this problem as to why so many Christians are making so little of a difference, we hope you will join us in this session. We are so in love with our salvation, we have indulged ourselves to the point that we have no time or energy left to replicate or multiply the gospel. This gap is only closed when discipleship in Christ becomes a natural part of what it means to be saved.

Track Session 2 – Thursday, April 30th 2:00pm – 3:00pm (Pacific Time): The Clarity Gap: Bill Hull & Jim Thomas

 When speaking of making disciples, you get as many versions of what that means as there were languages at the tower of Babel. This confusion, however, is not of God, and has not been initiated by God. Jesus was very clear as to what a disciple is; it is right in front of us as we read the gospels. Despite Christ’s clear description, ambiguity reigns in many a congregation as to how to make disciples. If you don’t have clarity on this issue, your efforts will be thwarted. Before a disciple can be made, there needs to be enough specificity to create environments, covenants, relationships, and the actual traits and skills necessary to make a disciple. We are not just making a disciple that can be effective and useful during religious meetings, but someone who can be activated in the culture as a faithful witness of Christ. Let’s get clear.

Track Session 3 – Thursday, April 30th 3:30pm – 4:30pm (Pacific Time): The Planning/Implementation Gap: Bill Hull, Sandy Mason, Denny Heiberg, Cindy Perkins, Jim Thomas

 After one goes to a conference or takes a training course, there is new excitement, often called the Honeymoon Stage. You return to your home refreshed, recharged, and ready to go. You put more effort into the plan than ever before, and you can’t remember you were last so excited. A year later, even though your effort has been a full one and very long sustained, the effort has exceeded any meaningful results. You experience a motivational dip, discouragement, fatigue. The people around you notice it, and they join you. They then move cynically back into the previous routines of religious life. This is either a time to find a new plug and play program, to give up, or to enter into a new learning stage that can form new habits. Let’s develop new habits.