Animals can’t do it.
You can look at words on a page and change yourself.
Actually, I think you can learn almost anything if you’ve got good written instructions.
When I was a kid, I bought a book a the elementary school book fair about learning karate.
I ran home with it, analyzed the corny black and white images, and poured over the descriptions.
“Soon I will know karate.”
A little optimistic.
Couldn’t totally do it alone like I wanted.
You needed a victim.
So, without hesitation tested moves on my little brother.
But in the end it was disappointing.
Mere words and pictures didn’t translate into actual skill...
…this time.
“A predictable disappointment,” you might say, but I have always believed you could train yourself to learn something with just a instructions , discipline and a bit of imagination.
Pre-YouTube in my 20s, I got another book “Core Performance” by Mark Verstegen which was a workout book for athletes.
Again I studied the progressive movements and descriptions, and this time I really figured things out on my own.
I didn’t need a mirror. I could move my body through space just like the illustrations.
It made me not only very strong but it helped me avoid injuries that had plagued me through high school.
It wasn’t karate, but you could say I became a disciple of Verstegen with just his words and pictures mixed with my discipline and imagination. No external help.
I am often jealous now of how young athletes now have access to YouTube. You no longer have to visualize movements.
But I still believe that words + your imagination can train (disciple) others.
That’s a core means of following Jesus.
“teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you”
Yes, I know: Add the Holy Spirit. (or He adds you..?)
But with Him and your imagination just are fused with an infinitely powerful Being you can learn from in real time.
Now email has it limits, but you can make disciples with it.
Maybe not like Paul did with precious scrolls.
There is something special about physical copies that add weight to words. Make you cherish and meditate on them.
But you can make MVDs “Minimal Viable Disciples” with your emails.
Give them enough to play in the shallow end of your area of discipleship.
Ask yourself this: What is the lowest bar I can set to disciple my subscribers?
But don’t teach it systematically in the email.
Use email to activate their imaginations and get them off the couch and into the shallow end with Jesus.
Stories are great for this.
One way to create Minimal Viable Disciples on auto-pilot is with a 5-day email course based on your book. You can tackle the minimalistic version of your book with some fun-to-read emails. And I can write it for you.
https://blairjohnlee.substack.com/p/done-for-you-email-course
Blair
P.S. My wife even learned to knit a lama-wool sweater for me by just reading words like code on a page and very unhelpful images. She had to undo the thing several times, but did it. I am amazed at what she could do with just imagination and persistence. I wore the first one so much she has to make another one.