Surely all churches are in the business of making disciples.1 Those were Christ’s parting instructions, were they not? “Go, therefore, and make disciples” (Matt. 28:19a)? That certainly is our aspiration as ministry leaders, but a recent study from Discipleship.org indicates that our aspirations might not match our reality.
This survey canvassed both pastors and church members and noted a disturbing trend in both cases. On the one hand, both ministry leaders and lay people strongly believe that disciple-making is important and that their congregations are, indeed, making disciples. On the other, neither group (pastors nor members) could describe their churches’ disciple-making process. They were certain that disciple-making mattered and certain that they were doing it, but they could not tell you how they were getting it done. And if you can’t tell me how you’re getting a job done, I’m going to suspect you’re not really doing it.
Too often, the disciples made in American churches are like an ill-made car: made to pass, not made to last. This is a serious issue, but it doesn’t have to be a terminal one, because God’s Word has provided us with both the paradigm and the processes for effective disciple-making.
Paradigm
Before we can make something, we have to know what it is. Disciple-making is no different. Our church members need a clear picture – a portrait, if you will – of what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. You and your church may find any number of ways to draw this portrait, but I’ve found it helpful to define a disciple as someone who (1) lives in Christ, (2) loves one another, and (3) labors for the king.
This definition is my own, but I’ve drawn it from the testimony of John 15. Jesus, as He drew near to the end of His earthly ministry, took time to explain to His disciples what it is He’s done for us and what He requires of us. First, we must live in Christ, “remain in [him], and [he] in you” (John 15:5). No work that follows from our hands will truly glorify God unless we are first rooted in His Son, becoming more like Him every day. Second, we must love one another. “This is my command,” Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). This is a love that is costly and inconvenient. It’s an ever-present willingness to give and give and give and never require anything in return. And third, we are to labor for the King: “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8). If we are becoming like Christ more each day, and if we determine to live our daily lives with the same passion that took Christ to the cross, then we will also be in the business of leveraging our time and resources for the good of others and the glory of God.
We live, we love, and we labor. How you choose to articulate the call of John 15 for your particular congregation, make sure your people can clearly see and describe what a disciple is.
Practices
And so, beginning with the end in mind, we allow our paradigm to shape our practices. I find the blueprint of Acts 2:42-47 particularly helpful in shaping the curriculum of disciple-making in the local church.
Discipleship begins, of course, with evangelism. Without evangelism, we don’t have a ministry, because evangelism is the starting point for discipleship. “Every day,” the writer of Acts tells us, “the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47), so we must become adept at communicating the Gospel message and be faithful to teach other believers how they can evangelize, as well.
Second, the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:32). Likewise, we too much prioritize the teaching of God’s Word and its application to our daily lives. And, just as with evangelism, we must not only teach but train others to teach, giving our people the tools they need to interpret and apply the Scriptures for themselves and others.
Third, the church of Acts 2 also devoted themselves “to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42). Fellowship, life together, must be a priority in the daily, weekly, and yearly rhythms of the church. Knowledge of Christ and His Word is caught, as well as taught, and we catch this knowledge through the collaborative life of the church, enjoying our life together as a body, coming together for celebrations, for Bible studies, for ministry, for mission.
Fourth, we must prioritize the ministry and mission of the church by providing members the opportunity to serve in that ministry and mission. One of the key reasons early believers were so unified as the church (“all the believers were together and held all things in common” [Acts 2:44]) was because they were all invested in the church. Members need opportunities and on-ramps to take a hands-on role in meeting the needs of others, both inside and outside the church.
Last, but decidedly not least, effective disciple-making requires the practice of worship: “They devoted themselves […] to prayer […] to meeting together in the temple” (Acts. 42, 46). Growing in worship requires both corporate and individual worship times, both times together as the Body of Christ and times individually as believers. As such, we as ministers must not only provide healthy, biblical worship services on a weekly basis, we must also provide teaching, resources, and accountability for church members to pursue practices of individual worship throughout the week.
So, we have our goal in mind (the paradigm), and we have the steps toward that goal (the practices). Our ultimate and eternal success, however, will depend not just on what we do, but how we do it.
Production
Everything we do occurs in an environment, in a context. In the church, that context is defined by relationships, by real people relating to one another. Everywhere we find people being discipled, becoming more like Christ, we find them doing so in a relational environment.
In Discipleship That Fits, Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom proffer four categories of relationships where the production of disciples takes place. There’s the public context of gathering in larger groups to worship and study God’s word, as we see in Acts 2. But there’s also a social context, where smaller groups gather in homes as friends and as family, as described in Deuteronomy 6: “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house […] walk along the road, […] lie down […] you get up” (Deut. 6:6-7). Then we have the intimate, one-on-one context of interpersonal discipleship of relationships like those described in 2 Timothy 2:2: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” And finally, we have the divine context of individual believers being led and shaped by the Holy Spirit Himself.
Different congregations (and different ministers!) may be more or less passionate about and gifted in one of these contexts than the others, but each is essential for disciple-making. None of us become more like Christ in a vacuum. Discipleship happens through the rhythms, habits, and practices of the church, but it happens in the context of others: we become like Christ with others, alongside others, and among others, face-to-face and hand-in-hand with other saved sinners sanctified by grace, through faith. If we can keep these as the principles which shape our paradigm, our processes, and our production of disciples, then we can expect to see the kind of Christ-followers in which our Lord rejoices: built, not just to pass, but built to last.
- Read more from Chris Shirley on the subject of disciple-making in his 2008 article in the Southwestern Journal of Theology, “It Takes a Church to Make a Disciple: An Integrative Model of Discipleship for the Local Church.” ↩︎
