Last week, we had to read Luke and Acts, paying close attention to evangelism and discipleship.
Although I have read Luke 10 and the surrounding context countless times, meditating on and even teaching on the “person of peace” method of evangelism, I have often overlooked the discipleship that is going on here. Reading Luke with the focused lense on discipleship showed me something I have often overlooked: Jesus models in the group setting, sends out in the group setting, debriefs in the group setting, and trains in the group setting. Everything he does is in a group!
I was acutely aware of this after reading Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes (I highly recommend this book!) and learning about our individualistic and collectivistic differences with Scripture. In Luke 5, Jesus calls some of the disciples, not individually, but collectively. Then throughout chapters 6-9, he is either teaching in the presence of the disciples, performing miracles in the presence of the disciples, or specifically teaching the disciples. He models and explains/debriefs always in the context of the group, even when having a “personal” conversation.
Then, even before they are “ready” (the disciples are quite immature still and do not understand much of what Jesus has shown them), Jesus sends them out (ch 9) - also in that group context. When they return, they tell him everything (verse 10) and he “withdrew” with them, in what I must assume as an intentional time to debrief and teach them from what they experienced.
In this realization, I saw two things that I need to incorporate into my own discipleship methods: discipleship should happen in a group setting and people should be “sent out” to experience and practice ministry early, even before they are “ready”.