When you are on a mission to the missing, conversion and disciple making often get blurred, overlapping and combined like ingredients poured into a mixing bowl. That's why Jesus told us to make disciples, not coverts. Conversion is an important but small step toward discipleship. The linear, multistep sequence we think of as a normal path to conversion doesn't happen in reality, even we have a willing disciple. There are always twists and turns. Always surprises. If you are too scripted with your evangelistic expectations, you won't be agile enought to stay connected with the people Jesus misses most.

. . . . When we allow people to belong before they believe, when we include them in the life of our faith community and introduce them to people they would normally never associate with, we are discipling them. Or perhaps more accurately, we're providing a context for them to engage with the Holy Spirit as he teaches them all the truth they need to know at that time. Jim Henderson