Business man Bob Buford once said, “My fruit grows on other people’s trees.” That statement is a great picture of multiplying disciples. When we make disciples who make more disciples, our investment spreads beyond us and outlasts us. In a way, disciple making is producing fruit on another person’s tree.
This past week the concept of “fruit-bearing” became a reality in my own life. Here is how it happened.
A few years ago I connected with a guy named John who had a heart to be a disciple maker. God allowed me to throw some gas on his flame and invest a little bit in his life. As a result, he decided to start using the Impact Discipleship curriculum that I developed to start making disciples. From time to time, we still connect and stoke that flame.
A few days ago John sent me a text about a young man he discipled for about year who joined the military a few months ago. This twenty-eight-year-old soldier recently called his mother to share a cool story of how God had used him, and my buddy passed that story on to me. Here is what the message said:
“Just talked to Tommy! One of the guys Tommy has been reaching out to from the beginning asked him to baptize him today! Another guy then also said he wanted to be baptized. So while Tommy was baptizing them, thirty guys lined up and Tommy baptized them all!!! He was shocked! Ten of them were his buddies, the others were from a different company. There was a short sermon beforehand and this was following their weekly Bible studies so they knew what they were doing. There was a total of sixty baptized. Thirty of them were baptized by Tommy.”
My friend went on to say, “I just wanted you to know that you’re still making disciples who make disciples.” As you might imagine, that message completely made my day. There are not many things more encouraging than knowing that an investment you made in someone ended up influencing even more people to take steps as disciples. It doesn’t get much better than that.
At Impact Discipleship Ministries, we are committed to helping people leverage their influence to make disciples who multiply more disciples. With resources, training, and coaching, we try to help people and churches better understand disciple making and implement disciple making strategies. If you would like more information on disciple making, contact us at impactdisciples.com. We would love to help you.
