When making disciples, you have to know how to ask questions, which questions to ask, and how to patiently wait for the right answer. To get clarity on this, let’s look at the medical profession some more (see previous posts on this topic if you missed them).

The ambulance gets you to the hospital, the doctor gives the prescription, but then imagine being left on your own. You have to figure out how to work the hospital bed by yourself. You have to crawl to the bathroom because you cannot walk. You have to figure out how to change IV fluid, figure out why the machine is beeping, read the numbers and write them down on a chart, and why that “call” button doesn’t work on your bed remote.

A hospital without nurses would be a concentration camp where many would die. Yet many churches are just that. We have plenty of doctors (preachers) and many EMTs (soul-winners) but very few nurses giving care (those skilled at making disciples).  

More than first aid to make disciples

A nurse can only help a limited number of people. An EMT can rescue several new people each day and never see them again. If dead churches are doctor/prescription focused, revivalist churches are like EMTs: reach new people for Jesus and then move on to the next one. A disciple-making church operates on a different level entirely.

Part of what keeps the soul-winning movement going is the unbiblical belief that the role of the church is to get people saved. So, these evangelists go out, “win” a new person, and then tell them to keep coming to church to hear the doctors expound on the prescription more. Meanwhile, the evangelist moves on to win another soul for the Kingdom.

Does anybody care? Just because you give an injured person critical doesn’t mean they will survive.  Most people need not only first aid, but also second aid and third and fourth. Critical care must be followed by on-going care until that person is well enough to help others heal.

Disciple-makers work like nurses

The nurse is the person who provides on-going care. In addition to administering care, he or she charts the patient’s progress and watches for problems. All believers will be nurses to someone growing in the faith. This long-term giving of care is disciple-making.

But don’t mess this up. The nurse is there to serve, not control. To oversee, not overlord. How do you administer care for those in spiritual recovery? Pray!

It should not have to be said, but it must. If you are making disciples of Jesus Christ, you have to pray for them. If you do not pray for them, do not say that you love them because you don’t.

If you really care about someone, you will administer the healing they need, not just tell them about it. They don’t know how to pray like they should. They need you covering them in prayer.

This is different than the evangelistic model of soul-winning. You just tell them the message, they might respond and “get saved” and you hope they stick. Fail!

We must pray and continue to watch out for them spiritually. This does not mean we micromanage their decisions and prescribe what they can and cannot do. If they are followers of Jesus why are we trying so hard to get them to think and act just like us? If Jesus taught me what to value, won’t He teach them, too, if they learn to follow Him in Spirit and in Truth?

What do you do when making disciples? Think like a nurse. Too many of us are still prescription-geared so that when we talk with new believers, we are giving them ultimatums: “You need to stop drinking,” “You need to be in church every time the doors are open,” or “You need to read your Bible every day.”

Some of us have been trained to think that we are making disciples by teaching and teaching and teaching—that somehow there is one missing piece of information that will tip them over into perfection. What if making disciples was something simpler than having all the answer?

A nurse asks healing questions, so do those making disciples

“How is your pain today? A one? A five?” “When you try to put weight on it, how does it feel?” And other such questions that help the patient discover what to do next for full recovery.

Lead with questions. The first recorded words out of Jesus’s mouth formed a thought-provoking question. During His ministry He asked over 300 questions. He got His disciples to think. When people asked Him questions, He answered with another question. It was almost as if He was saying, “You won’t get this unless you see it for yourself.”

If we tell people everything, they will not remember because they have not experienced it or arrived at that conclusion on their own. They need to experience it. As you are making disciples, you will find that people today do not want to hear your instructions. They feel loved when you listen to their struggles, however. So ask questions that help guide them to learn the answer from Jesus.

Often the nurse will respond to a question with “That is a good question to ask the doctor.” Nurses do not have to have all the answers, and for liability reasons they cannot prescribe very much.  Same with you and I. “That’s a good question to ask Jesus. Let’s take it to Him together right now and see what He says.” And wait until the Great Physician gives direction to the patient. It will mean more to them hearing from the Doctor than from the nurse.

Use targeted questions, not needling questions when making disciples

Disciples develop mentally and spiritually. The thing that has killed most new believers from becoming disciples is that we shut their mouths and told them to only use their ears. We do this in action by telling them what to think, telling them to listen to the paid professionals, and telling them to do what we tell them to do.

“What do you think?” is how Jesus made disciples. He asked questions. “Who do you say that I am?” Traditional religion is afraid to do this. We are afraid people will come up with a different answer than the one we want them to have. So we tell them instead of train them.

Disciple-making involves questions, prayerful oversight, and solid teaching. Christians have majored on the last one, neglected the second one, and totally forgotten the first one. And this is why we have immature believers who have not grown spiritually in decades. They do not know they can leave the hospital and care for others. They are still trying to change their own colostomy bag.

Making disciples is about how they live daily

The goal of disciple-making is that people become disciples of Jesus. However, by having a preaching-and-teaching focused religion, they only become disciples of our churches. They might attend for years yet not know how to get people to Jesus. All they can say is, “Come visit my church ‘cause that’s where I met God.”

How is this different than the Pharisees and others who trusted in their sect back during Jesus’s ministry? Of course it is different in that we can have powerful moves of God in church worship services and preaching. However, often such experiences do not translate practically in the new believers life when going back to the same marriage, same work environment (or lack thereof), and same old temptations.

People will do what is expected of them. If your needling question is “Why weren’t you in church Wednesday night?” and “Did you give extra toward the building fund this week?” and “Can you help with the bake sale?” they will learn that these are the things we expect from them. And they will do them because they believe you know how to help them be whole.

What if you asked a growth question that would push them in the right direction? Like this: “How has Jesus been speaking to you lately?” or “How have you been doing with showing kindness to that hateful person you have to deal with?” or “What Scripture passage has spoken to you lately and helped you refocus your thinking?” Questions like these help disciples learn what is valuable and celebrated.

Let’s review quickly.

• We all must do the work of an evangelist (EMT) in helping those without Jesus. This involves asking questions to help them find healing.
• Then, they have to hear the message (the prescription) once they are ready to listen. We see this happen in Acts 2:37: “What must we do?”
• Then, nursing. We help them fully recover by learning to hear Jesus, apply Scripture, and live by His love and power.

So, if you see how much you personally invest into making disciples, is it starting to make sense why Jesus focused mainly on 12? Some nurses work with only 6 patients at a time, sometimes many more depending on the level of progress of the patients. You might be able to see 100 people “get saved” in a year, but to make long-term, lasting disciples is going to take personal attention, not just a bunch of ambulance rides.

Beyond just asking questions, there is more discipleship training to help you move a person forward in their progression toward wholeness.