Jeanne and I were vacationing on the West Coast a number of years ago with our son and my coauthor, Bill, just after he had graduated from college. We had a friend there who owned a plane, and one day he asked if we wanted to fly with him out to Santa Catalina Island, off the coast. We accepted, and the next morning we were zooming down a runway, heading up into the skies over Orange County.

After we leveled off over the Pacific, our friend turned to Bill, who was riding copilot, and shouted over the whine of the engine, “How’d you like to try your hand at flying?”

Always one for adventure, Bill replied, “Sure.” He had never flown a plane in his life—but what difference did that make?

Our friend gave him some brief instruction in the art of flying—sort of a “crash course,” you might say. Then he handed over the controls, and Bill was in command. Things went along uneventfully as long as we flew straight ahead. But after a couple of minutes the pilot shouted, “Why don’t you try a turn.”

Bill banked to the left, and suddenly I felt a bit dizzy. A moment later our friend said, “OK, try the other way,” and the plane banked to the right. Now Jeanne and I both felt dizzy. We were quite relieved to see the pilot eventually rest his hand on the controls and level us off before taking over again.

“Not bad,” he shouted to Bill, who was smiling like a Top Gun. “We only dropped about a thousand feet.”

Obviously learning to fly takes a lot more than just handing the controls to someone and shouting, “Have fun.” It requires skills that take years to develop fully. Apart from that experience, you’re taking your life in your hands.

The study of God’s Word is no different. Learning to do it properly is a process that can’t happen overnight. Yet that’s exactly what we do with new Christ-followers when we tell them to get into the Scriptures, hand them a Bible, and expect them to take it from there. No wonder so many give up in frustration.

In this chapter I want to give an overview of the Bible study process. First, I want to define what method in Bible study involves. Then I’m going to show the big picture of where the method leads and where you’ll end up by following it.

THERE’S METHOD TO THE MADNESS

Let’s begin with a definition. I define method in Bible study with three statements. First of all, Method is “methodicalness.” That is, it involves taking certain steps in a certain order to guarantee a certain result. Not just any steps; not just any order; not just any result.

The result governs everything. What is the product of methodical Bible study? What are you after? All along I’ve been saying that personal Bible study has a very specific aim—namely, life-change.

So, then, how will you get there? What process will lead to that result? I propose a three-step approach that will guarantee life change—three crucial steps carried out in a particular order.

1. Observation

In this step, you ask and answer the question, What do I see? The moment you come to the Scriptures you ask, What are the facts? You assume the role of a biblical detective, looking for clues. No detail is trivial. This leads to the second step.

2. Interpretation

Here you ask and answer the question, What does it mean? Your central quest is for meaning. Unfortunately, too much Bible study begins with interpretation, and furthermore, it usually ends there. But I’m going to show you that it does not begin there. Before you understand, you have to learn to see. Nor does it end there, because the third step is …

3. Application

Here you ask and answer the question, How does it work? Not, Does it work? People say they’re going to make the Bible “relevant.” But if the Bible is not already relevant, nothing you or I do will help. The Bible is relevant because it is revealed. It’s always a return to reality. And for those who read it and heed it, it changes their lives.

IT TAKES FIRSTHAND KNOWLEDGE

So method is methodicalness. But let me add a second statement to the definition: Method is methodicalness, with a view to becoming receptive and reproductive.

Do you want to make an impact on your society? First the Scripture has to make an impact on you. It’s the analogy of the sperm and the egg. Neither the male sperm nor the female egg is capable of reproduction. Only when the sperm impacts and is embraced by the egg is there conception and reproduction.

So it is in the spiritual realm. When God’s Word and a receptive, obedient individual get together, watch out. That’s a combination that can transform society. And that’s what personal Bible study is designed to do—to transform your life, and as a result, transform your world.

A third statement completes our definition: Method is methodicalness, with a view to becoming receptive and reproductive, by means of firsthand acquaintance with the Word.

Once again, there’s nothing to beat prolonged personal exposure to the Bible. It’s vital. Without it, you’ll never be directly involved with what God has to say. You’ll always have to depend on an intermediary. Imagine dealing with your spouse on that basis. How long do you think your marriage would last? The same is true with God. There is no substitute for firsthand exposure to His Word.

BEGIN WITH OBSERVATION

Now that you know where you are going, take a closer look at how you are going to get there, at the process itself. Recall that the first step is Observation. That’s where you ask and answer the question, What do I see? In Observation, you’ll be looking for four things:

1. Terms

A term is more than just a word. It’s a key word that is crucial to what an author has to say because it unlocks meaning. For instance, in the gospel by John, the word believe appears no less than seventy-nine times, always as a verb and never as a noun. Do some investigation, and you’ll discover that John uses believe very purposefully. It’s a term that unlocks his meaning.

The same principle applies to every book in the Bible. Each one is filled with terms. You’ve got to learn to recognize terms and pay close attention to them, because they are the basic building blocks with which you construct meaning.

2. Structure

Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible is not a collection of random sayings and stories that somehow fell together, willy-nilly. Rather, it’s a library of carefully constructed books that display—to those who look for it—two basic kinds of structure.

First, there is grammatical structure. I can almost hear the groans: “Do we have to get back into that? I gave that up in seventh grade.” But if you want to learn how to study Scripture effectively, you must learn to read it with the grammar in mind. What is the subject of the sentence? What is the object? What is the main verb? The more you know about grammar, the more you can get out of a passage.

There is also literary structure. There are questions and answers. There is a climax and resolution. There is cause and effect. There are many other structuring devices. I’ll show you a variety of ways in which the authors have structured their works.

3. Literary form

It’s amazing to me how people ignore genre when they come to the books of the Bible. They treat them all the same.

Yet there’s a vast difference between the Hebrew poetry of the Psalms and the tightly argued epistles of Paul; between the grand, sweeping narrative of Genesis and Exodus, and the simple, poignant stories of the parables. There is allegory and love poetry, satire and apocalyptic, comedy and tragedy, and much more. The Holy Spirit used each of these forms to communicate His message. So if you want to grasp that message, you must read each kind according to its proper “rules.” I’ll show you how to do that in later chapters.

4. Atmosphere

Reading for atmosphere involves picking up the setting and feelings from the biblical text. What was it like to be in the author’s shoes? For instance, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Sounds good. But where was he? In the Ritz-Carlton? Not exactly. He was in a foul-smelling Roman prison. And life looks very different from behind bars.

You want to transport your senses into the passage. If there’s a sunset, see it. If there’s an odor, smell it. If there’s a cry of anguish, feel it. Are you studying the letter to the Ephesians? Then join the church at Ephesus, and listen to Paul as he goes down on his knees to pray (Ephesians 3:14–21). This is an exercise for the imagination, not just the intellect. So it doesn’t take professional training to recapture the atmosphere of a passage of Scripture.

MOVE ON TO INTERPRETATION

Observation leads to the second step, Interpretation. Here you ask and answer the question, What does it mean? Remember, your central quest is for meaning. I want to suggest three things that will help you get the meaning of a passage of Scripture.

1. Questions

If you want to understand a biblical text, you’ve got to bombard it with questions. The Bible is never embarrassed to be asked questions. That doesn’t mean it will answer all of them. But you still need to ask them to determine if they can be answered. I’m going to give you a series of questions to lob at the text that will help you search for meaning.

2. Answers

Obviously, if you’re going to ask questions, you’ve also got to look for the answers. Where will you find them? In the text. Observation will give you the basic building blocks out of which you will construct the meaning of a passage. The answers to your questions will come directly from your observation process.

That is why I say, the more time you spend in observation, the less time you will need to spend in interpretation, and the more accurate will be your results. The less time you spend in observation, the more time you will need to spend in interpretation, and the less accurate will be your results.

3. Integration

Not only must you ask the text questions, not only must you look for answers, but finally you must put the answers together into a meaningful whole. Otherwise you end up with nothing but baskets of fragments.

One time I was asked to speak at a church. “Preach on anything you want,” they told me. “Except Ephesians.”

That seemed an odd request, until they explained why: “Our preacher has spent three years in Ephesians, and we’re just into the second chapter.”

I went out to lunch with some of these people, and I asked them, “What’s the theme of the book of Ephesians?”

They didn’t have a clue. They had all kinds of little details. But their pastor had never put all the data together into a meaningful whole. Result: despite three years of teaching, his congregation had never discovered the meaning of Ephesians.

Integration is the stage where you reconstruct the meaning of a passage after you’ve taken it apart to inspect the details.

KEEP GOING INTO APPLICATION

Observation and Interpretation lead to the third step in the process, the crucial step of Application. In application you ask and answer the question, How does it work? Again, not does it work, but how does it work? There are two areas to consider.

1. How does it work for me?

That can be a very convicting question. As George, the adult Sunday school teacher, told us in chapter 1, it’s so easy to study the Bible and say, “Oh, wow! That’s just what my class needs. Man, I can hardly wait to get there and tell it to them.” But by taking that approach, it is possible to ignore the more personal question, What does this have to say to me? How would this work in my life? Because if it isn’t working in my life, then what authority do I have to share it with someone else? I have a credibility gap.

2. How does it work for others?

Of course, the Bible does have implications for others. And it is legitimate to ask, How would this transform their life? How would it affect their marriage and family? Their school life, if they are a student? Their occupation, if they are in the work world? How can I effectively communicate biblical truth to others? I’ll point out some ways to make application of the Scriptures to people in your sphere of influence.

ALWAYS KEEP THE BIG PICTURE

That is an overview of where we are going and how we’re going to get there. Every time you come to a portion of God’s Word, approach it in terms of the big picture:

Observation: What do I see?

Interpretation: What does it mean?

Application: How does it work?

Howard G. Hendricks and William D. Hendricks, Living by the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007), 44–45.

Anna felt good about the effect her teaching ministry was having in the lives of the senior high girls. It was the last Sunday of the quarter—the lesson she usually began by saying “Let’s review.” She worked through her list of carefully prepared questions to let the girls tell what they had learned.

The session began with Anna’s own version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” She had a bag full of different prizes that would be awarded, depending on how far each girl went in her list of questions. After reviewing, the class shared cold drinks as each listened to the girls share how they had been able to apply some of the lessons learned in recent weeks. Anna looked at the review as a test of her own teaching effectiveness and as an opportunity to show the girls how much they had learned.

BENEFITS OF A REVIEW

Measuring your students’ progress is one of several benefits associated with the review. Your dreams for your students involve more than just their attending class. Review lets you know what your students are really learning.

You can also use a review to motivate learning. One teacher of primary-aged children routinely began teaching his class by opening a bag of red licorice and chewing on one piece as he taught the story. The children knew that at the end of the story there would be questions—and a long piece of red licorice for every child who could answer the questions. Not only were the children motivated to learn, but also when one child became disruptive, others quieted him, so they could hear the story and get the licorice.

Review also helps you evaluate how well you are teaching. We all need periodic evaluation. In fact, as a teacher, someday you will be evaluated by God (see Jas. 3:1–2).

Review can help you in two ways. First, you can identify the strengths of your teaching, upon which you can build (see 1 Thess. 5:21). Second, you can identify problem areas that need to be addressed as you seek to become a better teacher.

CONTENT OF A REVIEW

When you review, begin by asking questions related to basic knowledge and comprehension. Part of what you do each week in Sunday School is to communicate the contents of the Bible. How well are your students learning the Bible? Include a few questions each week about previous lessons to see if the contents of the Bible are being learned.

When it comes to Sunday School, simply growing in knowledge is not enough (see 1 Cor. 13:2). You also want to review your students’ attitudes, values and character. As you look at your class over a period of several months, what changes do you see in the attitude and character of various class members? This is not something you can determine by using a list of true-or-false questions. Spend time with your students outside of class to talk about changes in their lives—a great way to review.

A REVIEW OF A LESSON IS NOT AN EVALUATION OF WHAT YOUR STUDENTS HAVE LEARNED AS MUCH AS IT IS AN EVALUATION OF HOW WELL YOU HAVE TAUGHT.

You also want to review choices, conduct and habits. Your goal in teaching is to achieve behavioral change. As your students learn the Bible, the Holy Spirit can use your lessons to change each student to be more like Jesus. While Anna listened to her high school girls talk about decisions they were making in school, she could see how her lessons were being applied in their lives. Personal conversation is the best type of review.

When testing your teaching, take care to choose your questions wisely. Your choices should be based on the following criteria:

• what you want them to learn
• age level (i.e., their competence)
• what changes you expect in their life

Look at these three factors carefully.

SOURCES FOR REVIEW

You may want to begin your review by looking at a statistics review. As a Sunday School teacher, you may keep attendance and record other information about your students in a roll book. Unfortunately, these records are often ignored after the data have been collected. A review may reveal such things as attendance patterns, punctuality, lesson preparation and outreach. You could keep track of your own special emphasis, such as a memory verse contest or bringing new members.

Informal feedback is a second source of review. Sometimes, others will notice behavioral changes in the lives of your students and share their observations with you. This provides you with an indication of discernible change taking place in those students. Sometimes this feedback may come from students thanking you for helping them through a specific issue raised in the lesson.

Questions are the most common form of review. When you ask questions, your students may not even realize you are evaluating them. Also try beginning a class session with the words “Let’s review” followed by several questions about the previous week’s lesson.

Some students do not test well. You may have some who are learning, but if put on the spot in front of others, they just can’t remember. To get around this, you may want to build your review into a game. As your students focus on playing the game, answering a question becomes secondary.

Written tests can also be used to review. An adult Sunday School class might review by using a personality-profile test. Some teachers use a spiritual-gift inventory to help class members identify their spiritual gifts as a review for lessons on giftedness.

You can also review through projects. The more involved your students become in the class, the better they will learn the important lessons you are trying to teach.

When you review, be careful about forming conclusions on the basis of a single question. Everyone has a bad day, and there could be various reasons why a student couldn’t answer one or more questions. Look for a pattern of results over several kinds of review before making hard conclusions about your teaching or how well your students are learning.

FREQUENCY OF REVIEW

So how often should you review? That’s a tough question only you can answer. Generally speaking, the more often you review, the less stressful the process becomes. Some teachers do a bit of review every week. Others set aside one Sunday every two or three months to review.

Evaluating your teaching is a lot like maintaining your lawn. You cut the grass as often as it needs cutting. You test your teaching as often as it needs testing. Periodic testing of your teaching ministry will be an important part of your personal growth plan as a teacher.

Elmer L. Towns, What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know (Ventura, CA: Regal; Gospel Light, 2001), 134–140.

The foreman wrote a big “9” in chalk on the shop floor. “What is that?” the second crew asked each other as they punched their cards and stepped onto the concrete shop floor. The foreman smiled, but did not answer. He smiled the smile that says, “You’ll know soon enough.” That question was the buzz that night. The buzz got louder as the truth began to circulate. Someone talked to a worker from the day crew. “That nine is how many widgets the first crew got out the door.” The next morning there was a line through the “9” and next to it, a big, white “10”.

Whatever gets measured, gets done. One of the best ways of rewarding is simply to notice, to pay attention, to acknowledge. Counting is not about ego; it is about caring. As Rick Warren says, “We count people because people count.”

Jesus taught us that a shepherd who had one hundred sheep and lost one would leave the ninety-nine to go after the one. Question: how would the shepherd know if he had one hundred sheep, or only ninety nine? Maybe he just happen to notice that Sally Sheep was missing. Or, maybe he counted. The simplest way would be to count. Counting is not an impersonal expression of bureaucracy or greed. It is an expression of caring.

Proverbs 27:23 Says it plainly: Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.  A  good start on knowing the condition of your flock is counting.

One of the most caring things you can do is to measure the church’s indicators of health and growth and report these things consistently to the people.

It is one of the first things your doctor does, isn’t it? He takes your temperature, your blood pressure, your weight. He measures these things against normal standards of health. In other words, he benchmarks them. And right away he can get a general feel for your health. It is not the complete picture; more analysis will be needed for that. But, there is no use in doing the detail work until the broad strokes are painted.

Part of the role of leadership is measuring and displaying the right stuff. We need to be careful not to display too much. Reams of computer printouts never motivated anyone. A 9 on shop floor does. Leadership must distill the myriad of things the business is about down to a handful of things that are easily understood, measured and communicated. These are the essentials that matter.

Measuring makes life fun. Measuring turns life into a game, in the best sense of the word. What would a game be without measurements? Without a score board there would be no game.

I love to write. Every night before I go to bed, I have my computer count the number of words in this book so far. I have a carefully constructed chart of each day’s progress. Here is what it looks like so far. This is what makes writing fun–to feel that you are making progress. I do this on all my books.

Churches measure lots of things: dollars, worship attendance, Sunday School attendance, baptisms, new members, and so on. This is good for background analysis, like all the background statistics in a football game. All those extra numbers make the real numbers more interesting. The real numbers are the ones on the scoreboard. The background statistics normally support the real numbers. Occasionally a team will be way behind in time of possession but ahead in the score. This is rare.

The thing that makes a sport fun is the simplicity of the score keeping instrument. The game is won or lost on one, easy-to-understand scoreboard.

Imagine a football game where a team walked off saying, “We may have not have had as many yards rushing, but we killed them in the air.” While the other team patted themselves on the back by saying, “Our percentage of red-zone conversions to touch downs was excellent. In addition, we had more first downs, and more interceptions. We were clearly the stronger team today.” No. What makes football fun is that one team can say, “We won, 14 - 10!” The simplicity of the score keeping system is what makes the game fun. Everyone understands it.   It is easy to display.  It makes the game a game. Coaches and interested fans can plunge the depths of other supporting statistics, as they do. Creators of games must keep it simple to make it fun. Churches, too, need a simple, easy-to-understand way of keeping score. This is what makes church work fun. Score keeping puts zest into almost anything. It works on the shop floor and it will work in church. The reason many people don’t find church work all that fun is the scoreboard is hidden in a closet, or, they have the wrong scoreboard.

Some would object that this is serious business.  It is not about having fun. I agree. The Bible says to be sober minded. We ought to be serious about those things that are serious. And I am serious about having fun. It ought to be fun to come to church. People like to come to church where people like to come to church. It ought to be fun to do the work of being obedient to the Great Commission. It is fun for me to preach. It is fun to me to grow a class. It is fun to me to lead music. Growing a church ought to be fun. We ought to say with the Psalmist, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’” (Psalms 122:1)

 A lot of things make going to church fun. Good preaching is more fun to listen to than bad preaching. It is fun to be warmly greeted. Children have fun in a well appointed nursery with fun loving teachers. It is a lot more fun to go to a church where people get along than to go to a church where people are fighting. It is also fun to go to a church where people know how to keep score.

Most churches have a simple score keeping device, but it is a wrong one. The score most people watch is Sunday School attendance. If we had 100 we feel good. If we have 90, we don’t feel so good. If we have 110, we feel great. If we have 75, we feel awful. This is the wrong thing to emphasize.

The reason it is wrong is that you can feel good about the score most of the time and still not be growing. To put it more bluntly, you can feel good about the score and still not be obedient to the Great Commission. A score keeping device that makes us feel good when we are being disobedient is a wrong score keeping device. The score keeping device should reward growth, not measure relative position to a static number. This system encourages a church to stay on plateau. Perhaps one of the reasons we have so many churches on plateau is that the measuring system encourages it.

Some churches keep score with worship attendance. This has become especially trendy since worship attendance is often higher than Sunday School attendance. We feel better about the score because it is a bigger number. This is not about making us feel good.  It is about tracking obedience to the Great Commission. If we believe disciples are made in small groups, this is a step backward. Jesus made disciples in a group of 12. I believe this is how disciples are made. I don’t think keeping score by Sunday School attendance is right. Keeping score by worship attendance is worse.

Let’s get honest. Some people keep score with money. This is not as bad as it sounds. Jesus said your heart and money go together. You could make a theological case for the idea that the larger the offering, the greater effect on people’s heart. Still, I don’t think this is the best way to keep score. It is surely to cause offense to outsiders. The score keeping device may also have a tendency to discolor our hearts. It is a short walk from this score keeping device to the belief that all we are after is money.

Another way to keep score is to measure baptisms. This sounds good. If we believe that people are to be baptized soon after they come to faith, then the act of baptism could give us a pretty good picture of how many people we are moving toward discipleship. In theory this makes sense. In reality it does not. The reality is many people who are baptized have not just been converted. They were baptized when they were 6, born again when they were 12, and baptized again after a revival at 18. What are we counting here? Many people are converted but are never baptized as believers because they feel it would denigrate the baptism they received at birth. In the jungles of Africa, number of baptisms is probably a reasonably accurate picture of the disciplemaking system, but here in America, it has some problems.

I do not believe any of the score keeping methods mentioned thus far are the best way to measure progress toward making disciples. Let me mention two ideas that I think are better.

One idea is to have people make a commitment, on an annual basis, to live the disciple’s life. You may define this in any number of ways. I have defined a disciple elsewhere as follows:

D - Disciplined in his daily devotional life. A disciple’s life is a disciplined life. There is no discipline as important as daily exposure to the word and prayer.

I - Intimate relationships. Growing disciples are involved in several deep relationships that hold them accountable in Christian discipleship.

S - Small group. Small groups are important for fellowship, outreach, and teaching.

C - Corporate worship. Corporate worship is a vital part of the process of creating a mature disciple.

I - Intimate family life. A disciple is a minister. His first ministry is to serve his family. One of the most important jobs of every Sunday School teacher is to produce stronger families.

P - Passion for God. This is a somewhat intangible quality. However, much of what it means to be a disciple is a matter of the heart.

L  - Lay ministry. A disciple is involved in ministry in the area of his or her giftedness.

E - Evangelistic concern. Not everyone has the gift of evangelism. However, everyone should be ready, willing and able to share their faith. The heart of the disciple beats for the lost. They should be interested, open and looking for evangelistic opportunities.

S - Sacrificial giving. The disciple’s life is a giving life. This means giving of time and money. More than that, it means giving as an attitude of life.

You may want to define discipleship differently. What I want to suggest is that you do define it. Have people sign up to commit to live that life and keep score. This gives a pretty good overall perspective on how many disciples you are making. By tracking the number of disciples who commit each year and measuring the percentage growth each year, you will have a pretty good handle on your progress.

A more practical way of measuring success is based on the assumption that if people are in a small group, they are in the process of becoming a disciple. There are obviously exceptions to this.  Many who attend Sunday School never become disciples. (I will suggest some additional supportive measurements for leadership to monitor in order to offset this reality.) Still, I believe that it is more likely that people who are attending Sunday School are moving forward in the process of becoming disciples than those who do not attend Sunday School. I believe attending Sunday School is good and worthy of being measured carefully. But it is not attendance in Sunday School that we should measure.

I believe Sunday School is a better measurement than worship attendance because I believe disciples are made in small groups. In large group worship, we are in danger of inoculating people against the gospel rather than giving them the real thing. But even if I were to keep score with worship, I wouldn’t do it on the basis of attendance. It lends itself to psychologically rewarding the plateau in the same way that keeping score with Sunday School attendance does.

I believe the best score keeping device to monitor on a week by week, month by month, year by year basis is growth in Sunday School attendance. Not Sunday School attendance measured as a flat number, but growth in Sunday School attendance, calculated as a percentage. If a church had 100 last year in Sunday School on this Sunday and they had 110 this year, this should not be reported as an attendance of 110. It should be reported as a 10% growth. This is not so important week to week, because of the fluctuations of attendance experienced by churches. Percentage growth on a month by month basis begins to be a more accurate picture of progress toward doubling every five years or less. If you want to double your  church every five years or less, measure carefully the percentage growth in Sunday School attendance. The scoreboard should look like this:

●10% growth

●15% decline

●3% decline, or

●15% growth

If you try this approach, one thing you will notice immediately is that it is depressing. On average, most churches are on plateau and would report a 0% increase. This is good. We want people to be depressed by the lack of growth. This is far better than looking at a score board that says “100" and feeling smug that we had a good Sunday. I am just as happy with a child who cleans up his room because I made a game out of it as I am with a child who does it out of sheer obedience. I think God will be will pleased with us if we are obedient to the Great Commission, even if our motive was aided by a well-constructed game.

In most churches, I remind you, we do have a game. That is, we do have a score keeping device. Everyone knows if we won today or not. If we were above 100 we won. If we were below 100 we lost.  If we hit 100 exactly we tied. Everyone understands the game. This is the sort of game that leads to a plateau. I suggest we change the game.

There is a good reason why we do not change. It is depressing. We ought to be happy that it is depressing. It ought to be depressing to be disobedient to God. When a team realizes they are behind, they work extra hard to catch up. This is what we want them to do. This is what they should do.

If you would double your church every five years or less, you need to constantly monitor the weekly, monthly and year-to-date percentage growth. You need to constantly keep this before the people. It should be bread and butter stuff for active members of the church to understand where you are in terms of percentage growth. You want people to say, “I am not sure what attendance was, but I do know we are up about 15% over last year.”

Fifteen percent growth is the magic number. Fifteen percent growth is what it takes to double every five years or less. In order to achieve this, monitor it and report it constantly in a myriad of creative ways. Make graphs and charts. I used to paraphrase the Great Commission by saying, “Go, therefore, and make graphs and charts of all nations.”

If you have to, get a big piece of chalk and write the percentage growth on the floor.

For staff eyes only

One other statistic ought to be carefully monitored by the staff and leadership of the church. It is what I call the “Velcro” factor. It answers the question, “How many of our visitors are sticking?” With “Wow!” services and programs and giving Friday nights to Jesus, you can keep this above 55%. In order to double every five years or less, keep the velcro factor above 55%. In addition, if 2% of the people attending your worship services are visitors, then you will easily get on target to double every five years or less. Let me give you an example of a church of 100.

Attendance	100
Percent of Visitors	2%
Number of Visitors Per Week	2
Number of Visitors Per Year	104
Velcro Factor	55%
Number of New Members Per Year	57.2
Ratio of Membership to Attendance	50%
Number of New Members Attending	29
New Attendance	129
Attrition	-10%
Expected Attendance	116
Percentage Growth	16%
Percent Growth Needed to Double in Five Years	15%

The research I have done indicates that in most cases, the reason for a church’s failure to double every five years or less is not in the percent of visitors.  It is in the velcro factor. People are visiting and not joining. Suppose this same church has a velcro factor of 20%, which is about average for many of the churches I have researched. Here is the same church, same number of visitors. Same attendance to membership ratio. Same everything except the velcro factor. Notice how dramatically this affects the bottom line.

Attendance	100
Percent of Visitors	2%
Number of Visitors Per Week	2
Number of Visitors Per Year	104
Velcro Factor	20%
Number of New Members Per Year	20.8
Ratio of Membership to Attendance	50%
Number of New Members Attending	10
New Attendance	110
Attrition	-10%
Expected Attendance	99
Percentage Growth	-1%
Percent Growth Needed to Double in Five Years	15%

The velcro factor is the difference between doubling every five years or less and not doing so.

Let me offer another example. I served as Interim Pastor for Scotsdale Baptist Church in El Paso, Texas for nine months. When I came to the church, they had been in a five year decline of about 25 per year. They went from 400 in attendance to about 275 in attendance in 5 years. The velcro factor measured ten percent. Ten percent of their visitors were joining. I taught the principles in this book and Double Your Class. I encouraged the people to give Friday Nights to Jesus and to invite every member and every visitor to every fellowship every month. We went from a 10% velcro factor to a 90% velcro factor. There were actually some months where we had more people joining than we had visiting. Growth moved from 10% decline to 5% growth. In that particular setting, we needed something else to get them on target to doubling every five years or less.

One More Measurement

The second measurement that I would ask the leadership to keep up with is the magnet factor. The magnet factor measures how many new people you are able to attract. It is calculated as a percentage of total attendance. If a church of 100 has a family of 4 visit one Sunday, they have a 4% magnet factor that week. If they have none the next week, the average magnet factor drops to 2%. This needs to be about 2%. Notice how much difference this makes on the bottom line. Once again, consider the same chart with a church of 100. Look what happens when they see 1%, 2%, and 3% magnet factor.

Attendance	100	100	100
Percent of Visitors	1%	2%	3%
Number of Visitors Per Week	1	2	3
Number of Visitors Per Year	52	104	156
Velcro Factor	55%	55%	55%
Number of New Members Per Year	28.6	57.2	85.8
Ratio of Membership to Attendance	50%	50%	50%
Number of New Members Attending	14	29	43
New Attendance	114	129	143
Attrition	-10%	-10%	-10%
Expected Attendance	103	116	129
Percentage Growth	3%	16%	29%
Percent Growth Needed to Double in Five Years	15%	15%	15%

The situation in the first column of numbers is roughly the situation we had at Scotsdale. We were having a very high velcro factor, but sill minimal growth. This was because the total number of visitors was less than 1%. The reason for this was twofold. First, the location of the church was terrible. Although it is easy  to find it  if you know where it is, you have to being going there to get there. Comparatively few people ever drive by Scotsdale Baptist Church. It is one of those situations where they could not afford to buy the land with the better location. By the way, nothing is more costly than cheap land.

If you calculate what this costs the church, in terms of number of visitors and number joining and number attending, the costs are enormous. You could probably make a case for the fact that the increased visibility would be free. since it would be paid for with the money of people who will not now go to the church since they never new about it. One of the most expensive things a church can buy is cheap land.

The other reason Scotsdale had such a low percentage of visitors is because they had been in steady decline for so long. New people know new people and naturally invite them to church. When a church is experiencing little or no growth, it will take a while to build momentum. Growth begets growth. When a church begins to attracts newcomers to the church, these newcomers will, in turn, invite others.

This is something people fail to calculate when considering the benefits of advertising. The first wave of visitors produced by the advertising is just that: the first wave. If those that are brought through advertising are satisfied by what they find, you can be sure they will bring others with them.

By the way, if you are considering moving to a new ministry position, one of the easiest ways to predict the growth potential is by discovering the ratio of visitors to members attending. If they have a high magnet factor and a low velcro factor, it is a very easy situation to turn around.

When you ask these questions, make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Counting the total number of unenrolled attenders in Sunday School is not the point. When I speak of visitors, I am speaking of the names of new people that are viable prospects for involvement in the life of the church. Note:

●Out-of-town guests don’t count.

●A family of 4 counts as 4 regardless of age of the children, since this whole thing is based on attendance.

●A family of 4 that fills out a visitors card 4 weeks in a row only counts as 4.

●A family of 4 that does not fill out a visitors card counts as zero since you have no opportunity to follow them up. Ideas for getting visitors to fill out cards is discussed below.

●A family that attends your Christmas musical but is an active member of another church in town does not count since they are not legitimate prospects for your church.

I would encourage you to keep up with these things as best you can. On the other hand, don’t lose a lot of sleep over the fact that you are not absolutely positively sure how to categorize people. These things tend to work themselves out.

A major obstacle is getting the names of all the people who visit. The first thing I want to say about this is don’t work at it too hard. You want to give people some space to remain anonymous for a while. Some churches use the phrase when they greet guests, “We are not going to ask you to say anything, sign anything or give anything.” This is a more extreme example of what I would say, but it does demonstrate sensitivity to people’s desire for anonymity.

People who keep coming to church will usually want to be identified at some point. They want to start getting your newsletter and find out more about the church. The key thing is to let them know that the visitors cards are available to fill out anytime they want. They may not want to fill out anything the first week. Maybe they will wait till the third week or the third month. Just keep inviting them to “let us know who you are.” Offer them the benefit of receiving your newsletter and staying informed about the many ministries your church offers.

You might want to explain to people what will and will not happen to their cards. If you are going to do an in-house visit, tell them. If you are not, tell them that. We simply told guests that we would like to send them some information through the mail about the various programs the church had to offer. We also called visitors so we told them that. We flat out told them they would not have someone banging on their door. We felt like if they were going to want and expect a visit, we were better off telling them that none would be forthcoming. On the other hand, we knew that many were leery of being visited.  We thought we would come closer to getting their cards if they knew we were not going to visit them. Once again, keep score as best you can, but don’t get paranoid. God is the ultimate score keeper anyway. -- Josh Hunt, You Can Double Your Church in Five Years or Less

Hell. It is a forbidden topic of conversation, except in very conservative religious circles. We squirm when it comes up, and we try to change the subject. We avoid churches that talk about it, and we skim over passages in the Bible that mention it. It is about as taboo a subject as incest.

Still, I am curious about hell. Like most people, I have heard all the conventional descriptions — steaming sulfur, raging fire, horrible screams, little red devils that wield pitch forks and taunt the damned. But that is not my interest here. I am more curious about how people land there. I used to think that God sends people there. I haven’t changed my mind on that either, but I also think people choose to go there because they would find heaven an intolerable place to be. If heaven is the place where God is, they wouldn’t want to have anything to do with it.

C. S. Lewis put me on to this idea. In his novel The Great Divorce, he tells the story of a group of people living in hell who take a bus tour of heaven. As they discover, at any point along the way they can choose to leave the tour group and stay in heaven. They are thus given a second chance. It is an extraordinary opportunity. Surprisingly, most of the tourists despise heaven and want to flee back to hell. It is too bright in heaven, too colorful, too solid, and too pure for them. It is so real that it hurts, like sunlight stinging the eyes after one leaves a dark movie theater. What makes heaven horrible to them is that God is there. They want to return to the shadows, as far away from God as possible.

Lewis shows in the novel that the primary difference between hell and heaven is not the temperature or smell or noise or pain. The real difference has to do with who is at the center. God is at the center of heaven. People who go to heaven, therefore, must be willing to live forever in the presence of someone who is infinitely superior to them and who will force them, by the sheer power of his presence, to conform to his greatness. Upon entering heaven, people will have to change. It is impossible not to change when living in the presence of God.

The self is at the center of hell. People in hell can live as egoistically and selfishly as they want, totally absorbed by themselves. As strange as it might sound, they want to be in hell. Hell is the only place where people can play God without any obstacles or competition. As a character in The Great Divorce says, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it.”1 Lewis actually borrowed this idea from Dante, who said that the door of hell is locked from the inside, not from the outside. Hell is where many people want to be.

Jerry L. Sittser, When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer: Insights to Keep You Praying with Greater Faith and Deeper Hope (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009).

Most of life is on autopilot. Your life is largely about habits you have made. We don’t make decisions about most of the things we do. We develop a habit, and the habit determines our life. As the old saying goes, “Choose your rut carefully; you are going to be in it for the next 25 miles.” Choose your habits carefully; they are going to determine the quality of your life. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Your marriage is mostly about habits. Ever watch the show King of Queens? Here is a couple that has gotten in the habit of picking at each other. They complain and they argue and fight and they pick—all out of habit. Do you want a marriage like that?

They don’t get up each day and say to themselves, “I think I’m going to pick a fight today.” They certainly don’t say to themselves, “I think I’d rather have a miserable marriage rather than a happy marriage. To reach that goal, I think I’ll complain and argue and criticize all day long.”

They have actually done research on this. You can complain some. You can criticize some. You can correct some. However, the number of complements and praises and ‘attaboys’ need to outnumber the criticisms by a factor of about five to one. If they don’t, your marriage is headed to the toilet.1

Your health is largely about habits. You are in the habit of exercising or not, eating too much or not, and resting too much or not. If you are in the habit of eating a big bowl of ice cream every night and you don’t exercise, you are probably overweight. You are a little depressed about the way you look. You don’t have a lot of energy. All this is because of the habits you have formed.

You don’t get up and make choices about these things every day. You don’t think about whether or not you’re going to exercise. Your habit determines your behavior. You don’t get up and think about whether you eat more calories than you consume or not. You just do what the habit dictates.

Your money is where it is because of habits you have made. Money is an area where it is especially easy to make habits.

We are in the habit of setting aside a certain amount of money every Thursday. We have instructed our bank that every Thursday we want a certain amount transferred from our checking account into a savings account. This makes saving automatic. We don’t have to think about it. We don’t have to stress about it. We don’t have to decide each week to do it. It is just a habit.

About half of Americans are in the habit of spending more money than they make.2 They don’t make the conscious choice to go a little further in debt each year, it is just a habit. Do this for a few years and you will discover that before long you are in a pretty deep hole. One more.

Your walk with God is largely about habits. The book of Hebrews speaks of people who don’t go to church much. The writer of Hebrews says that we are not to neglect meeting together, “as is the habit of some.” Neglecting to meet together is simply habit, as are many of our spiritual disciplines. We either get into the habit of reading our Bibles every day, or I’ll bet you didn’t read your Bible this morning. You probably never even thought about it. If you did read your Bible this morning, you probably didn’t think too much about that either. It is just a habit. A habit that will either draw you closer to God, or push you further and further away.

Changing habits

What if you could change your habits so that they lead you in the direction that you actually want to go? What if you could put success on autopilot? What if you could put it on autopilot to exercise every day, read the Bible every day, eat no more calories than you burn, spend no more money than you make, and any of 100 other things you would like to do to lead you to the life you’ve only imagined.

That is what this book is about.

In this book, we will look at what the Bible says, along with what the latest scientific research reveals about habits. We are going to look at some fascinating stories of people who started habits and maintain them over the long haul.

What we have learned is that success is rarely about trying really hard to do something. It is about learning the skill of starting a habit—which does involve some trying hard for a time. But, it also involves a lot of other skills as well.

For example, did you know that people who eat on smaller plates, generally speaking, eat fewer calories than people who eat on large plates? Did you know that habits are contagious? We tend to do what the people in our group do. There has been a lot of research done in recent years about habits—how to form them and how to break them. We will be looking at this research, as well as what the Bible says about habits.

The Bible and Habits

As important as habits are, you might be surprised to discover how seldom the word habit appears in the Bible. Looking at the NIV, the English word habit appears only five times. Here they are:

• If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. Exodus 21:29 (NIV)
• However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and the dead animal will be his. Exodus 21:36 (NIV)
• The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” “No,” he said. Numbers 22:30 (NIV)
• Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to. 1 Timothy 5:13 (NIV)
• Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

The first two deal with the same thing. If your bull hurts someone, you are not responsible. Not unless the bull has been in the habit of doing this. Then, you are responsible. The habit of the bull makes the difference of whether or not you are punished.

The next one is from one of the most humorous stories in the Bible. It is the place where Balaam’s donkey talks to him. Balaam corrects the donkey and the donkey speaks back to him, asking the rhetorical question, “Have I been in the habit of doing this?” You gotta love the Bible! Great story.

The first New Testament instance of the word habit had to do with the church’s benevolence program. The church cared for widows, but was very careful about who did and did not get on the list. Specifically, Paul instructs Timothy not put young widows on the list. The reason had to do with their habits. Paul says that they were in the habit of being idle and being busybodies. Because of her habits, they should be kept off the list.

The last one is a classic, and one we referred to earlier. It has to do with habit of meeting with the church or not. This verse teaches that we should form the habit of encouraging one another daily. By the way, notice the habit is not to sit in straight rows and watch the same event happen on the same stage. The habit is to encourage one another. I encourage you; you encourage me. It is a habit. We do it every day.

Why we fail to make or break habits

Ever wonder why so many of us make resolutions each New Year that we fail to keep? Approximately 45 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, but only 8 percent succeed.3

In a way, we will spend this whole book answering that question. But, part of the answer comes from one letter: the letter “s” in resolutions. We fail to keep resolutions in part because we have so many of them.

If you want to break a habit or make a habit, you do well to work on one thing at a time. Work on exercise, or getting on a budget, or complaining less than you do, or having a quiet time. Don’t work on more than one.

Amazing things happen when you successfully develop a single habit. Again, they’ve done research on this. People who develop the habit of exercising daily tend to stay on a budget. They tend to drink less and smoke less. It seems that success in one area spills over into other areas as well.4

However, working on several areas simultaneously does not work. There is a verse somewhere that says, “from one degree of glory to another.”5 We tend to focus on the word glory. I’d like to invite you to focus on the word one. It is a reminder that we will do well to work on one thing at a time. Paul said, “this one thing I do,” not, “these 10 things I dabble in.” (Philippians 3:13)

So, here is your assignment. Pick one thing, and only one thing that you would like to make a habit. Conversely. You could pick a habit you want to break. But just pick one. Be very specific. I am working on a project with my church and got a little feedback this last weekend. One man said he wanted to memorize more Scripture. More is not a goal. I invited him to think in terms of setting a goal along the lines of, “memorizing one verse a week and retaining it for at least three months.” This kind of specificity sticks to the brain and leads to success. My goal is to exercise every day. One lady in our church said her goal was to straighten out her husband. Good luck with that.

Once you have success developing one habit, it will be easier for you to believe that you can develop any habit. You can exercise, have a daily quiet time, stay on a budget, quit smoking, and do anything else God puts on your heart to do. We really can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) It seems, we just can’t do them all at once. One habit of the time, one day at a time. As the old saying goes, “Yard by yard life is hard, inch by inch it’s a cinch.”

I’m going to go ride my new bike now. That is my habit that I am working on as I write. I want to exercise every day. This is day 20. They say it takes about 66 days to form a habit—and one day to break one.

I buried a man recently who is 10 years younger than me. He died of a sudden heart attack. It was a wake-up call for me, and I realized that life is fragile. I am not immune from the same human frailties that affect all men. I work as a writer and it is a sedentary lifestyle. I need to exercise every day.

Let’s ride.

Josh Hunt, Break a Habit / Make a Habit (Josh Hunt, 2013).

Almost every group will have one or more of what I call “EGRs.” EGR stands for: Extra Grace Required. These are well-meaning but high-demanding people who can derail a group discussion if not dealt with in a healthy, biblical way.

The Dominator

Your group may have at least one member who has a tendency to dominate the conversation. They have been a Christian for a while, and it’s difficult for them to let others express their thoughts first. Here are a few ideas you can try with a dominator:

• Sit next to him or her during the discussion time. There is something about that proximity to the facilitator that can help quiet a dominator.
• Don’t make eye contact first with the person when you ask a question to the group.
• Intentionally ask another group member a question directly before offering it to the group.
• Meet with him or her after the group time to ask for help in giving less seasoned Christians in the group the opportunity to express their thoughts first.

The Dodger

Opposite of the dominator, the dodger is the person in the group who never enters the conversation. They never make eye contact and seem disengaged with group life. Here are a few things you can do to engage the dodgers in your group:

• Don’t force someone to talk in the group before they are ready to. Some people just need time to feel comfortable with the group before they can open up.
• Give everyone in the group the opportunity to share their story in five minutes or fewer. You need to give them at least a week’s notice before sharing.
• Ask for her opinion on a question that is not too intrusive or difficult. Icebreaker questions like, “What superhero did you want to be growing up?” are ideal for getting everyone into the conversation and comfortable using their voices.
• Arrange for coffee or a chat outside the group time. Many people are more comfortable opening up one-on-one rather than in a large group.

The Debater

You will hit topics in your group that will be controversial to some. In fact, if you are committed to studying the whole Bible, that will definitely be the case. When that happens, you may have people in your group who want to debate either side of the issue. Some debate is healthy, and leaders must learn to differentiate between primary gospel issues and secondary issues. On primary issues—for example, the full humanity and divinity of Christ, the reality of Christ as the only way of salvation, and the necessity of sharing the gospel with the world—God’s truth must ultimately be agreed upon. On less important matters—for example, debates about finer doctrinal points like the definition of predestination or views on the end times—it’s okay to leave some disagreement. Ultimately, the goal of your group is discipleship, not mere theological training. Here are a few things you can do to keep that goal in sight:

• Know what God is telling us in the passage of Scripture being discussed. This will involve preparation.
• Study the passage in context with the group. This will shed more light on the issue than just a few verses.
• Refer to a study Bible like the CSB Study Bible. Study Bibles can help explain difficult passages.
• Never be afraid to end a debate with, “Let me check with a pastor this week and report back to the group on this question.” It’s okay to not know the answer in the moment.

The Drainer

A drainer is someone who always seems to drain the life out of the group. They are the constant Debbie Downer. No matter what the topic of discussion is that week, they turn it into a conversation about them and their current struggles. A drainer will make other group members hesitant to open up about their own personal lives. Here are a few things you can do to help manage the drainer in your group:

• Meet with the person outside the group time to bring the issue to their attention. They may not realize the problem and will be more aware of their comments in future meetings.
• If the prayer time is normally done through verbal requests, change it up by asking group members to write their requests down and email them to the group later. This will help eliminate one opportunity for a drainer to take over.
• The level of the person’s needs may require professional care that your group is not equipped to offer. If this is the case, connect with a church leader to help facilitate next steps for help.

With all of these examples, use Paul’s advice in Ephesians as your guide to the response.

And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. (Eph. 4:32)

However, that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be healthy boundaries in place. Shepherds have a sheep pen where only the sheep may gather. Jesus gave us this picture in John 10:

“Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” (vv. 1–2)

There are times when our families must come first. And there will be times when a toxic member of the group may need to step out of the group to receive professional counseling before returning. Hurting people hurt people, and one person can destroy a group if not dealt with in a biblical and honest manner. If this is the case, it’s always best to bring a pastor or church staff member into the situation as soon as possible. The process laid out in Matthew 18:15–17 should be followed in a small group just like in a church.

“If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.”

A group member should only be asked to leave the group after all attempts have been made to restore him to health and fellowship.

Chris Surratt, Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2019).

One of the most extraordinary things about God’s creation is that all living organisms are made from the same stuff: DNA. DNA is the set of instructions that calls all of the shots while something is growing and living out its life. It determines what kind of organism something is, how tall it will be, what color it is, whether or not it has hair, and every other variation that makes each living thing different.

Disciple making is an organic process, too, with a specific goal: intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ. The individual vehicles for this process are called Discipleship Groups, or D-Groups.

Even though two D-Groups never look the exact same, there are still markers that identify them as D-Groups. Furthermore, there are signals that tell us when D-Groups are healthy. If our groups launch with the same fundamental DNA, it doesn’t matter what their context, age range, gender, or stage of life is, they will be healthy and set up for success. Just as with humans, they can look different but all share similar DNA.

In his book Transforming Discipleship, Greg Ogden wrote, “When we open our hearts in transparent trust to each other around the truth of God’s Word in the spirit of mutual accountability, we are in the Holy Spirit’s hothouse of transformation.” Here, he lays out three of the most important aspects of what makes a healthy D-Group: transparent trust, the truth of God’s Word, and mutual accountability. As we examine some of the fundamental aspects of a D-Group, keep these three things in mind, as they are the tools that will sharpen you and those in your groups.

I. HOW TO START A D-GROUP

The first and most important step in forming a D-Group is prayer. Jesus modeled this for us in Luke 6:12–13: “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.”

Jesus’s own first step in selecting the disciples was prayer. How much more should we pray about it?

After you pray for God to reveal people to invite into a discipleship relationship, approach them and invite them into your D-Group. Covenant with them to be committed, accountable, and transparent with one another as you walk together. These are the people in whom you will be investing your life for the next twelve to eighteen months.

II. HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR D-GROUP

Here is an example of a standard D-Group meeting.

Open with prayer. We practice discipleship to become more like Jesus, so it should be natural that we begin by praying.

Next, have a time of intentional conversations. These conversations will be about the highs and lows of the week—what struggles you faced, what victories you won—and a time of sharing celebrations and praises. Always be quick to talk about where you see God working in your life.

Following the intentional conversations is a good time to dig into the Word. An excellent way to do this is by quoting the Scripture memory verses you have been working through. Hold each other accountable to memorize—knowing that your brothers or sisters will be asking you to quote the verses that will keep you focused during the week.

Next, share what you have learned from the Word that week. Some do this by sharing HEAR Journals (See Sample HEAR Journal) or by sharing passages that convicted them that week. The goal of studying the Bible is to apply what it says to our lives. Knowledge without application is useless information. When approaching this time, it is helpful to ask questions like, “What are you hearing from God, and what are you doing about it?” Here are three simple questions to teach your D-Group to help them apply God’s Word personally:

A. Is there a promise to claim?

B. Is there an action or attitude to avoid?

C. Is there a principle to apply?

Remember that effective discipleship must contain both authentic relationships and systematic biblical training. Though living a life worth emulating is important, simply living a model life is not enough; you must ensure that those you disciple understand the biblical basis for the steps of faith they see you taking. This only comes through systematic biblical training.

As you close your group sessions, make sure to spend a few minutes holding each other accountable in your personal lives. Perhaps there are sins you are struggling with or temptations you are fighting. The trust that comes from accountable relationships makes sharing sins and temptations both natural and helpful.

III. DAILY DISCIPLINES OF A DISCIPLE

As you go about your week, it’s important to encourage those in your groups to practice these four basic daily disciplines of a disciple of Christ.

A. Pray continuously.

B. Read and journal daily.

C. Memorize Scripture weekly.

D. Rely on the Spirit consistently.

Finally, it is crucial to plant the seed of multiplication into every D-Group that you lead. You are investing in them so that they can turn around and invest in others. As each new group is faithful to keep the same DNA, the disciple-making process will continue from generation to generation the same way it started—with a Jewish rabbi who was the Son of God and his twelve disciples who changed the world by doing exactly as he had done with them.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A D-GROUP

As with anything we wish to do with excellence, D-Groups should be measured to determine how effective they are. As you will find, the success of a D-Group is not measured like the success of a baseball team or a Fortune-500 company. To help you gauge how effective your D-Group is, we look to the MARCS of a disciple: Missional, Accountable, Reproducible, Communal, and Scriptural (refer to related articles). In addition to these MARCS, there are a few characteristics each group should have:

I. ENCOURAGEMENT

As a leader, your job is to encourage your group as you journey together. A little bit of encouragement goes a long way. A few ways you can be intentional in your encouragement is to recognize godly attributes or wise choices being made by those you disciple. When breakthroughs occur or sin is overcome, encourage those people publicly. Additionally, every few months, recap what you have accomplished together (i.e., how many verses have you memorized, what kinds of barriers you have overcome as a group, etc.). As a leader, you want to build confidence in the people you disciple. Celebrate your victories!

II. TRANSPARENCY

Challenge your group participants to be open and transparent. You will be living life together, which cannot be done if all of the participants aren’t willing to be open and honest with each other. It is good for us to share our lives in order to learn from one another. Sharing testimonies in the group is a wonderful way to develop a transparent atmosphere.

III. CONFIDENTIALITY

Remember that what is shared in the group stays in the group. Confidentiality is crucial if you want to develop authentic and deep relationships, especially ones in which personal and difficult life experiences can be shared. Remember to respect the people in your group by keeping what they tell you confidential.

IV. COMMITMENT

The level of commitment needs to be established up front. Every person’s individual commitment level will affect the entire group. Have each participant sign a covenant. By doing so, they are committing to you as their leader and the others in the group. If a person becomes lazy in their commitment, have a conversation about it to see if any changes can be made in personal prioritization. Authentic relationships are committed ones.

V. LEADERSHIP

Leadership is crucial in a D-Group. You learn more as you lead, and that takes preparation and discipline. You are modeling before your group so that they can, in turn, replicate and make disciples. Never ask them to do something you aren’t doing yourself. Teach them how to journal by journaling. Share with them how to memorize Scripture by memorizing Scripture. Help them manage their time well by demonstrating good time management yourself. Show them how to dig deeper into God’s Word. Point them to helpful resources, websites, commentaries, and edifying books. Remember—you are preparing them to lead a group of their own at the end of your journey together.

FRUIT AND FRUSTRATIONS OF A D-GROUP

I. FRUIT OF A D-GROUP

You will see incredible fruit born from your pursuit of Christ during the twelve to eighteen months that your D-Group meets. Because it is such an intentional time, the spiritual growth that you experience both individually and as a group will be rapid. Along the way, you will begin to notice a few things in yourself and in those you are pouring into, such as:

A. Spiritual Growth and Maturity

Growing in understanding of God’s Word and discussing God’s ongoing work in one’s life are indicators of someone’s current progress with the Lord. Over time, as we learn the truth of God’s living and active Word, we also learn how to apply it to our everyday lives. As we apply it, we begin making wiser decisions, developing more accurate discernment, and measuring the words that we speak.

B. Unity

Meeting together for discipleship not only enhances unity with the people in your D-Group, but also the church as a whole. One thing that brings people together is what they hold in common. In a discipleship group where you are journeying through the Bible and sharing your lives with one another, a closer bond will be formed over time. If personal struggles arise, your D-Group will hold you accountable to resolve or reconcile those issues.

C. Service

One of the fruits of a closer relationship with others is using your gifts and talents to serve in communities and churches. D-Group members have built-in service partners—people who can go together, serve, and model Christ-likeness.

D. Replication

Every participant should approach their D-Group with the expectation to replicate it. Your time being discipled is not just for your benefit, it is preparation for you to invest in others in the future. You are learning to be a leader who leads others on their spiritual journey. What a joy!

II. FRUSTRATIONS OF A D-GROUP

In a close D-Group relationship, there will be frustrations, as well. If discussed at the start, some of these can be avoided.

A. Attendance

Establish your expectations for attendance early to avoid frustration during the course of your meetings together. If you set the expectations at the beginning, your participants will understand the importance of their commitment. Because attendance is crucial in what your D-Group seeks to accomplish, a lazy, uncommitted participant may be asked to leave, depending on the circumstances surrounding their constant absences.

B. Lack of Transparency

Just as it is important that D-Group participants show up, they must be willing to participate in the spiritual disciplines that discipleship instills. You must be willing to come alongside each other and be open to what God is leading and teaching you to do. If a person consistently shows up but never shares, it can become frustrating for everyone else. To avoid this frustration, establish your expectation for participation early. In the event someone is struggling in this area, meet with them one-on-one rather than addressing it in public. If you find your group members struggling to open up to one another, an excellent way to establish an atmosphere of transparency is by sharing individual testimonies.

C. Not Completing the Work

D-Groups meet together to pray, read and memorize Scripture, and grow into a more fully-devoted follower of Christ. Nothing is more frustrating for the group as a whole than someone constantly showing up unprepared. If you have addressed this with the person individually and it still continues, you may have to ask them to leave the group. The D-Group functions as a unit, which means you will grow as a group or you will be hindered as a group. As a leader, you want to do your best to ensure that the morale isn’t lowered due to one person’s laziness.

At the beginning of your time together, set the expectations. Sign a covenant together so that each person states his or her commitment up front. If you do this, it will help cultivate fruit and avoid frustrations listed above. In the event you are forced to address some of these frustrations (or others that will surely come up), you can pull out the covenant you signed and lovingly remind them of their commitment. Be grace-filled in all situations, but do not forsake accountability; your group will grow immensely because of it.

Holman Bible Publishers, CSB Disciple’s Study Bible: Notes (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 2044–2048.

She is a city whose name resounds throughout Scripture. In fact, out of the sixty-six books in the Bible, Babylon is mentioned in no less than twenty of them—plus one more, Lamentations, which is all about what Babylon does but somehow manages not to mention her name. Babylon runs like a thread through the entire biblical narrative; she is found in every major division of the Bible and she loomed large all through Israel’s story. Almost from the very beginning, she has been present as the beating heart of godless rebellion. The first mention of her is in Genesis 10:10, but her story really begins in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel (Babylon). The scheme of humanity is to build a tower that will reach up to heaven and be on a level with the gods, in the hope of making a name for themselves that will stand for ever. God looks down; he sees the terrible potential of godless mankind, and he passes judgement. The languages are divided and the people are scattered, and the half-built tower remains as their memorial.

After that not much is heard of Babylon for quite a while. But then during the monarchy Babylon emerges again, first as a distant threat and then as an imminent menace. In Judah, King Hezekiah hears of the new power that is rising in the east. Foolishly, he entertains visitors from there and shows them round, and Isaiah tells him that the time is coming when all the wealth of Jerusalem will be carried off to Babylon, along with his own descendants, and God’s people will be exiled. And so it happens. They are led off across the desert and marched in through the great Ishtar Gate, which is covered with pictures of Babylon’s gods, into the city that is dominated by the temple of Marduk, the city whose very name recalls the first time when it shook its fist in the face of God.

There in exile, God’s people have to learn what it means to live for him in Babylon. A man named Daniel leads the way and shows that it is possible to serve God within the godless city, to rise to become a leader in Babylon while retaining his integrity.1 It is Daniel who is there when God declares his judgement on the city at King Belshazzar’s feast, where a mysterious hand appears, writing on the wall words that spell Babylon’s doom. Daniel has the doubtful privilege of telling the king what the words mean. That very night, in one hour, the doom has arrived.

Back in Judah, even before the exile, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah are proclaiming that the godless city will be judged. You can read what they say in Isaiah 21:9 and Jeremiah 51:6–9. The words should sound familiar if you have read Revelation 18. These are prophecies of Babylon’s destruction, written at a time when the city is still alive and well. There are countless other references in the prophets to Babylon’s overthrow, and many of them, like these two, are echoed powerfully in Revelation 18. Jeremiah calls for a great escape, and in the end the escape comes. A remnant returns from exile and the nation is rebuilt.

But the restored Jewish nation retains such a powerful sense of what Babylon means that when Peter writes his first letter, 600 years later, he can write, ‘She who is in Babylon … sends you her greetings’ (1 Peter 5:13), without any need to explain that he is referring to the church in Rome, the Babylon of his own day. The heart of godless rebellion has shifted from the city that stood on the River Euphrates to the one that stands on the Tiber, where the evil emperors Nero and Domitian have their throne.

This city in Revelation 18 is not the literal, earthly city of Babylon. That should be obvious. How could it be, when the earthly city had long been destroyed and all that was left was ruins and a poor village? That literal Babylon had stood hundreds of miles inland, so it would have been tricky, to say the least, for the ships and the sailors we read about here to trade directly with her! Nor is this Babylon just a code-word for Rome, as some have suggested—that doesn’t fit either. Yes, the Rome of John’s day is here, and so is the Babylon that Daniel knew. And she is also Sodom and Egypt, as chapter 11 told us. And in a sense she is also twenty-first century London or New York, for this Babylon is no one earthly city. She is every city and town that has stood in rebellion against our God. She is the real Babylon, of which the one whose ruins you can see today near Baghdad was no more than a pale copy. She is the Babylon who sits on the back of the beast, the realm of Satan. She is the world we have to live in.

This chapter is where her long story is finally brought to a conclusion. In this chapter we hear from three angels. The first one declares Babylon’s doom (18:1–3). The second one describes the reactions to her downfall (18:4–20). The third gives us a dramatic demonstration of what her fall will mean (18:21–24).

Steve Wilmshurst, The Final Word: The Book of Revelation Simply Explained, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2008), 219–222.

Let’s break down the process into three simple steps. The simplicity of the process is actually a key to the success of the whole strategy!

As you communicate to the general congregation, here are the three essentials you want them to know and do:

(1) Grab a resource.

(2) Gather a few friends.

(3) Grow together through the upcoming series.

Keep it that simple. People are more likely to buy into new ways of doing things when the process is understandable and clear.

Grab

Invite your attendees to grab a free DVD and printed resource to guide a small group. This process typically begins two weeks before the launch of a new message series and continues through the first week or two of that message series. The lead pastor invites everyone in the congregation to take the resource, as a gift, in exchange for being willing to gather a few friends and grow through this series. The materials work best when designed as a supplement to the weekend message.

By having materials readily available after a worship service (or other gathering), you lower the bar for leadership, allowing everyone to participate as a host. This will exponentially expand the pool of people you may be able to reach during the gather-and-grow stage.

In larger congregations with media staff, if time and resources allow, you may want to create these video-based teaching materials in-house. However, this step is not necessary. For example, as a smaller congregation, when preparing to purchase land, we used John Ortberg’s study If You Want to Walk on Water as our small-group resource. We coupled it with weekend messages about faith and generosity. It worked really well because it fit the challenging context in the life of our faith community.

It is possible to adapt various short-term video-based studies to fit the G3 process. Other video studies we have used in a church-wide series include The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkerson; The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren; and Life’s Healing Choices by John Baker.

Materials are now being developed, at a much-reduced cost to the participating congregation, so that it is affordable for churches of all sizes to purchase community group studies in bulk quantities. To implement the G3 process, the resources should be provided so that community groups can multiply at an exponential rate. For example, Abingdon Press (our publisher) is aiming to distribute video-based studies at a discounted cost under five dollars for each video disk (and under ten dollars for each discounted participant/leader guide), which is supplied by the church to each community group during the “grab the resource” step. By planning ahead and coupling the weekend message, the G3 process will work with most biblical video-based curriculum or small-group studies.

Gather

Immediately after grabbing a resource, hosts are encouraged to reach out and invite churched and especially nonchurched friends, neighbors, and coworkers to join them for the study. Encourage hosts to meet in homes, offices, and even restaurants and parks. The intent is to move the setting outside of the church walls and into neutral settings. A familiar setting may help those far from God to be more comfortable. During this time, those who have grabbed a resource need to be encouraged to reach out to as many people as they comfortably can, so they are able to fill their groups and experience a positive group launch.

Grow

This begins as soon as the group assembles. In the G3 system, the traditional small-group emphasis of fellowship and discipleship is expanded to include evangelism, ministry, and worship. By intentionally having groups develop balance as they live into the Great Commission and Great Commandment, the result will be healthier groups. And healthy things grow.

Jennifer Cowart and Jim Cowart, Grab, Gather, Grow: Multiply Community Groups in Your Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016).

We all have strongholds in our lives. The apostle Paul used the term to describe a mind-set or attitude. “The weapons of our warfare are . . . mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5, emphasis mine). A stronghold is a conviction, outlook, or belief that attempts to interfere with truth.

Does a stronghold have a strong hold on you?

• God could never forgive me (the stronghold of guilt).
• I could never forgive that person (the stronghold of resentment).
• I don’t deserve to be loved (the stronghold of rejection).
• I’ll never recover (the stronghold of defeat).
• I must be good, or God will reject me (the stronghold of performance).
• I’m only as good as I look (the stronghold of appearance).
• My value equals my possessions (the stronghold of materialism).

But we don’t have to live in the shadow of these joy-sucking strongholds. Our weapons are from God and have “divine power to demolish strongholds” (v. 4 NIV).

Isn’t that what we want? We long to see our strongholds demolished, turned into rubble once and for all, forever and ever, ka-boom! How does this happen?

By keeping God in the center. -- Glory Days / Max Lucado, God Is with You Every Day (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015).