Before the snow covered the Rocky Mountains in the winter of 2005, our family packed a moving truck and headed west. It wasn’t quite California, but Grand Junction, Colorado, seemed plenty far to a country boy from Alabama. As we prepared to move, people often asked my wife Paula how she felt about leaving her family to move to Colorado, especially with two young girls. She responded with words I’ve never been able to forget. She said, “We have all eternity to spend with our family, but I believe there will be people who may not make it to Heaven if we don’t go.”
When we arrived in Colorado, unfamiliar territory, unfamiliar faces, and unsettled nerves were only a few of the obstacles we faced. School had already begun, so we had to get the girls enrolled quickly. There were appointments and utilities to set up. Football season was well underway, and being from Alabama (Roll Tide!), I had to get our television provider set up. I made an appointment for a technician to come by and set up the service.
Little did the technician know, I had moved to Colorado to tell everyone about Jesus and expected them to be saved. After spending several hours with him and sharing my faith in Jesus, the young man agreed to start attending Wednesday night Bible study. Not only that, but he also told his brother about our church, and they started attending the very next Sunday.
The Lord had been working on the young man’s heart before I ever left Alabama. It’s almost as if we had to leave our family to become part of what God had already started in his family. He showed up to Bible study like he said, week after week. After a few weeks, he came to my office one day and gave his heart to the Lord.
The “buzz” word in many churches today is discipleship. It is the popular thing of late to have discipleship groups or D-Groups, as some would call them, but discipleship was
not emphasized in 2005 like it is today. Also, my Dish Network installer had never heard much about discipleship, since he didn’t grow up in church. After he was saved, discipleship was just a natural occurrence in our friendship. He longed to hang out with me because I shared Jesus with him, and I tolerated him. Just kidding! As described in 1 Peter 2:2, his desire to know God was like a newborn believer who desired, who longed for, the milk of God’s Word. He wanted to know the Lord, and as a result, he grew in his relationship with Him.
I recall hearing someone say great discipleship isn’t built overnight. It’s forged through consistent, intentional time. Time is one of the greatest investments many people seem “too busy” to make.
In the 2008 ONE Magazine article Roadside Discipleship, I addressed the ongoing work of being an example of Jesus, truly living out what He taught. Paul told Timothy (1 Timothy 4:12) to be “an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Jesus said, “I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).
In that article, I recounted a specific time when discipleship happened beside the highway. My Dish Network guy and I had stopped to help a lady with a flat tire. Though I was unable to change her tire, I gave her a card and invited her to church. She broke down and began to cry. She came to church the next Sunday and brought nine family members with her. Many of them eventually accepted Christ and are still in church today.
I had no idea how a single roadside conversation would profoundly impact her and her family, much less the lasting effect it would have on Armon, my Dish Network installer, or even my own family during a challenging season still ahead.
Nearly a decade after we met on the road, this same sweet lady moved to Tennessee to help my wife care for her mother, who was dying from cancer. It is amazing now to think of Paula’s words, that we left family so others could hear about Jesus, and now that lady moved to Tennessee to share the love of God with our family. God is good.
Not only was my family blessed by this discipleship opportunity, but that day was also when Armon Jorden began to see and feel Jesus in action. He saw people invited to Jesus on the side of the road, and he saw whole families come to Jesus as a result. God planted a desire within him to replicate the discipleship he had experienced. Since that day, Armon and his wife Yvette have been to many countries, sharing the gospel and discipling dozens of young men and women themselves.
Today, I’m not discipling on the highways of Colorado, but in the humid hedges of Mississippi, where God has called us to continue telling others about Him. Discipleship happens wherever people are living life. That day with Armon, it was on a highway. Today with Josh, it’s in the woods after a day of hunting. Sometimes, it’s in a restaurant with Eric or out on a fishing boat with Dale.
Discipleship is intentional, and it takes time. But the fruit is undeniable. Today, Armon and Yvette are “second-generation” NAM church planters to Hilo, Hawaii, building a team to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Discipleship with Armon could not have happened without evangelism. So, I want to conclude with the last two lines from the article I wrote in 2008: “Reaching one, so they can reach one, so they can reach one. Isn’t this what true discipleship is all about?”
About the Writer: Chad Kivette and his wife Paula have served as church planters with North American Ministries for over 20 years, establishing new works in Colorado and Tennessee. Currently, they are leading a revitalization work at New Life FWB Church in Amory, Mississippi.
