An exciting announcement!

But God is a wonderful teacher 

Isaiah 28:23-29 Listen to me; listen and pay close attention. Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting? … The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. … The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is a wonderful teacher, and he gives the farmer great wisdom.

Matthew 13:3-23 [Jesus said] Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. … To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given.

Dave’s ministry has many facets. One of them is to encourage pastors to form or join a discipleship/mutual care group with other pastors. They experience care for each other and grow together in intimacy with God, in pastoral skills, in balanced priorities, and in personal character. These groups often cross denominational lines. One of the blessings of this has been joint outreach projects between leaders who used to view each other as competitors. Now they are friends, committed together to the growth of the Kingdom in their city.

Dave has written a variety of tools to help pastors grow, care for each other, and rightly order their lives. His book O Lider que Brilha/El Líder que Brilla (“The Leader Who Shines”: Seven Relationships that Lead to Excellence) has been used in Portuguese and Spanish by thousands of pastors meeting in small groups, from Argentina to Mexico.

And THIS MONTH, a long-awaited ministry tool will finally be published in Spanish! It’s the Discipleship Bible, written by Dave and his co-author Josadak in Portuguese for the Brazilian Bible Society, and now available in Spanish for the rest of the continent.

A personal note about writing the Discipleship Bible: When it became apparent to Dave at the end of 2009 that Karis wasn’t getting better and he would have to leave Brazil and move to Pittsburgh, he felt like his world had fallen apart. It took him a year to fulfill existing ministry commitments in Brazil, deal with twenty years of living and raising four kids—I couldn’t help with the move because I was taking care of Karis 24/7 in Pittsburgh—and say goodbye. He knew it was the right decision. Dave and I had lived on different continents for six years already. But what on earth was he going to do in Pittsburgh?

Shortly before Dave left Brazil, toward the end of 2010, he received a surprise phone call from the Brazilian Bible Society. Would he be willing to write a Discipleship Bible?

If Dave hadn’t moved to Pittsburgh, he never would have found time for this work.

Dave still traveled a lot over the next years, back to Brazil and to other countries across Latin America. But whenever he was “home” in Pittsburgh with Karis and me, and later our other two daughters who wanted to be near Karis while she was still with us, Dave had work to do. A huge project that became a profound joy to him. He was able to integrate material from twenty books he’d published in Brazil, packed full of practical, challenging studies and motivation for people who want to grow as disciples of Jesus.

We’ve been using pieces of the Discipleship Bible in Latin America for years, translating individual studies and sending them around by internet. But finally, all its resources will be available for Spanish speakers everywhere. It’s a huge milestone for us. (Before you ask, yes, we would love to see it translated into English. You can pray with us for this to happen in God’s way and time!)

The Discipleship Bible includes introductions to each book describing what that book offers to a disciple of Jesus, seven courses, each with eight modules, each of them with eight studies for small groups (448 studies!) and application notes on every page Plus several other topical studies and a thematic index. The seven courses are:

1. Disciplemaking fundamentals

2. Relationships – a lifestyle of healthy personal relationships

3. Marriage, the most intimate and profound experience of discipleship

4. High-performing teams

5. Soul (emotional) restoration

6. Biblical disciplers

7. Godly character

For two years, I’ve been using studies from the Discipleship Bible with my Monday evening Zoom group of women leaders from several countries. The studies are simple—five questions and two or three paragraph article—and they inevitably take us deep into Scripture and into our own lives. As soon as I post this, I’ll prepare the study for our next meeting. We rotate the facilitator role, but all of us prepare ahead of time. I’m surprised every week by how rich that week’s study is for us as we share how God is using it in our own growth and practice as disciples of Jesus.

Thank God with us for the wealth of his wisdom and for being such a great teacher through the Scriptures he has given us!