Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Practitioners podcast where we're applying Jesus style disciple making to everyday life. This episode and all of our episodes are powered by navigators church ministries. For more information or to get connected go to navigatorschurchministries.org. Good morning friends and family.
I am so excited for this episode. Justin why am I so excited for this episode?
Because today we're going to talk about the bicycle. Okay. I was like I don't know. This feels like a trick question. No trick question.
You're excited for all the episodes. Is that why like where are we at? I am excited for all the episodes but today is especially meaningful because today is kind of a culmination of a lot of work that you've done over the last. Gosh has it been 18 months?
It's been close to that yeah it's been over a year for sure yeah. And so the beautiful part about this episode is that I got to see you present this episode live and in person when we went to Canada and did some work with the navs up there and it's a result of a series of different talks. And what is the very succinct name that we gave these series of talks? Well this particular one was the bicycle. The bicycle up there.
We did three messages. So the first one was the. What is a disciple? Why is disciple making important? How do you make disciples?
And so this bicycle illustration came out of that third one. How do you make a disciple? Now? I'm going to. I've been working on it.
Yeah. You've been working on it for again 18 months probably in and out for a while. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is like the writing of it.
So you know if anyone that's tracking with me my website like I've done a lot of writing and writing is maybe the more natural thing that I can do. But this I was trying to get up to a level where the illustration and the visual elements of it came together with the writing. And so I've been working with a graphic designer and trying to get all the elements coming together and that took a lot longer than I thought. I had to get some permissions from the navigators you know at large and so it just took a while. It was a much bigger process than what I had anticipated.
But I'm really excited that it's now out in the world and doing its thing and we're really excited to share it with you on this episode and the next episode of our podcast. Yeah. And the other thing that's really important is this is a free ebook. I'm not sure that we said that so clearly but it's a free ebook that's available to anyone and there's links in the show notes how to get to it. You can go to justingravitt.com in order to pick up your copy of the ebook.
We want you to have a copy of this ebook because we believe that it's really going to help solve some problems in the church. And this is actually kind of how this whole illustration was born is that the navigators as you know who we're connected to here on the Practitioners podcast commissioned a Barna study. And this Barna study was was all about what keeps christians from making disciples. And Justin as you know the stats were they were they were kind of like not surprising but also very hurtful. Right.
Like I. How would you describe your feelings around the stats? Yeah they were they're pretty interesting to me because the stats were what are the three main reasons why disciples or christians who aren't making disciples what are they telling us about why they're not making disciples? And just to hear the things that they're saying was really interesting. I don't know that we were shocked by any of them but it did cause me to reflect a whole bunch on what is actually being communicated in those stats.
Yeah so the stats kind of tell us a really interesting story. 22% of the people who took the survey said I just haven't thought about it. When it comes to disciple making. Right? These are the top three reasons why people aren't making disciples.
22% I just haven't thought about it 24% no one has suggested it or asked me which. That one for me just blows my mind as church leaders who are called to make disciples it's in the mission of the Methodist church. Right. Go. Therefore make disciples.
Right. And 37% and this one is not surprising to me at all. Don't believe that they're qualified or equipped. So 22% I haven't thought about it 24% no one has suggested it or asked me. And 37% they just don't think they're qualified or equipped.
Now I think these stats tell a big story and what I'm really excited about is how the bicycle can put some pun intended handlebars around how to deal with these stats. And so justin why don't we dive into the the first part of the bicycle illustration. This is part one that we're going to talk about the front and back wheel. Yep yep. So this problem that's been communicated in those stats is essentially we have disciples all over christians all over who are saying well not only do I not know how to do it nobody's suggested it to me or asked me and I really haven't thought about it on my own.
And internally when we saw and got those stats back the response was interesting to me because the response was well we need to get resources out to people in these categories that aren't making disciples. And I can see why they got there and it makes sense to me how they got there. But almost immediately there's something in me that I was like well I don't know that that's the answer to this thing. I don't know that the answer to getting people to make disciples who aren't making disciples is more resources so that they will know how to do it. And one of the reasons I thought about that was because you know I don't.
I'm not able to play an instrent. I'm not able to play the guitar. If I could play any instrent Tony it would be the guitar. Drs for me. I want to be a cool drmer in the cage.
Oh man. Okay I might be swayed on that but I actually tried for a few months to. To learn to play the guitar when I was around 23 years old. And if somebody asked me today Justin can you play the guitar? I would say no.
And if they said why can't you play the guitar? I would say I don't know how to play the guitar. Now that is true. 100% true. I don't know how.
But the reason I am not able to play the guitar is not because I don't know how in the sense of it's unlearnable but it's because I don't know how. Because my desire to learn to play is not strong enough to overcome some of the obstacles in my way to becoming a guitar player right? So I started to think about this in relationship to not just an instrent but also to playing the guitar. And I thought about well who's responsible for all these disciples who aren't making disciples? And the knee jerk reaction is like well the disciples are right.
They're the ones that should be doing it. Who's responsible for me not being able to play the guitar? Well at the end of the day it's probably me right? Because if I really wanted to do it enough there's no real reason I couldn't do it. There are resources out there.
There's teachers out there there's YouTube videos out there etc. Etcetera. And so I wanted to initially as I'm thinking about well how do I help people learn the how of making disciples? I wanted to communicate something that would teach them how. That would teach them.
All right here's what you need to know. And out of that sort of line of thinking this bicycle illustration was born. Okay so I want you to picture a bicycle and probably the first thing or the most prominent thing that you're picturing are two wheels right? Bicycle. Two wheeled.
And so these different wheels have different functions on a bike and they also have different functions in this illustration. And so let's start with the back wheel. So the back wheel of a bicycle on a bike it's the. It's the stability wheel right? That wheel doesn't turn that wheel.
If it's a well designed bike and well cared for bike it's just rotating in a smooth manner right? It's not wobbling it's not whatever. And that supports the rest of the bike so it brings stability. And so in this illustration the wheel illustration is the back wheel. So you're probably familiar we've done a podcast episode on the disciples wheel or the navigator's wheel.
And just to run through it briefly in the middle of that wheel is Jesus Christ the center. He's the hub. Now the hub of any wheel is where the power comes from. It holds the wheel together and it generally moves the power from the power source into the wheel. And it's the same with Jesus right?
In our life he's not only the center of our life but he's where the power comes from in our life. I think of Galatians 220. It says now I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ now lives in me the life I live in the body I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so just like Jesus gave himself for us our life is lived for him.
We no longer live. But Christ lives in and through us. That's the hub of that wheel. Now if you think about a bicycle the chain is connected to that back wheel is connected from the pedal all the way back around the sprockets into that back wheel and that's where the power comes from on the bicycle. And so the disciples wheel or the navigator's wheel the hub is the center.
We have four spokes to the navigator's wheel. The vertical ones deal with our relationship between us and God. And so we have the word of God coming down and then we have our prayer life going up to him. So those are the first two the word in prayer and then the horizontal ones deal with our relationships with people. And with people they're either already following Jesus.
And so when that is true then our relationship with them is a fellowship a sort of christian community. And those who aren't yet following Jesus it's our relationship to them is to be a witness to them. And so our horizontal spokes on the wheel are fellowship and witnessing. And so you know those four things are core practices in the life of a believer. And then on the outside the hub or the not the hub the rim of the wheel that's where the rubber meets the road.
And the rubber meets the road both in life and in the illustration with action and obedience. And so we might know what we should do and we might have a clear understanding of these spokes. But if we aren't acting them out and practicing them in our life then our wheel really isn't a wheel. It's just a hub with some spokes that don't lead anywhere. But when we get the rubber meeting the road in our life of obedience well now our wheel is complete and we are powering all the rest that's happening in our life through our relationship with God the way that we love God and the way that we love others.
Right? So you've heard that before this idea that you know God tells us the two main things that our lives are to be about. Love God love others. And so that disciples wheel in the bicycle really sets the rest of it up. We have to be focused on our relationship with God and living our lives as a disciple before we even get into how do we make disciples of others.
And so again that's the wheel of stability. That's the wheel of grounding. Tony anything you want to throw in here about that back wheel and how it relates to maybe your life as a disciple or what insights you have on that? Well I'll just tell you that that stability part that relationship part with Jesus is really it's the power for everything right? And if I don't lean into that relationship with Jesus then none of this seems worth it.
I love people and I love being around people but the intentionality that comes with disciple making is not my natural inclination. So I don't know that I would do it if it weren't for Jesus. Yeah yeah yeah. Well said. Okay so that's the back wheel.
We're going to cover the front wheel today and then we're going to again we're going to have a part two to this bicycle illustration but the the front wheel if the back wheel is the disciples wheel the front wheel is the disciple maker's wheel. Okay? So this wheel is to guide us as disciple makers and just the same as the back wheel the center of this wheel is Jesus he's the hub. If he's not the center of your disciple making relationships if he is not the example that not only you are moving towards but you're pointing the ones that you're discipling to move towards then your disciple making relationship will at best be broken. At worst it's leading people to somewhere that's not Jesus right?
And so this whole podcast is around Jesus style disciple making. So no one should be surprised that that is a part of this disciple maker's wheel. Now on this wheel we have six spokes right? The back wheel there's only four. This wheel there's six.
It's going to look a little different than most bicycles do. But the front wheel you've heard us talk about this before. If you've listened to previous episodes is this process of helping a disciple move from really not knowing and not doing to knowing and doing? And so there's six steps in it and I'll run through them quickly and then we'll break them down a little bit. So the six steps are.
Teach him what? Tell her why. Tell him. Teach him what? Tell him why.
Show him how. Get him started keep him going help him pass it on. Okay so again teach him what? So if you're helping your disciple with anything right pick any topic. The first thing you need to do is explain what the topic is.
Hey we're talking about prayer today. Well we need to start well what is prayer? I don't want to asse that the disciple already knows what prayer is okay? So we're going to explain what it is teach him what it is. The next thing we're going to tell him why?
Why is prayer important? Now this is a why that should come out of scripture but it's also a why that should come out of our life right? So why is it important to me? How has it impacted my life? And then the next step is show him how.
So what does it look like to pray? Here's how I pray and I'll show him how I do it you know at a detail in the weeds sort of level. And we'll have that conversation after I've shown him how. The next step is to get him started okay. A lot of times it's doing it together but then the next piece of getting him started is okay well now you need to do this on your own.
So what does that look like for you? And the next you know the time in between we're meeting now and we'll meet next time whether it's a week two weeks whatever it is. How many times can you pray? What will it look like? When will you do it?
Etcetera etcetera. And then we need to keep them going. And so when they come back I'm asking how did it go? But then after we move on to another topic I need to revisit that topic because the goal of disciple making is not to just fill their heads with information. It's to change their lives and to bring transformation into who they are their very identity but also how they live their life and then finally help them pass it on.
So I want a habit built in the disciple making relationship where what they're getting in their times with me they're passing on to someone else. This is a really key piece because if they can get into that that habit with me then when they are it's time for them to start discipling someone else. It doesn't feel so scary because they're used to sharing stuff that they're learning. And a lot of times the people that they pass it on to as just an assignment with me end up being the person that they disciple later on because that person is responding so well. And there's you know there's just some good fruit coming from that.
So those six things teach them what? Tell them why. Show them how. Get them started. Keep them going.
Help them pass it on. And then the outside again is obedience and action because we can't just think about these things. We have to do them. So that sets up the bicycle. I feel like I've been talking a lot in this episode right?
It's good. It's good it's good. You know here's the thing to remember as you're listening to this right? The back wheel is what powers and stabilizes. The front wheel is what gets us to where we're going.
It's the movement part of it. It's the it's the for me it's the fun part right. When I see someone pass on a tool that was passed on to me when I begin to see people live into that fullness of life with Christ that comes with the disciple making you know the front wheel is an overflow of the back wheel is another way to think about it. Yeah yeah. And the front wheel is that wheel of steering too right.
When we want to set direction. We set direction with a bicycle with steering and that's what we're doing right? The stable wheel we know where that's headed. That should always be headed towards Jesus and our relationship with him. But in a disciple making relationship there is some steering involved and we'll get more into that in our next episode around this bicycle illustration like Tony said if you're interested in seeing this we'll have it in the show notes.
You can download it for free at my website. If you want a printer copy or an official like ebook version like for your Kindle or something like that those are available for purchase but there's no need to purchase anything right? You can get the free PDF download from the website. But I also wanted to have the others available for those who had a real need or desire for those other formats. Tony where are we with like an action step?
I'm going to lean on you for those because I'm getting tired of talking. I got it. So the action step right the takeaway is to think about the wheels in your life right? Like the power of your life as a disciple comes from your relationship with God and the disciple making is the overflow of that. And the action step is to check the air in your tires.
Check the air in your tires. And I'm going to add one more go and get your PDF. It'll make the next episode a lot easier to follow along if you have the PDF PDF in front of you. So download the PDF. Go to justin gravit.com dot there's a link in the show notes and check the air in your tires.
We want to ride with you down the road of what it means to make disciples who can make disciples who can make disciples. And more than anything you know we just want to see what God does. So friends we're so thankful for you and for this opportunity to lean into this episode with you. And we can't wait to come back with part two of the bicycle illustration. Until then we'll see you soon.