By S. Crawley

The Problem: Bridging the Gap

As we walk through our cities, it’s clear that God’s vision for the harvest is vast, and the needs around us are immense. We know that He is constantly at work and that the harvest is plentiful.

Faithful disciples are actively reaching out to serve the brokenness they see and help the spiritually hungry. We celebrate the ways that God is working through their efforts and those who are coming to know Him.

However, we also recognise that the vast majority have said "No" to our evangelistic approaches and they are not changing their minds. This creates challenges both for followers of Jesus and for seekers.

Challenges for Two Groups

For Christians, this reality generates tensions that can be difficult to reconcile.

We know that reaching out is important, but…

-  We might feel uncomfortable with confrontational evangelistic methods.

-  We may question whether our knowledge is adequate to teach or respond to peoples' questions.

-  We may feel that some of the more relational approaches are ineffective and/or lack authenticity.

-  We find that the methods we are familiar with are often unwelcome among those we are reaching out to.

Seekers can also feel tension in the way Christians interact with them.

They are drawn to our spirituality and have a desire to know God and/or understand the Bible, but…

-  They might feel disrespected and treated like a sales target rather than a person.

-   They might feel uncomfortable and out of place joining a Christian program or gathering.

-  They might primarily be desiring personal transformation and/or interaction with God rather than teaching and knowledge ABOUT God.

These challenges raise two important questions:

-  Is it possible to be faithful to Jesus' mandate to “disciple the peoples” in authentically relational ways that are welcomed and respected by those who are not yet following Him?

-  Are there ways to serve seekers that communicate respect and enable them to discover who God is and engage with Him relationally in their own cultural and social spaces?

There Is No Formula - Word & Spirit Hold the Answers

I want to emphasise that there will potentially be many possible solutions to those.

Scripture is full of stories and examples of how Jesus, Paul, and others tried to do these things in their particular time and cultures. You and those you work with are unique individuals with unique God stories, hand-crafted and shaped by Father throughout the course of your lives. The harvest field He has called you to is a unique blend of beauty and brokenness with similarly unique individuals and communities.

All of that to say, there is no "one size fits all" formula and there are all sorts of possibilities waiting to be discovered through His Word and by His Spirit as you seek Him for His plans.

Discovery Bible Study: One of the Possible Solutions

As you seek God for His best in your unique context, there is an approach that is worth considering.

This approach has provided an answer to the questions we raised about, and it has been a helpful resource for many harvest workers in a wide range of cultures and contexts across Asia and globally. It is highly intentional, yet also simple, relational, discovery-based and driven by hunger. Anyone can do it, and it is enjoyable for seekers and those who are serving them.

This approach has many names but is often referred to as Discovery Bible Study (DBS).

What is Discovery Bible Study?

Discovery Bible Study is a process that encourages participants to engage directly with Scripture, discovering truths for themselves and applying them in their lives. It’s a non-confrontational, highly relational way to explore faith, allowing God to reveal Himself and speak to peoples' hearts through His Word.

There are two important parts to DBS - posture and process.

A Helpful Posture

Posture is often ignored.

It is common for people to focus on the process as a list of steps and ignore the posture. When this happens, DBS can feel exactly the same as the other approaches that people dislike.

1. It’s About God, Not Us

Jesus said it best:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (John 6:44–45)

This reality relieves the pressure on everybody!

Remember that it’s God who draws people to Himself. He is already at work, speaking and convicting hearts. Our role is to facilitate a space where people can hear from Him and decide how they will respond.

2. Listen and Learn

The main event is the interaction between God and the person. We should pay attention to what God is doing in people’s hearts and lives. Listening to what they are seeing and hearing shows us how we can pray and how we can serve them on their journey.

In DBS our role is not to teach, or convince or convert but to serve our Father and the hunger and desire He is stirring in the hearts of our friends.

The Discovery Bible Study Process

The process is straightforward - a series of questions asked by the facilitator.

It can be done one-to-one as a group of two, but works better with 4-6 people who already know each other.

The natural facilitator is usually the person who brought the group together to do this.

The goal of the process is for group members to connect with each other, and to discover who God is and listen deeply to what He is communicating through the story or passage of Scripture.

1. Look Back:

- what are you thankful for?
- what has been difficult?
- how have you been able to use what you've learned recently?
-  with whom have you been able to share what you learned?

2. Look Up:

- read & re-read the story
- how would you tell this story in your own words? (without adding anything or missing any important detail)
- what does it tell us about God?
- what does it tell us about Jesus?
- what does it tell us about people?

3. Look Ahead:

- how can we apply this in our lives?
- who can benefit from hearing what we've learned?
- what opportunities do we have to serve and bless our community?
- when will we meet again?

Which story should we use? Great question!

The short answer is that it depends on the group and where they are in their journey. That will be a future article. Genesis 1:1-2:3 or Luke 7:36-50 can be good starting points. For a group of Christians, Mark 1:14-20 can be good.

The process works best when the DBS is followed by a debrief session - where the facilitator gets a chance to talk through what happened with someone they trust and who is familiar with the process. This provides an opportunity for support and further learning for the facilitator.

Conclusion

Several aspects of common evangelistic and discipleship approaches are challenging - both for the majority of people who have rejected them and followers of Jesus who desire to reach out effectively.

DBS offers an alternative approach that has proven effective in a diverse range of harvest fields. DBS is not a silver bullet – God may show you better approaches for your context – but when it is done with the right posture, it facilitates a relational process that is driven by discovery and serves hunger by creating a space where God can be known and encountered.

This posture and process are quite different from common evangelistic approaches, so it usually sparks lots of questions. I will address some of the more common ones in future posts.

If this is new to you, I encourage you to try it out in a context where you feel comfortable - a lot of insight comes as we actually do it.

What About You?

To summarise, three of the important questions I see are:

• How can we meaningfully serve those suffering from social overload, social image pressure and social isolation in our cities?

• How can we disciple people so they can lean into relationship with God whilst remaining in their existing social contexts?

• How can we meaningfully engage the social centres of the urban villages around us?

What about you? Where do these implications and questions land for you? Do you agree or disagree? What do you see?

For Reflection

1. A Scripture - John 6:44–45

• What does this passage tell us about the role of the Father and our role in bringing people to Jesus?

• What are the conditions for people coming to Jesus?
  

2. A thoughtful question

What are the implications of John 6:44-45 for how we think about evangelism and discipleship?

3. A possible application

Which of your family, friends or acquaintances could you invite to help you experiment DBS?

Discipling the Urban Harvest provides practical insights and encouragement to walk with God in multiplying discipleship in an increasingly urban world - growing as children of the Father, serving the communities He has called us to, and discipling those hungry to know Him.