Sleepy Christians, Fired-Up Servants and Lackluster Sacrifice: Urban Ministry Leader on Demands of Discipleship
Luma Haddad, Young Life Urban Area Director for San Diego South Bay, Encourages Youth Ministry Leaders
"God is raising up those who are willing to serve and sacrifice. Serve and sacrifice. Serve and sacrifice," she said. "The problem is we hear the word 'serve' and we're like, 'Yeah, I know all about serving' and we get all excited, we're high-fiving. … And then we hear the word 'sacrifice,' and our neck starts twitching …"
"Some of us in this room are very familiar with sacrifice, because we do urban ministry. So we're constantly having to sacrifice our pay, our ride, our family, just our life, we kinda layed it down," Haddad continued.
But genuine discipleship requires both service and sacrifice, she said.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"It is so much easier to make converts than disciples. … It's safer, it's not as messy, it doesn't keep folks up at night, it doesn't affect our bank account, it's doesn't interrupt, it doesn't cause inconvenience, it doesn't invade privacy, it doesn't cause us to be off balance," Haddad added, noting that it is easier to invite someone to church than it is to be the Church to them.
"It is a lot easier to make converts than it is to make disciples," she repeated. "It's easier to throw an event, to pass out a flyer, to give someone an invitation and not even know their name or their story or even follow up with them."
It may be easier to convert people to Christianity, "but Jesus asks us to make disciples," she said, before presenting a chart, showing the exponential growth that can come from discipleship versus the accumulation of Christians by conversion over a period of years.
If a disciple goes out and disciples another person and that disciple starts discipling another and so forth, there could eventually be millions more Christians around the world.
"But you know why we can't reach the world?" she asked. "Because we're sleeping!"
"You don't have to be an urban youth worker," she added. "You just have to be somebody that loves Jesus and you can disciple. We gotta do this!"
Haddad also encouraged her audience, "Make sure you are reaching more people and not just discipling the same people for several years."
"Or at the least make sure you're going deep with at least one [person]," she added, drawing a comparison to a shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to go and look for the lost one.
"Know that you are called," Haddad repeated. "We don't have time to be sleeping. We've been called to go and sacrifice, and go after the one. Who is your one?"
