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…Fully carry out the ministry God has given you (2 Timothy 4:5, NLT).
As I left my former role as a senior pastor, I felt that God wanted me to develop the content that He had given me through the years. I’ve been discipling through First Steps Conversations for years but also noted that one-to-one discipling was rarely practiced in local churches.
In fact, recent surveys indicate that only five percent of American churches emphasize, define, and implement discipleship as disciplers discipling disciplers. As Paul wrote to Timothy…
You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others (2 Timothy 2:2, NLT).
The purpose of my book is to understand and offer suggestions on how a church or a group of individuals could become a LampPost—or a light of disciplemaking in the dark world of non-discipling churches.
My book is entitled Discipleship That Works: The LampPost Strategy for Disciplemaking.
In the book, I use the story of the invention and implementation of lamp posts in America as an illustration of the need for disciplemaking today.
Benjamin Franklin loved the idea of lamp posts.
While visiting London, England, Franklin enjoyed seeing where he was walking and what he was stepping into at night. Lighted streets seemed like a no-brainer, but in the city of Philadelphia, where he lived, the idea wasn’t generating enthusiasm.
A key reason was that the lamp posts in London didn’t work well.
They were a single globe that needed to be totally replaced if they were broken. And the air didn’t circulate well in them. When lit at dusk, the globe became clouded with soot in a few hours.
The lamps broke easily, didn’t work well, and needed to be cleaned daily.
So, Benjamin Franklin redesigned the lamp.
He built one with four panes of glass—if one broke, it could easily be replaced. His lamp had holes in the bottom and in the top for ventilation, and he designed it with a smaller bottom and larger top that allowed smoke to rise and leave quickly.
His lamp post would shine all night and rarely needed to be cleaned.
Only one difficulty left. He had a better lamp post, but few seemed to be interested.
Legend has it that he solved this problem by placing his lamp outside his home. Neighbors noticed, others in the city noticed, and soon the city of Philadelphia had lamp posts. Other cities in the United States took notice, and street lighting became common everywhere in Colonial America.
Benjamin Franklin redesigned the lamp post, and it became the light of the nation at night.
My book is available now on Amazon. Amazon tracks daily sales of books. If we all get
online and buy the book next Monday, June 17th, we might top the charts for discipling
books, and then I can claim that I have a bestseller on Amazon—at least for one day!