Disciples Making Disciples Part 1: Giving and Receiving

Our main goal in Cordoba is to make disciples that make disciples. This is part one of a series on just that theme. I'm starting with an example: my dear friend Sol Barrera. 

About a year ago, Sol, like so many, had gotten stuck in her relationship with God. She had an idea of what God wanted to give her (hope and strength) and an idea of what He expected from her (moral living, church attendance) but never grew past her initial commitment to God. She was raised in a Christian household, but her family were serial church hoppers, never staying anywhere long enough to get involved. Until God brought them to us. We were ecstatic to have the Barrera family as a part of our church. We got them in an Encounter and leadership classes as quickly as possible. Sol’s parents and younger siblings were just as excited as we were, but Sol seemed to hang back. We didn’t realize that she was savvier than we. She knew it was only a matter of time before something would happen and they would go looking for a new church, just as they had so many times before.

Marina, Enzo, Luca, and Cris at their Encounter in February

Sol, a 23 year old in the last year of her 5 year literature program in the university, was a certified book-aholic. Reading was her god, her everything. She read and studied and studied and read so that she could graduate well and move to Europe to be a book editor. She read everything except the Bible. She hated reading the Bible. One day, after the family had been attending our church for a while, Sol woke up to a strange sight: her 19 year old brother, Cris, was sitting on the couch in their living room reading his Bible and writing in a notebook. She was shocked and concerned that whatever alien had taken over her brother’s body was probably coming for her next. And then there was the fact that four months had passed and they were still attending the same church. Her parents, Cris, and their 16 year old brother Luca were still attending leadership classes every Saturday, and her dad and brothers had started playing in the worship team. Sure she had been busy recently, but could an alien really have invaded her entire family without her noticing?

Prayer with the musicians of the worship team

Even though she wasn’t AS involved as everyone else, she was a good Christian and thought it was probably time for her to attend one of these Encounter things.  She participated in the July Encounter, and God finally captured her attention. He showed her that He is much greater and more active than she had thought. If her favorite activity was reading, her second favorite activity is learning. God opened her eyes to see that He has much more to teach her. This set her nerdy heart on fire for her Creator.

Sol sharing her testimony in front of the church after her Encounter

As we move down the list of Sol’s hobbies, her third favorite is teaching. After her Encounter, she started looking for opportunities to teach what she had learn. She attended a second Encounter retreat in September, this time to take notes on how the classes are taught to prepare her for helping teach in the December Encounter. In the meantime, she comes to the church every Saturday afternoon to spend an hour studying the discipleship course material with Pastora Jaci before teaching the September Encounter group their ongoing discipleship classes.

Taking notes in the September Encounter

In order to grow in Christ, we have to be giving and receiving God. Discipleship isn’t just a good idea or a church growth strategy, it is vital to our spiritual health. Sol’s experience in making disciples began with the challenge of deciding a day and time for the classes. I helped her through the process and got many frustrated texts explaining just how much she hates getting a group of individuals to make a decision. These small lessons in grace and patience can’t be taught in a vacuum. We have to get involved in other people’s lives. We have to let them expose our weaknesses and let God heal us.

Sol teaching a discipleship class

I can’t get over these bracelets. A year and a half ago, a high school short term team from North Dakota brought a hundred of them for a children’s event.  We gave away about fifteen at the event, then they sat at the bottom of a closet for probably ten months. Someone found them right before our February Encounter and decided to give them as gifts to the participants. We’ve been giving them as gifts in every Encounter since, and I still can’t believe people actually wear them. We never talk about them, but they’ve become a weird mark of our church leaders. I, of course, stole one for myself and love the subtle unity that comes from a cheesy child’s salvation plan bracelet.

Jorge and Gerardo in the discipleship class. Yes, we drink maté in discipleship class.

Another note on this specific photo. Jorge and Gerardo are two of Sol’s disciples who are also in Ashley’s and my house of prayer. Our disciples are coming full circle in a weird way. I taught most of Sol’s parents’ discipleship classes. They started calling me “Seño”, Argentine for prof or teach or miss or whatever the kids call their teachers these day, and the nickname stuck. Last weekend, we had a bouncy castle at a church event. Sol crawled in with her little sister, and Gerardo spotted her. He had no end of joy from seeing his wise professor jumping in a bouncy castle. Sol is continuing the 40/40 missionary tradition of showing that God uses the weak. He uses me and my weak Spanish skills to teach her. He uses her, a goofy college student, to teach her disciples. They in turn are encouraged because they recognize that that same God will use them to teach others.

I am ridiculously honored to be friends with Sol and watch how God is changing and using her. 

This is the entire Barrera family. I'm not sure how Carla didn't make it in any of the other pictures.
I hope they never actually read my blog because I always choose the worst pictures of them.