Throughout the years, different organizations and individuals have created challenges to reach some sort of goal. One of the best-known recent challenges was the “Ice Bucket Challenge” developed by the Pete Frates and Pat Quinn in 1984. It resulted in $115,000,000 in donations to research and fight ALS. This is proof that at least some challenges work.
I have spent several days reflecting, praying, and reading certain passages in my Bible and decided to start a local challenge in San Antonio. Called 100×23, the name is looking for the goal of one hundred new disciple-makers by December 2023.
I’m not sure that I have ever heard of a challenge in the Christian realm. Sure, we have the Great Commission to make disciple of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20), and that’s definitely a source verse for my challenge. In the in recent past, many Christian organizations pulled together to each all the unknown people groups by 2020. While we missed the goal, there are still plenty of groups working to reach the unreached.
But to do either of those two examples, we need disciple-makers (sometimes referred to as disciples who make disciples). How can we ever reach the uttermost ends of the Earth, including the unreached, without a plan to make and equip disciple-makers?
In my home, I have a map of San Antonio on the wall. There are blue dots spread across the map where I know of people who are actively making disciples. There are also red dots of people who are disciples. Perhaps they are ministering to others, but they have yet to make a disciple themselves.
What would happen to San Antonio if we raised up another one hundred new disciple-makers over the next three years? What if we had one or two new disciple-makers in every local church in the city (knowing that there are more than one hundred churches in San Antonio)?
Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Matthew 9:35-38). There’s simply no way that pastors in the city can equip every disciple to be a disciple-maker. The real work (labor) in the harvest will come from disciple reproducing themselves.
Over the next two weeks, I want to establish a baseline of how many active disciple-makers we have in the city. Many of them will be essential in raising up one hundred more disciple-makers. Each time I think about this challenge, which has been very frequently the past few days, I get excited about the possibilities of what God can do with one more disciple-makers in San Antonio.
Would you mark your calendar to pray for this challenge on the 23rd day of each month? Of course, you can pray on other days as well!
Photo credit:
discipling4life 