Sometimes it really helps to have a plan in our minds that makes sense to us. It is kind of like drawing some kind of picture. If there are dots to connect in a specific order, the picture takes shape and looks like something that makes sense to us. If you are trying to draw a horse and you can connect dots 1 to 2 and then to 3 and so on, you have a better chance it will look like a horse and not a squirrel if you had no numbered dots.
Discipling another person is more comfortable if there are dots to connect. You just cover the material with someone or memorize certain verses and it's done. But...you don't have to think or be challenged or stretched or have to trust God to do the work in their life. In your mind, the picture of this person you are helping become a real follower of Jesus is more easily accomplished if there are certain dots to connect.
Phillip is about to go to a class without a textbook and the instructor is not in sight. How can you possibly learn or help anyone without the "Dot" textbook? Check out Acts 8:34, 35 and 39. What kind of textbook was Phillip working with here? Aren't we supposed to teach people to practice everything Jesus taught the original team?
Don't get caught in the trap of limiting God and using one discipling plan with everyone you are helping. After Phillip shared some stuff with this Ethiopian and baptized him, without notice God said "time to leave." But what about the follow up? There is no one box disciple making box with God. He is capable of bringing people into mature relationships with him any way he wants to.
Once in Athens, Greece in 1991 a student and I were teaching some Ethiopian refugees some basics in following Jesus. After our discussion they asked us what the origin of our church was. We had no clue. They however said they traced theirs back to this Ethiopian eunuch in Acts. This eunuch began the Coptic Church these refugees were a part of. Looks like Phillips discipleship plan worked.
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