“Qualification” in business is the idea of determining whether or not a prospect is a good customer before they purchase from you (see this overview).

Could you imagine someone who buys a product from your business, and then takes it home and just puts it in their closet–where it perhaps becomes buried under other boxes, shoes, papers, or what have you? And then, at the end of their life, when their children are going through their things, they happen across your product in the closet of their parent: they comment on how strange it is that their mother or father should have bought such a thing. “I never saw this before,” one might say. The product never impacted their parent’s life.

Or, what if they buy the product, use it once or twice, and then constantly call up your technical support number, complaining about it, mentioning flaws in it, demanding this or that be solved or added or changed?

On the other hand, what happens if someone buys the product, uses it every day, and other people see them using it – they rave about it, and mention it to their friends, and talk about what a great product it is?

Qualification is the idea that some customers are a “better fit” than others – and to turn away customers who are not a “good fit.”

Now, I’m not suggesting that we turn any seeker away from the Gospel. There’s plenty of examples of that approach going wrong.

But at the same time, we ought to be qualifying who we spend time discipling. The offer to disciple someone is a major investment of time and resources. It’s best not to be trying to disciple someone who will not use it, who will not reproduce it in others.

Jesus did this: he preached to crowds, but he offered discipleship at a very high cost. People self-selected whether they would follow Him or not. Those who followed Him got the massive time investment of discipleship.

The easiest way to qualify who you will spend massive amounts of time on is to judge their teachability and the fruit they bear. If they’re not willing to do anything with the first few things you teach them, why teach more? Look for obedience and application of the early things. Second, if they’re not willing to share with others – if they aren’t willing to publicly commit to following Christ and obeying him – find someone who else who is.

We should never try to prejudge what soil is going to bear fruit. But if the soil doesn’t bear fruit – we shouldn’t keep sowing there over and over, either.