Who Is Qualified? An Ordinary Person's Guide To Kingdom Impact
David Broodryk Reflections Part 2
By Lim MY
David Broodryk has been on a long journey into discipleship movements and seeking to see cities impacted by and for Jesus. He and his team now serve teams and leaders in cities all over the world. He recently spent time with several Asian city teams as part of the Urban Wheat Project. Over a series of blog posts, I will share some key highlights and reflections from our time together.
Photo by Saurabh Bahadursha on Unsplash
God had challenged David with the size of His vision for his city and other cities in Africa.
It was clear that the 10 million people in his city could never be reached by a platform or stage, and this started David on a quest. He stepped away from pastoring a single congregation and was forced to wrestle with how an entire city might be taken for God instead.
We are told in Acts 4:13 that after the disciples had done a miracle, the religious leaders looked at them and were amazed.
What amazed them?
The disciples had just healed a lame beggar, but it was not the miracle that amazed the religious leaders.
What amazed them was these were “uneducated and common” people who had “been with Jesus”. What amazed them was that these incredible things were happening through ordinary, theologically-untrained people. In other words, these were the people that the world disqualified, who didn't have titles or positions or power.
God has an army!
The army is not made up of pastors, professors and theologians, but it is filled with ordinary people, like every single one of us.
A Very Old Disciple-Maker
One of the first amazing stories that David’s team encountered was that of a 95-year-old Zulu lady.
She looked after 8 orphans on a meagre SGD$80 a month. A disciple had taught her to make disciples, share the gospel, share the scriptures with people and help them to follow Jesus.
So together with her 8 orphans, she began to read the Scriptures with a curious heart.
This lady had a son named Wilson who was imprisoned for murder. Before he went to prison, he was known in the community as a violent man, walking the streets with a big stick in his hand and hitting children who scattered like frightened rats when they spotted him.
When Wilson was released from prison, he went back to walking around and hitting people again. But every day, he would sit with this little Bible discovery group in his mother’s house.
A dreadful day came when his elderly mother had a stroke that pulled her mouth up all the way to her ear. She couldn’t even speak.
Her discipler turned up at their house and declared, ”Before we go to the hospital, the best thing to do is pray.”
So that was what they did.
As they did, God’s healing suddenly came upon the elderly lady, and she immediately got up! Wilson was stunned and fell to his knees with deep conviction, crying, “This happened just for me!”.
That day, he gave his life to Jesus and Wilson quickly became one of the most effective disciple makers in that area.
Previously, he used to walk around with a stick in his hand. Now he walks with a Bible. Instead of running away, the children in that community became attracted to him.
Three years later, when Wilson’s mother passed away, a large crowd came to the funeral. A video was screened that showed the work this lady had done in the community.
One of the local leaders got up in front of the crowd attending the funeral and said, "This elderly lady was not satisfied with just sitting in church on a Sunday and listening to sermons, but she did more than that. She made disciples in her own home, and this is what happened through her son. This is what happened in the community. If this lady in her 90’s can do that, what about you?”
800 people stood to their feet that day. Together, they committed to learn how to make disciples of Jesus. What started as testimony of faith grew into a movement that broke out in that area.
A Very Young Disciple-Maker
David tells another story of his youngest disciple-maker, just eight years old.
David was curious about the groups she was leading, so she offered to take him to the park. The precinct she lived in was renowned to be one of the most violent areas of Cape Town, where gangs operated, and as they walked down the street, she pointed him to a pool of blood left behind by a stabbing incident the night before, as if it did not surprise her.
There at the public park, she met with six friends. They sat around the eight-year-old’s picture Bible, and began reading the Scriptures together, and learned to follow Jesus. This was just one of the four disciple groups the little girl led. What a picture of contrast, testifying beautifully of what can happen a child lets the little light of hers shine for Christ in the midst of darkness.
A Transformed Pastor
As David walked with disciple-makers like these, God was writing truths afresh on his heart.
Something had shifted in his being.
Everything he had been trained in as a pastor was about being the centre of attention, standing up front to tell people what they needed to know. But through this journey, David realised that that was not his job. He began to believe that God does His best work through the most ordinary people, not just through experts, theologians, and pastors.
The message of Ephesians 4:11-16 began to look different;
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
David now understood that God gave these gifts to the church for one reason—to equip the people so that they would do the work of the ministry. The disciples of Jesus might have been unschooled, untrained, and ordinary, but they spent much time with Jesus.
As for himself, he recognised he needed to learn to empower others, and the key to this was following Jesus closely.
David’s heart was settled with this fresh revelation of his role.
The key to healing the lostness and brokenness in the cities of Africa would be to equip ordinary people to do what God has put on their hearts, to mobilise them - to come alongside them to help them grow, learn, and share the gospel.
Because the real treasure, the real weapon that the church possesses to change the world is not our experts, but our ordinary people - every single one of us.
Reflection and Response
How does Acts 4:13 speak to your heart?
Where in your life might God be calling you to step beyond limitations and trust Him to work through you?
What brokenness and lostness around you could you move towards?
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.