“We have not done a good job of discipling our people.”
If there is one post-pandemic confession I have heard church leaders in the U.S. make more than any other, it is this. Over and over again I hear from leaders of big churches and small churches and everything in between, “We have got to get back to focusing on discipleship.”
As a local church pastor and a leader of a church-planting organization, I join that chorus and admit we need to return to disciple making.
It is with a strong sense that God is calling us back to the primary purpose of the church that the Exponential “big idea” for 2024 will be “One Eighty: The Return to Disciple Making.” In order for churches to return to biblical disciple making, we will need to pivot and make the following 180-degree turns.
From Reaching to Making
The first 180 we need to make is from reaching people to making disciples. We cannot simply focus on church-growth methodology for filling small and big rooms with people. We need to see people’s hearts filled with the Spirit of God and make disciples who understand how to make other disciples. This requires a clear and concise definition of a disciple so that people not only know it, but can repeat it and share it. This definition of disciple making will use Matthew 4:19 and Matthew 28:17–20 as bookends for the disciple-making journey, beginning with the challenge to follow and ending with the challenge to go and make disciples of others.
What does this definition look like?
“[Jesus] said to them ‘Follow me, and I will make you … fishers of men.’” It ends with “They worshiped him … go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name [new identity] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
Each church needs to agree on a definition for disciple making rooted in Scripture.
From Informing to Equipping
The second 180 will require rethinking about the process for making disciples. We will need to shift from merely informing people to equipping. God has given to the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to equip God’s people for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:11–16). They are given not minimally to inform the church but to equip the church to grow up into the fullness of Christ as disciple makers. This diverse group of equippers reveals that we need a diverse approach to equipping and a process that leads to Christlike ministers and diverse expressions of ministry.
Disciples will grow up into maturity if they are developed by a diversity of equippers. When we see disciple making and equipping as a 1-on-1; 1-on-12; or even 1-on-100+ relationship, the disciples end up looking more like the “1” and less like the fullness of Christ. In worse case scenarios, this can lead to a cult of personality where everyone looks to and looks like the “1.”
The church grows up into maturity as each part is working properly, building itself up in love. When every member is a minister and every minister is engaging in the ministry God has given them to do, the church will grow up into maturity. Are we calling Christians to join our ministry, or equipping them to own and express the ministry God has given them in the body of Christ?
From Programming to Relationship
There is a third 180 pivot that we will need to make to return to disciple making, and that is a shift from emphasizing programs to emphasizing relationships.
Disciple making can sometimes happen through programs, but will always be relational. Paul told Timothy (1 Tim. 1:5) the purpose of his instruction is love, reflecting Jesus’ words that the greatest commandment is to love God with all we are and love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus then goes on to say that we are even to love our enemies. With that in mind, the role of leadership in the church is not just to create programs, but rather to help disciples engage in key relational spaces for the purpose of growing in love in all our relationships.
There are many helpful resources to consult on this subject. In Jim Wilder’s book Renovated, he really hits on this idea as he does in the title he wrote with Michel Hendricks, The Other Half of Church. Drawing from Joseph Myers’ seminal work, The Search to Belong, Alex Absalom and Bobby Harrington’s Discipleship That Fits describes discipleship as engaging transforming relationships in key relational spaces.
From Activity to Intimacy
A fourth key turning point is a 180 from church activities to spiritual intimacy. A return to disciple making is a significant shift in our church cultures. Anytime we make changes to our cultures and begin to shift away from doing church activities to building relationships we’ll run into barriers.
If we can intentionally eliminate the following roadblocks, we can engage in relational disciple making and offer people an intimate experience with God. I’m talking about barriers like idolizing busyness, neglecting the Sabbath, professionalizing ministry and thinking discipleship is about content, to name a few. As we intentionally tear down these obstacles, we will create the relational space for disciples who love God and follow Jesus.
We can’t lead people to a place where we have never been or are not presently in. The ministry you lead is often an expression of your own spiritual health and vitality. Sadly, far too many leaders are not emotionally, spiritually and relationally healthy. As a result, they do not have a life worth emulating. This often leads to religious performance or shameful hiding. How do we start with ourselves as leaders, addressing our own emotional and spiritual health?
From Accumulating to Deploying
The last 180 is a repentance of our focus on accumulation rather than deploying people into ministry. We cannot do anymore talking about changing the scorecard. We need a commitment to the shift. We repeat what we celebrate, and we need to move from celebrating more butts in the seats in our auditorium to cheering for more disciples on mission in our communities.
These five 180s will require both earnest reflection and heartfelt repentance. When we make these pivots, we will discover we are making disciples who make disciples, working toward a tipping point in our American church culture when at least 16% of churches are reproducing and multiplying.
For more information about Exponential 2024, go to Exponential.org/2024.