Apprentice, Hero and Kingdom Building – Dave Ferguson

Today Dave is sharing a great sermon he heard recently from Dave Ferguson who was speaking at Crossway Baptist Church. You can access the sermon here (or just listen to this podcast!). Dave (Ferguson), who has helped plant over 9000 churches last year, talks about the ideas of apprenticing, hero making and kingdom building. Jesus is asking us, “will you follow me and change the world?” (Matthew 4:19; Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). But what are the missing practices in our disciple making efforts?   Dave highlights these three areas of missing practice in disciple making that he sees as he travels the western world:  1. Apprenticing Dave refers to author Dallas Willard’s term ‘apprentice’ instead of disciple. Dallas uses this term since in the West, discipleship has now come to mean simply gaining more knowledge. But apprenticing is understood to be something that involves both our head and hands. John’s gospel describes Jesus as someone who spent time with his disciples (John 3:22). The greek word for this is ‘diatribo’, or as Dave puts it, ‘rubbing off’ on others. Jesus rubbed off on and catalysed a movement from just a small group of disciples. So who do we spend time our time with? Dave challenges us to name the people we are apprenticing.  2. Hero making Dave tells us that another key (and missing) element of disciple making is to do everything we can to make others the heros. We need to make a  shift from seeking success to seeking significance. Just like Jesus, we are to desire and see that “My fruit grows on other people’s trees” (John 14:12). Jesus knew that his disciples would take the gospel to more places and people that he ever did. So how are we going in becoming a hero maker?  3. Kingdom building A lot of the church Dave says, is more interested in building their castle than God’s kingdom. Referring to Habitat For Humanity’s visionary, Millard Fuller, Dave shares how Millard’s vision was to get ‘every follower of Jesus to swing a hammer’. It was about making others the heros. The only thing that mattered for Millard in the end was kingdom building.  Dave finishes by praying for us. He asks God to reveal to each of us who are listening the names and faces of the people who we can disciple to find and follow Jesus. He prays that we would take a posture of generosity and genuine curiousity in these people. That we would release them to be who God has called them to be. He asks that we would be released from taking any credit or pride. That our sole focus would be to just see God’s kingdom advanced.