#008 Bob Magruder - Creating a Culture of Disciple Making

Speaker A: You are listening to GC Talk with Bo Ellis. This show is produced by Great Commission Partnerships in Tampa, Florida, to bring you inspiration and conversation with pastors, church planters and missions leaders who are making disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ locally, nationally and around the world.

Speaker B: Hello, friends, and welcome to GC Talk. I'm Bo Ellis. And today we're talking the Great Commission of Christ with a pastor who heard those words from Jesus as a command and he decided to just do what Jesus said. Go, therefore, make disciples. And for Dr. Bob Magruder, he's been making disciples for 40 years, since as a pastor in just about every role you can imagine. And now in a new role as the full time executive director of Multiplying Culture Ministries, discipling men and women and coming alongside pastors and churches and associations that also want to fulfill that command of Christ. Churches who want answers to questions like what even is discipleship and how do we make a disciple? Well, Pastor Bob has answers from scripture and from experience and so much so that he wrote it all down in a discipleship manual that he's published with his wife Barbie. It's called Multiplying Creating a Culture of Disciple Makers. And he wants you and your church to have access to it and for free. So let's bring in Dr. Bob Magruder. Thanks for being with us today, Bob, welcome.

Speaker C: Uh, hey, it's good to be here. Good to be sharing with you today.

Speaker B: Well, I used to introduce you as a fellow pastor in our association, and now I introduce you as the executive director of Multiplying. Is it Multiplying Culture? What's the official name?

Speaker C: Yeah, it's Multiplying Culture Ministries. Um, that's the official title.

Speaker B: Right on. And you stepped out, stepped into that after a really long career as a pastor, a disciple maker. And I'm just glad you could come on a show where we want to talk about the Great Commission and we want to talk to missionaries and pastors and church planters and business leaders who are about doing this Great Commission and, um, who have an inspiring story. And yours is definitely that. So I'm super happy that you could come on. I'm really happy that you could be, um, a friend and a partner for GC Partnerships. And, um, I'd love you to walk us back to that time when you were young in the faith and how you knew that discipleship and disciple making was going to be, ah, I guess, like a sweet spot for you.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Well, just a little bit about my life. I grew up in Mississippi, and, um, my parents Attended church, but then stopped. They baptized me as a baby, but they stopped attending church when I was probably around 11 or 12. And then fast, uh, forwarded to, I was just about 17, maybe two weeks from turning 17, and this girl that God had brought into my life invited me to what happened to be a citywide, countywide, area wide type crusade revival in a football stadium. And I attended that. And for the first time in my life, I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I was like, that is what I'm missing in my life and I need that. And I, I was longing for peace and joy and hope and happiness. And I didn't have it. And then that night, the next night, I went back to the crusade and I accepted Christ. And boy, my life has been radically changed since then. And then around the age of 19, God started dealing with me with a call in ministry. I had no plan on doing that. Um, at the age of 23, 22, I inherited my dad's large corporation. But there was a clause that he had in there that if either brother leave within a 10 year period, because me and my brother both inherited the corporation, uh, they would forfeit all stockholdings. And so I asked him, why did you do that? And he said, because me and your brother, who neither attended church at the time, think that you're going to be a pastor one day. And I said, I don't want to be a stinking pastor. That is not what I want to do. I want to stay here in the business. It was very lucrative. I had lots of money, lots of things. But then a few years later, God started dealing with a call. And I was realizing that then I needed to go and attend seminary, get prepared for ministry. And so I went to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. And one of the first days I was on campus, I picked up a little booklet. And it was by the navigators. And it explained the true meaning, the Greek meaning of the great commission. Matthew 28:19, go, uh, you therefore, and make disciples. And the word and make disciples in Greek is an imperative verb. And when I realized it was an imperative verb, I realized, okay, that's a command. So Jesus was commanding us to go and make disciples. You say that those three words and make disciples, it's in Greek, it's ma is how you pronounce it. And it just. Jesus was commanding us to make disciples. So I based all of my ministry from then on, um, on making disciples. How can I make disciples? How can I create disciple makers? One of the passions that I had because of that Was because nobody ever came alongside me after I got saved. I had different men who influenced me in different ways. I had a Sunday school teacher and a, um, music and youth pastor. I had a dentist who pointed me to the Lord to help me grow in the Lord, but never really came alongside me and discipled me. That's what I felt like was missing. So at seminary I took every class I could take on discipleship, which was one semester class and two weekend classes. That was all they offer. And now at just about every seminary you can get a master's degree in discipleship. But back then, discipleship was just not that important. So for 40 years of ministry, I focused my life on disciple making. I did it through student ministry. I did it through becoming, uh, a teaching pastor. I did it as associate pastor. I did it as a, as a chaplain at a rescue mission working for associated, uh, with North American Mission Board. I did it as a discipleship pastor. I did it as a executive pastor, did it as interim pastor, and I did it as, uh, adjunct professor for New Orleans Seminary. I involved discipleship and everything I did. And I cannot tell you the fruit that I have seen throughout all the years of doing that. I have seen youth groups multiply. I've seen ministries that were stagnant start growing again. I have probably seen over 60 people that I know personally who is in one of my discipleship groups who have come gone in full time ministry. I've seen lots of different. And God confirmed that in me because a passion that I got was, was, um, John 15, 8, ah, it says, you will prove to be my disciples if you bear much fruit. And I thought, how can I go from addition to multiplication? And that's creating disciples who make disciples. So two years ago we stepped out of the church. We had served for 15 years. I was one of the executive pastors there. And I just felt like God is leading us to do this multiplying ministry full time. And so we created some curriculum and uh, now lots of different churches throughout the United States are using it. Uh, we've got it in Spanish, we got it coming in Portuguese and, uh, French, and even a recovery edition called, uh, Multiplying Culture available on Amazon. Uh, or you can go to our website@mediplyingculture.com to be able to connect with us. Uh, but I'm currently doing that myself. I'm meeting with, uh, three different men right now. Um, this past year I met with about 12 different men. Uh, so I'm always looking for men who I can continue to disciple, really Jesus the disciple. And I just am a leader, but to lead through discipleship. Uh, and so that's sort of the ministry that God led us down right now.

Speaker B: Well, the story starts in Mississippi, and I, uh, guess New Orleans was just the closest Southern Baptist seminary to you. But where were you in that 10 years when you decided to kind of chuck it all and go all in for Christ?

Speaker C: Yeah, well, within the 10 years of feeling, God was calling me. Uh, I remained in business and I stayed in business with my, with my brother and I, but we were very unequally yoked. And so, and so that was a real strong feeling that I had to go. And so we had developed, uh, a business in another town. So I was away from him. But it was good to be able to step out and just say, hey, we're going to sell our business and move into, uh, ministry full time around the age of 26. So it was a few years since I accepted Christ that I really went ahead and stepped out in ministry.

Speaker B: So were you married when you moved to New Orleans to do your, um.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah, Yep, yep. Married with two children and talking about a stuff of faith, you know, I had not done very good academically through high school, I struggled. I focused more on playing football than I did on schoolwork. And, um, so I didn't know if I was going to cut it or not academically. And so we uploaded the family and moved to New Orleans. Now New Orleans is a weird place and it is a strange. It was even stranger back in the late 80s when I went to seminary and, uh, a lot of killings every single week. Uh, my kids were sick, we had mold in our apartment. Uh, it was a struggle. And academically I didn't know if I could cut it. And some of my first tests, my first test I ever took at seminary, I made a 27 out of 100 all. And I thought, oh my goodness, I brought my family down here. I stepped down in faith. I don't know if I'm going to be able to cut it. I don't know if I'm going to be able to pass. I stepped away from my business. What have I gotten myself into? But I went back and I went, no, God, you told us to walk by faith and not by sight. You're going to get me through this. So I went and sat down with a professor and he taught me some skills to how to study and how to prepare for tests. And I'm proud to say that as I graduated my first degree from there, I graduated with honors. And then My second degree, I graduated with honors. And my third degree from New Orleans, I graduated with honors. And then I went on and did my doctoral work at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, and I graduated with honors. And it's only because of God and because of me stepping out in faith and God saying, and you know what? You put your foot out there, I'm going to help you, Walt.

Speaker B: Well, you, you did the EDD at Southeastern, right?

Speaker C: Correct? Yeah, yeah. Doctorate of Education.

Speaker B: Brother, that, that's a steep hill. That's, that's a really tough program. And it's, it's encouraging for me to see that, ah, that you can get through it. But, but what I think's really interesting about a young guy who hears the Great Commission and says, hey, that's a command. Make disciples. Um, you just decided to start making disciples. And I'm wondering, early on in your ministry, even there in New Orleans, you're connected to a local church and you're serving the Lord. Um, how were you intentional then not having any of this 40 years of wisdom that you've earned and gleaned over the years? How did it begin for you? And was it just you and a Bible and some guy that wanted to meet with you at, uh, Dunkin Donuts or something?

Speaker C: Yeah, uh, yeah, well, because I did serve in two different churches while I was at New Orleans Seminary, uh, but my discipleship journey didn't start until I went to my first church. God, uh, called us to, uh, a church running about, um, 250 over in the Clearwater area. First Baptist, Dunedin, Clearwater, Florida. And I had 12 students in my youth group. That's all we had. And I thought, okay, I have got to disciple these kids. And somehow the Lord directed me to use material by Barry St. Clair, uh, through Outreach Reach Out Ministries out of Atlanta. And, uh, I started using his material. Then I found Student Discipleship Ministries out of Fort Worth, and I started using their material. And so I just thought, okay, how can I do this? So I put the kids in discipleship groups on a Sunday night, and we did it first semester and second semester. Uh, and then I started with the 12 that I had. And, uh, and little by little it grew to 20 to 30. Third year, I was running about 30 students. And then the fourth year, we saw multiplication. We went from about 30 to 125 teenagers. And so on Sunday morning, our church ran about 310, and 125 were teenagers. And I realized Jesus spent a little over three years with his disciples. And the fourth Year they multiplied. That's exactly what happened in my youth group. I was like, oh my goodness. So I jumped the bay over to First Baptist, Brandon, Florida. And after I was there doing discipleship again on Sunday nights, semester, setting them up in semesters, you know. And of course God would always direct me to different guys who I would spend more time with one on one, and help encourage them and help challenge them, uh, one on one. But God convicted me while I was there that I wasn't making disciples, who were making disciples. So that's when we first wrote our curriculum, uh, that we have today was back in 95. And so then I started training students to be thoughtful makers. Well, within a five year period, God called about 49 into full time ministry. So we were like, wow. So it multiplied differently. Our youth group did grow, but it multiplied differently.

Speaker B: So Bob, you said back in your first church, you called that Sunday night a discipleship group. You know, some pastors and churches would call that a, uh, small group or they'd call it a life group or a Bible study group. But you were intentional about calling that a discipleship group. And the purpose of that group, I guess you're telling these students was because we're going to make disciples. So, um, how did you invite them into that? And were there some like boundaries or ground rules that you set about how those groups would work? Um, what was the structure?

Speaker C: Well, interesting that you asked that because that every time we did summer camp or we did a mission trip in the summer with our students, I would get them to sign a commitment card the last day. Like, this is the decision I made at camp this week or this decision I made on a mission trip. And it would be like, yes, I prayed to accept Christ this week, or yes, I want to get baptized, or uh, yes, I have repented and committed my life to Jesus or whatever. But I would also add on the card and yes, I want to keep the fire, I want to keep flaming the fire within me by, uh, joining a discipleship group this fall. So they would check the box. And so what we would do is at, in August, we would mail that card back to them and remind them of that commitment saying about discipleship. So now it's time to sign up. So what was part of signing up?

Speaker B: So what was a discipleship group? Um, what is discipleship and how did you roll that out?

Speaker C: Well, that's how we got them in it. Um, but what we would do is, um, we were a typical traditional church. So we had Sunday school on Sunday morning. So Sunday school Is Bible study. Is that discipleship? Yeah, it is to an extent, but it's a slower pace. So how do you help people grow in a faster pace is you put them in a discipleship group. And a discipleship group is designed to help encourage them to start discipleship disciplines. So reading your Bible every day, learning how to meditate on Scripture, learning how to memorize scripture, learning how to pray, learning how to worship, uh, learning how to be still, uh, learning how to share your faith, uh, learning how to, uh, involve all these disciplines in your life. The Word, um, Paul told Timothy, he said, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. And that word discipline is the same word that we get gymnasium from. So working out. So it's like putting you in a workout group so you got accountability to someone who. We're getting students now, uh, doing daily Bible studies, doing daily quiet times, walking with Jesus every day. Instead of just on Sunday morning, now they're walking with Jesus on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday. And so they're connecting with the Lord that way. And so that's different than just a Bible study. Bible studies are good, especially if they do application to your life. Discipleship is all about application. How, uh, am I growing? What's happening? How's God speaking to me? What. What is. What is Scripture saying to me? We all say, without application, there's no transformation. So there's got to be application. And so it focuses on that, uh, within that. And now we talk about how to engraft God's Word into your life, how to really let God's Word sink into you and help you grow. And we give you different tools on how to do Bible studies and things of that nature. That's different than just a small group. You know, I've been involved in churches where we had own small groups. We didn't have any adults on campus at all. Uh, but that wasn't discipleship. Discipleship is the next level. And so that's. That's what we. And, you know, Jesus taught his disciples how to be disciples. And he did that for three and a half years. And he gives us four gospels to help us see how he did that. But a lot of times we miss that point, and we think, okay, well, disciple making is for the pastor to do. No, no, the. The Great Commission was not written to the pastor. The Great Commission, though you therefore make disciples written to all of us. So that's. That's why we encourage everybody to be disciple makers.

Speaker B: Well, we know that evangelism and discipleship are two sides of the same coin. In fact, you can even disciple, uh, seekers and unbelievers because you're investing in them. And that's the whole idea of making disciples, is investing your time. But it's also, you mentioned tools. Uh, for example, if you want to be a good golfer, uh, you're going to go and practice golf. You're probably going to have a golf teacher, you're going to have a golf pro, someone who can help you learn how to hit all the shots with all the clubs, and then you're going to go out and actually play golf. But I don't. My dad used to tell me, um, when I'd come home frustrated after, you know, not scoring as well as I'd hoped I would score that day. And he would say, why do you even expect to score? Well, you don't ever practice because good golfers spend more time practicing than they do playing golf. And it's really interesting. If Jesus said, go therefore make disciples, the last words recorded in Matthew, uh, of Jesus before he ascended to heaven, why don't we spend more time practicing how to be disciples who make disciples? And I think the answer is because we don't have a teacher, we don't have that golf pro, that discipleship pro, to teach us how to be disciples and then how to make disciples. And it's the old adage, how do you know you've made a disciple? Well, when they've made a disciple and, uh, I'm just grateful that God put into your heart a long, long time ago that that's what we're out as Christians to do. Um, to be a Christian is not to check a box like you would a gym membership and say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian because I attend church once in a while or because my grandmother was Catholic. Christians are those who are walking filled with the spirit. They're walking in a word filled life and they're out to make disciples. And that's evangelizing as well. So take us back now to where you were 15 years at that church in, um, Hillsborough County. And I guess God is knocking at your hearts about doing this and entering into, I guess, a new season of ministry for you. Yeah, and that took, yeah, that took a lot of courage, I think, to step out. So help, help us understand how that works for you, because I think others who might listen to a show like this might be in the same boat.

Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess there was three things that God can confirm. First off, he started stirring in my spirit that it was Time to step, do another step of faith like we did back, you know, in the late 80s when we went to seminary. And you know, I've taken steps of faith by moving to different churches and things or different ministries. I have not gone to a lot of. In my 40 years, I've served only about, um, about five different churches. And so, um, so I haven't moved too much. But I started feeling that God was stirring in my heart. Something about, uh, focusing just on disciple making and equipping pastors and equipping leaders on how to be multipliers, move from addition to multiplication. So, um, God just sort of, uh, opened up some different opportunities for me to do that within people. And I thought maybe this is something God's directed me to do. And of course, you know, being, uh, on staff at a church, you know, we were making, you know, the church was taking care of us financially very well. Uh, but we just felt like it's time to step out. And so, uh, this is what we did. First off, I prayed for a peace. I prayed for God to give me a perfect peace. Isaiah 40, 46, 3 talks about having a perfect piece. It's really neat if you study that in, in Hebrew it says, and God will give you shalom. Shalom. Uh, which is pretty cool. And so I was like, I need a perfect peace. Then I sought wise counsel because it says in Proverbs that, you know, wisdom is found a multitude of counsels. So I like, okay. So I talked to three different men who I trusted and believed were mature in the Lord. And I said, this is what I'm thinking about doing. What do you think? What do you think? How do you. What do you think about that? And then after they all confirmed that that was what I was supposed to do and I had this perfect peace. Psalm 1, um, hundred nineteen, one hundred five. And so I was like, okay, now I'm going to search Scripture to light my path. And so I started reading. And it was just like God just illuminated a scripture in Jude that this is what we're supposed to do. It had nothing to do with great commission, but had everything about doing what we're supposed to do. So God confirmed it. So for us, we like to involve those three different aspects in understanding God's will. Pray for perfect peace, seek wisdom, seek scripture, and God will direct your path, just like it says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust the Lord with all your heart, lean on your own understanding, but always acknowledge him, and he'll direct your path. And so that's why? And that's what's happened. And God's confirmed that, uh, through different people supporting our ministry financially to where now we can serve these pastors and church leaders and ministry leaders and missionaries for free. We don't charge a thing. We counsel, we train, we equip, and we do it at no cost. And so we love being able to do that to where we're working with churches, you know, who are, uh, running 75 to 150. Uh, we're working with missionaries who don't have any money. And, um, I'm, um, meeting with one young man right now, taking him through some discipleship stuff, and he's about to be appointed to Kakistan. Uh, last two days ago when we were supposed to meet, he said, I'm in D.C. getting my visa. I can't meet this week. I'm like, no problem. I think that's a little priority right now for you to get a visa. And so God has allowed us to equip missionaries, and so we're having a blast on what God's doing.

Speaker B: Well, I like that you said we, because we're talking about you and your wife Barbie, who co authored the first version of Multiplying. It's Multiplying, Creating a Culture of Disciple Makers. It's available on Amazon and everywhere else you can buy books. But you had set out to make, um, I guess a guide for discipleship group leaders and discipleship leaders to have a tool that alongside the Bible, they could use to walk with their disciples, um, maybe even a group of men, they could learn from each other how to facilitate those groups. And you had a vision for that. And I was hoping you could walk me through, um, how you developed, uh, your outline and how the book came together.

Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Well, we wanted to emphasize, uh, more than just a discipleship book, because a lot of people have gone through discipleship books, and once they're done, they put it on the shelf and they say, okay, we're done. Yeah, well, what study is next? But this is different because this, in session one is to start praying for the one to three people that you're going to lead through this material. So it's designed to multiply, to reproduce. And so, uh, from right at the beginning, it says, start thinking that way. And the reason why we do one to three is because we take the approach that Jesus did, where he evidently had a very close relationship with John, because John always called himself the disciple Jesus loved. And then we see an other instance where it was Peter, James, and John. And so we See those, those three together. And so, um, with Jesus. And so, and I have seen throughout the years of leading men through small groups that if you get a group of 12 men, the introverts will not talk, but you get a group of three and everybody talks and shares. And so the first half of the manual is totally focused on discipleship, on how to grow in the Lord. How do you engraft scripture in your life? Who's God, Who's Jesus, who's the Holy Spirit? How's that working? How am I loving God? Do, ah, I love God with my heart, soul, mind and strength. And then how to pray. And so that's the first seven sessions. And then the next seven sessions deals with doing for Jesus. So you got being with Jesus, then you got doing for Jesus. And so in it, you'll learn how to share your faith by telling your story. You'll learn how to be missional. You learn, you know, how to help people understand the enemy and how to help people understand root problems. And how to understand how God wants to use your spiritual gifts to help disciple people and serve people. And then it wraps up the last session with multiplying. Um, now go. And so all through the manual, it pauses and says, let's pray again for those three people, or one. And then another portion in the manual, it says, well, who are those three? And share those three with your leader and with your group the next time you meet. And so, and then, and then on down to the end to where it says, who are they? And how did you invite them? And how did that go? And, and uh, but the way we did the manual is it's 14 sessions. In each session, there's five days of reading in the manual. So it gets you in a rhythm, a discipleship, rhythm of the disciplines. Each day there's a short reading through John, the Book of John, the Gospel of John, like four or five verses a day. Why do we do just four or five verses? Because we want them to apply the scripture to their life and then write in their journal what God speaks to them and how that applied to you in your life, not what it says, not to reteach it, not to re preach it. Which when I meet with pastors, they're always like, well, what do we need to do and what the church needs to do. And I go, well, uh, wait a minute. It's what you need to do. Start using I and me in your journal writing. So it's applying scripture to your life. So every week, every day, there's five readings through the book of John for the week along with one verse of scripture that pertains to that session. So for instance, the first session is all about discipleship, what it means. And so you're Memorizing Matthew, uh, 2819. And so it's not long verses of scripture, it's just like one verse, one to two verses a week to, for scripture memory. And that gets them motivated and to hopefully get in a rhythm and getting these patterns of memorizing scripture. Have a daily quiet time having you doing all the disciplines. So they say it takes 90 days to get a habit. And this is like 96 days, uh, of journeys. And so uh, trying to get people in a habit of walking with Jesus, it takes anywhere from 14 weeks to six months.

Speaker B: And the idea then is, is to disband that group and send those guys out to start new groups. Is that the idea? And is that why the title multiplying?

Speaker C: Yeah. Right, right. Yep. That's, that's, that's the way it's designed. It's designed to, to multiply. And so um, out of, out of just about all the groups that I have led, uh, because I'm leading pastors and I'm leading church leaders and missionaries, they are multiplying. Um, you know, when I've worked with laymen, uh, who you know, have a full time job doing something else, uh, some of those guys have multiplied. Uh, I'll end up with two out of three end up, end up multiplying, which is phenomenal I think is to see anybody reproduce well.

Speaker B: And, and for, for those who might not be ready to go out and quote, you know, start a group of their own, uh, maybe they've, they've cycled back through in another group, uh, with some guys. So, and we are talking men with men and women with women in these groups. And um, you've also now, you've now translated the, the material into all these different languages. And the ministry of multiplying culture ministries is just growing. Uh, you mentioned you're doing um, some of the conventions and setting up a booth and just trying to get the material out there. Um, and, and like you said, it's not because you want to sell books like God has called you to, to give this stuff away, to be a come alongsider to bless the church. Jesus said I'll build my church. And uh, the parachurch, don't forget is, is the word. Para means come alongside. So we're all about strengthening local churches. And that's why GC partnerships and me and you, Bob, get along so, well is that we're like minded about trying to do everything we can to strengthen pastors and strengthen churches. And we're calling for Holy Spirit to come and just be active in all of that. So I'm blessed, um, to have been able to know you all these years and then to watch you step out in faith. The way you're helping our local association is amazing. And I hope that other association leaders will see that and invite you to come and help their association as well. Not just state of Florida, but anywhere. Because the call in our lives is to go and make disciples. So we're up against time, Bob, and I hope you'll come on future shows and maybe we can drill down on some of these, um, some of these chapters and maybe walk some, some folks through some of the material. I think that'd be really cool. But for now I wanted to ask you just to kind of pray us out and um, love to just hear your heart.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll be a. It'd be an honor, Jesus. Um, we just thank you that you set such an example for us by making disciples. And God, it's evident that, that, you know, we're here today and we are walking with you, Jesus, because somebody discipled somebody who discipled somebody who got us to this point, to where we're here, uh, and seeking you. And Lord, even though our culture and our country, uh, the church is focused a lot on evangelism and maybe a lot on Bible study. Ah, but I believe the culture is changing in the church, uh, to where it's being focused on discipleship. And Father, we just pray for that to expand throughout, um, you know, our, our world, our, our culture that we're in right now. God, I thank you for brothers in other countries that have told me how that, yeah, after I got saved, somebody came alongside me for one year and discipled me. I was like, wow, why don't we do that here? And a lot of times it's because nobody ever discipled me. So I don't know how to disciple somebody. But you know, Lord, it's not that hard, uh, when we use tools that are readily available, like multiplying, like other stuff that navigators produce or Campus Crusade produces or whoever, uh, they're out there. And Lord, we can use those tools to help people grow in discipleship, grow in spiritual disciplines, move on in maturity and walking closer with Jesus. God, one day, one day we're going to stand before you, um, you know, the judgment seat of Christ, and we're going to be judged for the things we did or didn't do. And, Father, I hope that we all can stand and say, well, you did use me to make disciples. Or he'll say to us, I wrote these four books. I gave you examples. I, uh, showed you how to do it. Why didn't you do it? They even commanded you. The 40th command of Christ in, uh, the book of Matthew is, go and make disciples. And then the next verse, 41 command that Christ commanded us to do, he said, and obey all these, uh, things I have commanded you, Father, as we learn to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, as we learn to rejoice in hard times, as we learn to endure through persecution, all the many other, uh, go in our prayer closet, pray all the other commands of Christ that you gave us. Jesus, Lord, help us to obey this one which is making disciples. Father, we love you. Thank you. Thank you for my brother Bo here, and for all the things and all the ways you're using him in ministry throughout this world. Lord, we love you, Jesus name. Amen.

Speaker B: Thank you, Pastor Bob. Thanks for coming on. We could just. We could talk for hours about this stuff. But, hey, it's time to get on with the disciple making. So thank you kindly for, uh, for joining us and look forward to having you on again.

Speaker C: All right, God, you can serve you or your church or your ministry. Just hit us up@mediplyingculture.com.

Speaker B: you got it. Have a good one, brother.

Speaker C: Bye, brother.

Speaker A: Thank you for listening to this episode of Great Commission Partnerships. GC Talk with Bo Ellis. Find us wherever you get your podcasts and on the web@gcpartnerships.org where our mission is connecting Christians to missions and supporting church planters and missionaries locally, nationally, and around the world.