Category: Make Disciples

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6 Essential Elements of a Discipleship Strategy

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So far in our discipleship series, we have discussed the theology of discipleship: what it is, why it matters, how the Holy Spirit works, and how we can partner with Him. Now we will begin to shift our attention to the practical side of discipleship and begin to look at how a church or a ministry can organize a discipleship strategy to effectively lead people to maturity in Christ.

We will begin by looking at six necessary elements of a successful discipleship strategy.

1. The mindset of a disciple-maker.

Hopefully by now you agree that we must begin with the conviction that we are called to make disciples and not just to make converts. Although this one should be obvious, it isn’t always followed through in the practical workings of ministry. This is why we have spent the last few weeks looking at the disciple-making mindset.

Nevertheless, at risk of overstatement, before you can practically begin a successful discipleship program in your ministry, you must be committed to seeing discipleship as the goal. If you are simply content with “soul-winning,” and consider it the purpose of evangelism to just get people saved, you will fall short of the Great Commission. Discipleship is the goal.

If you do not make the commitment now, that discipleship is the priority, then it will be easy to let it slip to the side when it becomes difficult or inconvenient.

2. A mature disciple to be the leader or mentor.

Again, this one sounds so obvious, but as we have seen over and over again in our ministry in Africa, one of the greatest challenges to seeing leaders making disciples is that the leader all-too-often was never truly discipled himself or herself.

As the leader of the ministry, it will be up to you to set the pattern for discipleship in how you disciple others. In time, you will raise up other leaders around you who are capable of carrying on in the same work you have begun (see Ephesians 4:11-12).

When the time comes for others to be called by the church to step out in discipling others, it should be clear in their Christian walk that they have been discipled and are capable of walking in maturity as a believer, knowing the word of God, and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

One point of consideration that may have practical value in your ministry is that as you add official disciplers to the ministry, who are not pastors or staff, then the person must clearly have the authority of the church leadership behind them to facilitate and teach.

We commission pastors. We commission evangelists. We commission deacons. What is interesting to me is that I have never seen a church commission people to be disciple-makers. Maybe we should begin.

One other note here, while it is true that every believer should be making disciples, what we are talking about here is a strategy for your ministry as a whole. How your “official” team leads in life and in discipleship will set the pattern others in your church follow.

3. A time and place to meet regularly, outside of normal church meetings.

Your Sunday morning church service or Wednesday night prayer meeting are important parts of your ministry, but keep in mind that these events are not ideal for real life discipleship. While people need to hear the preaching of the word and be involved in other elements of church life, discipleship must take place on a more personal level.

You may even want to consider a location outside of the church facilities. Meeting in homes or public coffee shops may be more preferable, as it is easier to relate to one another, and if people are more comfortable, they are more willing to open up and share their lives.

There are other challenges that can be addressed by meeting outside of “church” as well. People coming from other religious backgrounds such as Islam, or people with spouses hostile to the church will have an easier time taking part in the discipleship process if they do not have to sneak into your church for the meeting.

4. A bible-based lesson plan for teaching the basic truths of the Christian life.

The Bible is God’s Word given to guide us in life and Christ-likeness. Therefore, any discipleship strategy we employ must be grounded in the scriptures to be effective. We cannot simply press people to conform to our church culture, or a list of religious rules and expectations.

As we continue in this series, we will look at this topic more in depth, but we must at least touch it here. The Bible reveals Jesus, and therefore it is in the Bible that we find out who we are supposed to become in Him.

5. Outside opportunities for real-life application.

New believers are some of the most passionate to share their faith and teach others what they are learning. As such, our discipleship strategy must also include opportunities for the new disciples to step up in real life applications.

In the now classic book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, Rick Warren says that Christians must be involved in five areas of spirituality: Discipleship, Worship, Fellowship, Service, and Mission. I would contend that if our discipleship programs do not offer the opportunity to step into the other four areas, then we miss the point.

As a disciple becomes more mature in the Lord, they will begin demonstrating and participating in these things on their own, outside of officially scheduled events and programs. Once again, however, I would press that it is in the patterns set in their early discipleship that they will continue on in them. 

We must teach people to worship the Lord and to serve, and to give them opportunity to reach out to the lost and share their lives with other believers.

6. Ongoing accountability and counseling for disciples, continuing long into their maturity in Christ.

We must see that true discipleship is a lifelong journey toward Christ-likeness, and not something that can be completed with a 6-week course or a few Bible studies. We must take into account that as one “level” of maturity is reached, there is still a call to come up higher.

Even as people mature into the Lord, we must include the opportunity for continued growth through higher level discipleship meetings, biblical counseling, and personal accountability.

The greatest leaders in the church have still not attained to the image of Christ, so continuing the discipleship process is necessary for us all. Therefore, do not limit your discipleship strategy to only new believers. Find a way to incorporate it for everyone.

Conclusion

Discipleship is not automatic. It requires leadership, and it requires a strategy. 

As we continue to look at what this entails over the next couple of weeks, I hope you are hearing the Lord leading you and your ministry to grow in this area, and that these posts are helpful to you.

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Maturity in Christ: The Goal of Discipleship

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(This is Part 5 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.)

If you examine global Christianity with a focus on finances, it is impressive how much the church spends every year, doing outreaches and events in the name of “soul-winning.” Millions, maybe billions, of dollars are spent every year on community outreaches, crusades, and various other evangelistic efforts. And it works. Millions of people, every year, pray a prayer of salvation, in hopes of having an eternity in paradise when they die. Yet all too often, that is where the church’s outreach ends.

As we have discussed already in this discipleship series, the Great Commission calls us not just to make converts, but to make disciples. The sad reality is, however, that too many churches make big plans with big budgets for getting people saved, but have a much lower priority in helping the people become Christ-like. Discipleship has a much lower priority, than winning converts.

Even worse is the fact that we now have multiple generations of believers in the church who are caught in a terrible cycle where, because they were not discipled themselves, they do not know how to make disciples of others. We have churches full of Christian converts who live in immaturity, making more converts who also continue to live in immaturity.

The Goal of Discipleship is that People would Become Like Christ.

Discipleship is the process of leaving who we were before salvation, and becoming who we are called to become in Christ (see Ephesians 2:10). It is a leaving behind of the old man; a putting to death to our sinful nature, in the process of conforming to the image of Jesus, who is the perfect image of God and man (see Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5; and Romans 8:29).

If we have any plans in ministry, short of seeing people being transformed into Christlikeness, then we have completely missed the goal of discipleship, and need to reanalyze our motives. To be sure, it is a great thing to want to see hundreds or thousands of people get saved, yet that is not the finish line. Maturity in Christ is.

To use a football analogy, when trying to get someone saved, it is like playing the game on defense. Your only desire is to get possession of the ball before the other team can score (or in this case, to get the person saved before they die and go to hell).

When a person gets converted to Christianity, that is like the ball being intercepted and now rather than playing defense, you switch to playing offense. The strategy changes when you get the ball, but you still haven’t scored. You still have work to do to get the ball to the goal, which in this case, means taking the new convert from the point of salvation and leading them to maturity in Christ. Salvation is simply taking possession of the “ball,” but getting to maturity in Christ is the actual goal line.

So how do we know when a believer reaches maturity in Christ?

The Clearest Mark of Maturity is the Ability to Make More Disciples.

As with any living thing, the most recognizable mark of maturity is the ability to reproduce. When a human child grows up, they go through puberty and transition from adolescence to adulthood. It is a process, and takes time, and they undergo many changes along the way. They begin to look different. They begin to act different. They even begin to sound different. Yet the process isn’t complete until they can successfully procreate. Beforehand, they could not reproduce even if they tried, but after the maturing of their bodies, it becomes a natural part of life. 

The same is true spiritually! We are born again, then go through the process of transformation and spiritual growth, and then naturally, we will begin to lead others into the new birth and discipleship process as well!

Also, just as in the natural world, when we reproduce, we will replicate whatever is in our DNA. Cows give birth to cows. Birds give birth to birds. People give birth to people. So naturally, disciples should give birth to disciples. Disciple-making should be in the DNA of every believer. 

Maturity in the Body Means Everyone is a Disciple-Maker

The goal of discipleship is that as a believer grows in Christ, he or she will not only begin to live their lives by Christ’s example, but will begin reaching out and discipling others as well. As Ephesians 4 tells us: “we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” – that is maturity – and “when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” The body of Christ builds up the body of Christ.

Earlier in the same passage, Paul tells us that it is the job of spiritual leadership – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – to equip every believer for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12).

It is time that we understand that we must be equipping every believer to become disciple-makers, walking in maturity, and pulling other people out of darkness and up to the standard of Christ, as well. His image in mankind is the goal, and any target less than that, falls short of the high calling of God.

As we continue in this series on discipleship, the next post will begin to look at practical steps in forming a discipleship strategy for yourself and for your ministry. Stay tuned…

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Discipleship: Revelation and Preservation

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(This is Part 4 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)

Among the famous statements of Jesus, one of the most quotable things He ever said was, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). This, spoken to the multitudes of His followers was an amazing, identity-giving statement. As it should be! It is no small thing that Jesus viewed His church as the carriers of God’s revelation, which pointed the way to His salvation. We are all commissioned to go with the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to make Him known in the world!

Jesus went on to say, “you don’t light a lamp and hide it out of sight. It is meant to shine, and when lights shine together, as they do in a city, you cannot hide it from the world.” He then commands us, like a lamp on a stand, or a city on a hill, to let our lights shine in the world so that other people will see our good works, and turn to glorify our Father in Heaven (paraphrase of Matthew 5:15-16).

We Reveal What is Hidden

When we understand that we are the shining lights of Jesus, we will reveal what is true and real. That is what light does. You can hide a dirty room in darkness, but when the light is switched on, everyone will see the mess for themselves. The Christian is meant to be a revealer of the truth – both God’s truth in light, and also those truths that men desire to keep hidden in darkness.

As we go throughout our daily lives, we should be such a reflection of God’s glory, that people recognize Him in us, and want to see more of His reality. At the same time, they should also be confronted by the sin and dark places inside themselves, as the light of our lives brings those things into view. That is not to say we come with judgement on people, or live as self-righteous individuals by comparison. It is simply to say, in the words of Paul, that “we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

When we show up, those who know God are drawn more to Him, and those who are not believers have an encounter with the reality of their own sin as they see His glory in us. It’s just the nature of His presence through us.

If it isn’t obvious, the call to be light in the world, is definitely a call to do the work of evangelism, bringing God’s revelation to those who would be saved. What is interesting to me, however, is that before Jesus says we are agents of revelation (light), he first says we are salt.

We Preserve What is Good

Before Jesus said, “you are the light of the world,” He said, “you are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13).

Salt does a few things. Not only does it taste good, but it is a necessary substance for sustaining life itself. However, in the ancient world, salt had a different primary function. All throughout history, salt has been sought after and used as a preservative for food. 

If you lived in a society before refrigerators, and you had extra meat that you could not smoke, dry, or cook immediately, then you would pack it in salt in order to preserve it. If you didn’t it would spoil.

Regarding the verse in Matthew 5, The Pillar New Testament Commentary says:

“We should take salt as a metaphor and the earth as referring to people. Jesus is apparently thinking of the function of salt as a preservative, as the enemy of decay, and as giving taste to food. What is good in society his followers keep wholesome. What is corrupt they oppose; they penetrate society for good and act as a kind of moral antiseptic…”

The enemy is at work in the world bringing corruption and seeking to spoil the work of the Lord. We are called to prevent his efforts! Just as salt does for food, we are to enter the world, seeking out what is good and godly, and act to preserve it for the good of humanity and to the glory of God. The devil cannot steal or destroy what the believer is preserving for the Lord (see Matthew 16:18-19).

To bring this back in the context of evangelism and discipleship, this means that before we go into the field preaching the gospel and seeing people saved (shining our light), we must have a mindset that sees our responsibility is not just to harvest the fruit, but also to preserve the harvest which God gives to us.

When the enemy comes, like a bacteria, seeking to corrupt the good fruit of the Lord (see Matthew 13:19), we have the responsibility to block his efforts and preserve the harvest of God.

We Enhance What Can Be Better

Once we have taken the stand to preserve the fruit the Lord has given us, then we become like salt in other ways. As we mingle our lives together with other believers, we pull out what is good in them, and seek to make it even better. They do the same for us, and together, we enhance what is good in the world!

Just as salt enhances the flavor of food, we enhance the flavor of life through the gospel in personal discipleship and societal transformation. 

We call people into the light through salvation, preserve them from the corruption of the enemy, and then press each other onward to become more like Christ. As more people are discipled into Christ-likeness, communities are transformed; entire nations are renewed, and the cycle continues again and again! That is how we bring God’s restoration into the world: by being salt and light!

The church can no longer simply preach the gospel in our megaphones, hoping people will somehow get saved and mature on their own. We must engage on a deeper, more personal level. We must bring the revelation of truth. We must see them saved. And we must help them to become who they are meant to be in Christ.

Light shines in the darkness to bring people to Christ, but our job is to do more than just see people saved. Our job is to preserve the harvest from the corruption of the enemy, and to enhance the lives of believers as they become more like Christ. We are the light of the world, and we are the salt of the earth. If that is who Jesus says we are, then let’s act like it!

Click here to continue to Part 5, “Maturity in Christ: The Goal of Discipleship”

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4 Vital Prayers for Discipleship

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(This is Part 3 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1, Part 2.)

As we saw in our last post, the Holy Spirit is the Chief Disciple-Maker. He calls, convicts, saves and sanctifies the believer. With all of that resting on His work, it seems there is little left for human action in the process of discipleship. Biblically, however, that is not the case. God clearly puts the job of making disciples on the church; on every believer, not just the leadership.

Since the Holy Spirit has the primary role in disciple-making, and we too are a vital part of the process, then it should become obvious that our first step in making disciples is to make sure and do so in partnership with the Spirit! For this reason, prayer is the most vital step in our own disciple-making efforts.

With this is mind, here are four prayers we should all be praying for discipleship:

Pray for Fruitfulness

Jesus very clearly taught us that the fields are ripe for harvest, and that we are to pray for Him to send more workers into the fields (Matthew 9:37-38). Once again, however, as we discussed in our first blog of this series, the call to the harvest field goes beyond “soul-winning.” We cannot just pick the ripe fruit, and leave it laying in the field. We must obey the fullness of the great commission by making disciples of every person the Lord gives us. Therefore, the first thing we must be praying for is our own efforts to be fruitful.

We do this by asking the Lord for clear instructions on what He is already doing in the world around us. God is already working. Likewise, every person we meet has a divine encounter with Jesus waiting for them. As we pray for fruitfulness and give the Lord the opportunity to use us, it will be through us that the Holy Spirit releases those experiences to people. We should be seeking to be the hands, feet, heart, and mouth of Jesus to those around us, most especially those the Holy Spirit reveals to us are ready.

More so, we must realize that every interaction we have with the believers in our life is an opportunity for growth, both in us and in them. We must be praying that our fellowship will be a fruitful time for sanctification, “as iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17). When we become intentional about praying for fruitfulness in every relationship, in every conversation, in every meal or cup of coffee, we will see our level of discipleship rising.

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Pray for Wisdom

Most of us fear “discipleship.” It is a big, scary word, that requires something of us to build up others, and yet we don’t know what it is, exactly, that we are supposed to do. Even the most experienced disciple-makers run into this challenge because every person is different and has different life-experience and expectations. The good news is that the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to transform the lives of all men back to the image of Jesus, and wants to empower us to do so.

We have such a great promise in scripture that in our serving the Lord and others, we are not left to figure it out on our own. James writes:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

James 1:5, English Standard Version

Make it a priority to be praying for supernatural wisdom and divine revelation for every discipleship encounter. Even as the conversation moves along, make sure you are listening to the Holy Spirit and asking for wisdom relevant to the things being discussed and how they impact the person’s life. You do not need to be a professional counselor. You simply need to be in tune with the voice of your Father for guidance.

Pray for Receptivity

Up to now, we have been praying for our own ability and effort in the discipleship process, but we also must be praying directly for the ones we are discipling. Most especially, we must pray that they will hear the truth God wants to reveal to them and make life-changing applications according to His will.

Now, this is not praying that they will listen to us and do what we say. It is praying that they will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit through our time together, and do what He says. Even when we are not perfect in getting the point across, the Holy Spirit is more than capable of filling in the gaps where we are lacking. Just as Paul writes:

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1 Corinthians 2:12-13, English Standard Version

We must pray for the person to have an open heart, sincerely desiring growth in the Lord, and their ability to receive the truth. We must pray for a willingness to be vulnerable to the process, and to repent where necessary. We must pray for their active attempts to apply the life-giving truth the Holy Spirit is wanting to share with them. These things are their active participation with the discipleship process, and without it, growth will be stalled and our efforts useless.

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Pray for Impartation

Finally, we must realize that for true discipleship to take place, we must be engaging more than just the mental life of the believer. We must pray for God to give an impartation to the person spiritually, which releases righteousness into them as their new identity in Christ, and enables them to stand as a new creature in this world.

Paul said:

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. 

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, English Standard Version

This means that the evidence of true discipleship does show up when it is demonstrated in the person’s mental understanding of a truth, but it is even more evident when there is a demonstrative experience of life-changing power that bears tangible fruit in their life.

The scripture is full of examples of impartation, where a mature, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led believer lays hands on and prays over the one being discipled, and in a release of God’s power, the one being discipled is supernaturally transformed in some way. This may be being filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time or being “baptized by fire” for cleansing and holiness. It may be the reception of new gifts of the Spirit or another kind of supernatural release. The point is, it goes beyond human ability, as it comes directly from God.

Paul reminds us that the Kingdom of God is not only in talk, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). We, therefore, should pray for and expect the power of God to show up in our discipleship efforts. We are not only teachers, but we are the conduit through which the Holy Spirit can touch the person. 

The truth is, without impartation we are simply filling the new believer’s with head-knowledge, instead of raising them up as supernatural Children of God, endowed with “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). We must pray for divine impartation to come.

(Click here to continue to Discipleship Part 4.)

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© Anthony Scott Ingram 2019. All Rights Reserved.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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The Holy Spirit and Discipleship

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(This is Part 2 in our series on Discipleship. Click here for Part 1.)

In part one of this discipleship series, I shared why discipleship matters, and must be a priority for us in order to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus. We need to feel the weight of Jesus’ command, and change our priority from just “soul-winning” to “disciple-making.”

While not removing that responsibility from believers as those who received the Great Commission, what I want to look at now is the fact that it is the Holy Spirit – not us – who is the chief disciple-maker. Without His direct involvement in both the life of the individual being disciples, and in us as the disciplers, we will never finish the work.

The Bible says,

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 

1 Corinthians 2:12–14; English Standard Version

With that in mind, I want to look at just a few of the things the Holy Spirit does in the process of discipleship.

The Holy Spirit Regenerates

It is the Holy Spirit is the one who gives new life in Jesus. Without His influence at the moment of hearing the Gospel, no one would accept to turn and follow Christ as Lord and Savior. 

Jesus said,

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me…

John 6:44–45; English Standard Version

This obviously does not mean that everyone who is born again hears an audible voice from heaven leading them to get saved. Yes just as supernaturally, God the Father draws people to Jesus through the influence and leading of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit Convicts of Sin, Leading to Repentance

From the initial decision to get saved, the Holy Spirit begins the process of redirecting a person’s life out of their sinful activities of the old man through the conviction of sin. 

Jesus said,

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 

John 16:7–8; English Standard Version

As the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin and righteousness on a person, the natural response is repentance – a changing of the mind, leading to a changing of actions.

Early conviction in a new believer will be of the “big” sins in their life. For me, this was my teenage alcohol addictions, testing of various drugs, and sexual promiscuity. However, once the big sins are removed, the Holy Spirit will continue to root out more and more from the believer, helping them conform to the image of Christ.

As Martin Luther said in his Ninety-Five Theses which he nailed to the doors of the church at Wittenburg,

 “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ He intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”

Repentance isn’t only for new believers, but as a disciple stays tuned to the Holy Spirit, seeking to have a clean heart before the Lord, the Spirit will always open up new areas of false belief, negative attitudes, and unrighteous deeds.

The Holy Spirit Sanctifies

If I were to walk through all of the scriptures concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, it would be obvious that His role is to fully renew us according to the image of Christ in a process called sanctification. He is the one who draws us to Christ in the beginning. He causes us to be born again (John 3:5-8); and He continues this work within us until we are perfected in Christ for eternity. Of course, that does not happen this side of eternity, but the goal is to get as close as possible before then!

The Holy Spirit’s active work in the life of believer’s after salvation has historically been viewed in two general categories. The Pentecostal Revival in the early 1900’s revived the power gifts of the Holy Spirit – such as prophecy, healing, and tongues – which had long been neglected by the church after the rationalist worldview took hold post middle ages, and has become a strong focus in the church on the work of the Spirit. However, a few hundred years before the Pentecostal Revival, there was another great movement of God called “The Holiness Revival” in Europe (this became the Second Great Awakening when it moved to the U.S.). 

Under leaders like John Wesley and George Whitfield, people were encouraged and sought a powerful, personal encounter with the Holy Spirit which they called “full sanctification.” This was a tangible experience with the Spirit that inevitably led to a higher desire for holiness in the person, and a complete rejection of sin and self. We now refer to this experience as “being baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit.” Nevertheless, before this experience was viewed as an impartation of power, it was viewed as an impartation of holiness. I contend that we should be pursuing both.

This impartation of holiness makes sense to the character of the Holy Spirit. If He is active in your life, He will inevitably seek to make you like He is. We have the choice to surrender to His transforming power and be made holy, or we may willfully refuse His power, continue in sin, and ultimately “grieve Him” (Ephesians 4:30), suppressing His sanctifying work in us.

As I stated before, this work of the Holy Spirit should continue in every believer, becoming more like Christ, until we enter eternity and gain our complete transformation into Christ’s image.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are… Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure… No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God…

1 John 1-3, 9-10; English Standard Version

It should be evident – and trusted! – that the process of discipleship depends on the Holy Spirit’s working in the life of every believer. It is not initiated, nor completed by man. It is wholly upon Him. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we are also called to partner with Him in the process of discipleship in the world. That is what we discuss in the next post.

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Why Discipleship Matters

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I live in East Africa as a missionary. What I have found where I live is that there is a passion for outreach and evangelism that is lacking in many parts of the world. In almost every church there is a willingness to gather together for open-air gospel crusades, door-to-door evangelism, and other forms of outreach. This is very different than where I come from in America. As a former leader in multiple churches in Bible-belt, Texas I know from experience that it is a difficult thing to get large numbers or Christians together for sharing the gospel, and if you try to do an open-air meeting, it is usually not-well attended.

In Nigeria and other places, Reinhardt Bonnke leads mega crusades attended by millions of people daily. It is an incredible sight, seeing the faces of people stretching past the horizon. However, a few years ago, I attended a Bonnke Crusade in Houston, Texas – one of the largest cities in America – in a stadium that only has about 22,000 seats plus whatever can be added at ground level. From my perspective, the stadium appeared to be one-third of the way full. I don’t think that is the fault of Bonnke. It is because the churches and believers in Houston weren’t unified to see the crusade become a success.

Here in East Africa, the church is good at outreach. They lead big crusades. Churches coordinate together to form mass choirs. Teams are able to canvas an entire city, door-to-door, in a few days. And it is common to see thousands of people put their faith in Christ. I am truly impressed at what I see here!

Can I tell you what the church is not good at in East Africa?

We are not good at bringing the harvest into the barns and preserving the fruit! All too often, the harvest is simply left laying out in the field where it was picked. Churches go out and lead many people to Jesus, yet do not do well (on a large scale) at turning those converts into disciples! 

This is not just an East Africa problem. This is epidemic! It is becoming a whole-church problem!

The Great Commission

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has  been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them  in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them  to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

Matthew 28:18-20, English Standard Version

The problem with the lack of discipleship strategy is that the commission of Jesus on the church was not to Go and make converts! It was never to simply to go, preach the gospel, and lead people in a prayer to accept Jesus as their savior. It wasn’t even to go and do signs, wonders, healings, and miracles so that people see the power of God!

All of those things are great, and we need to do them even more. However, until we take those who pray the prayer and those who are touched by the power, and bring them into the body of Christ and disciple them, we are failing at the mission given to us by Christ.

If someone gets saved, but does not get discipled, we are picking the fruit from the tree, but leaving it laying in the field. To say it another way, we are becoming spiritual fathers and mothers to people, long enough to give new-birth, then leaving them as bastard children in the world, with no nurture or guidance to help them grow.

Defining Discipleship

The Lexham Theological Workbook says: 

“Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. For the Christian, this refers to the process of learning the teachings of Jesus and following after his example in obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship not only involves the process of becoming a disciple but of making other disciples through teaching and evangelism.”

So discipleship is the process of taking a lost person, seeing them saved by introducing them to Jesus, and then walking with them into maturity as a believer in their relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

I used to think that discipleship looked different: The first steps begin small – things like repentance of sin, baptism, church attendance – then as time goes on, the person should grow to learn to pray, study the scriptures, and serve. Eventually, they step into leadership and begin evangelizing the lost, teaching biblical truths to others, and discipling others in their own Christian walk.

Those things are good and necessary, but as I have grown in the Christian life, I have come to know that those things are only the actions of a disciple. They don’t make a disciple.

Converts vs. Disciples

Truly making a disciple is taking the now-saved person and helping them draw closer to the Lord; to Hear His voice; to walk in obedience to Him; to learn their identity in Christ, and leading them to fulfill the destiny God has for them in such a way that gives all the glory back to God. That will involve all the action steps listed above, but it is also so much more!

Let me break this idea down a bit:

Q: Should a new believer come to Church?

A: Yes, obviously!

Q: Is it the goal to simply get a new believer to attend church? Is that “success?”

A: No.

The goal is that the person learns to worship the Lord and serve God’s people! Church attendance is necessary, but it is not the final goal. Church attendance should lead the people into the life of worship and service.

I hope you can see the difference: A convert becomes a church attender. A disciple becomes a worshiper and a servant.

Our job is to take a lost person, bring them to Christ in conversion, and then continue the process of leading them to become mature disciples. This is how we preserve the harvest Christ has given to us.

Discipleship matters because the world is full of converts to the Christian religion, but God’s desire is mature sons and daughters. We have to do more than go into the field as harvesters, we have to invest the time, energy, and resources to preserve the harvest God has given.

We would love to hear from you in the comments: Have you been discipled by mature believers in your Christian walk, or were you left to struggle on your own? How are you investing in the next generation of believers to see them grow to full maturity in Christ?

In This Series

In this series on discipleship, we will look at:

As we go deeper into how discipleship works, I pray this series helps you as a believer to create a strategy for discipling others. Don’t forget to subscribe! You might also enjoy this video teaching I did recently on this topic, also called “Why Discipleship Matters.”

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

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