Most discipling in churches today is done with Christians who are already committed or desire to be more committed.   This is where we begin when we think about making disciples.   But when I read the gospels I find Jesus beginning with those who desperately need saving.   The lost.   The outcast.  The misfits.

Jesus was not the only one.   I am intrigued by the story of David in the Old Testament.   There was a time in his life when he found himself on the outside and alone.   Yet he knew God's call on his life to become the next king in Israel.  David knew that he could not travel alone on this journey to the palace.   He needed a band of men who would join his cause.  So what does David do?   You'd think that he would choose the smartest and the best to become his team of followers.  But instead we are told that David gathered "all those who were in distress or in debt or discontented...around him."  (1 Samuel 22:2)   A large band of misfits -- about four hundred of them.  As Neil Cole describes these men:   "[David] became marshall of the misfits -- regal of the rejects -- emporer of the exiled.   The people nobody wanted to have around became the people David befriended."  (Cultivating a Life for God, p. 35)   The Bible later calls this motley group of men "David's mighty men", men who became brave followers of David (see 2 Samuel 23:8-39)

David's regal descendent, our Lord Jesus, did the same!   He planted the seeds of the kingdom in the most unlikely of soils.   His first disciples included lowly fishermen, a despised tax collector and a political zealot.   He reached out to the outcast in leprosy colonies, town prostitutes, and the demon-possessed.   He was known to be one who befriended and hung out with "tax-collectors and sinners" (Matthew 11:19)   When people criticized him for doing this, Jesus pointed out that this was his discipleship strategy:   "Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  (Mark 2:17) 

Now as churches we are committed to making and growing disciples, to reach the lost for Christ.   This is our mission, our reason for being, God's call upon us as churches.   It is for this reason we developed the Disciplship Matrix, a tool to help people consider what steps God might want them to take becoming followers of Jesus.   But where should we begin?   The place to begin the disciple-making process is with misfits, with people who desperately need Christ.  The place to begin is not with the healthy but with the sick.   With sinners.   With those nobody wants to have around.   The lost.   And here I lean on Neil Cole's insight into why we should start with people who desperately need Jesus. 

In his book Cultivating a Life for God Neil gives us seven reasons why:

1. Desperate sinners will hold onto Christ because their lives depend on it. 
2. Desperate sinners will see their lives change more readily than those who are already doing "well."
3. Desperate sinners are more likely to confess their sin because it is more obvious.
4. Desperate sinners will become walking and talking billboards to the power of the gospel to other desperate sinners.
5. Desperate sinners usually have more contact with other desperate sinners who need Jesus.
6. Desperate sinners are the very reason Jesus came and died.   He delights to save them....
7. Desperate sinners who are transformed by the gospel bring greater glory to God because it makes the miraculous that much more manifest.   Only God could do such a miracle!   (pp. 33-4)

These reasons resonate with me!   The person I am discipling right now is someone desperate for Jesus.   His life is messy and he doesn't fit into the typical mold of a church-goer.   He is unrighteous.   Like the misfits who followed David, he has huge debts and is restless in his discontent.   But he is desperate.   And in his desperation he devours the Word of God because he knows his life depends on it.   And every week I see how his life is changing.   He is quick to confess his doubt, his fears, and his sins.   And you cannot stop him speaking to others about the new life he has in Christ, the things he is learning about God, and the transformation he is experiencing.   He already is telling me about other desperate sinners that he wants to have join us in our discipling journey together.   From a downcast to a disciple, from a misfit to a missionary.

If you are a disciple of Jesus, you will be all about making and growing other followers of Christ.   This is just what disciples do.   They will bear much fruit, producing bountiful harvests of souls (John 15:8).   But where do you start?   The place to begin is with people who are desperate for Jesus.   With misfits.  With the lost.

1. Original author: Jack