Church leaders sometimes ask me, “How do we develop a discipleship strategy in our church?” To begin to answer this question, we need to define two important terms and address some other questions first.
What is Discipleship?
Discipleship is both relational and transformational. A disciple of Jesus is in a growing relationship with Jesus. Transformation occurs as the Holy Spirit renovates people’s hearts. As a result, godly character qualities grow and thoughts and actions become more God-honoring.
According to Dallas Willard, “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” This requires a close relationship (see John 15) that produces Christ-like fruit.
What is Disciple-making?
Disciple-making is helping people take next steps in their relationship with Jesus and obedience to Him.
In Real-life Discipleship, Jim Putnam suggests that there are five spiritual stages: 1) dead, 2) infant, 3) child, 4) young adult, and 5) parent. It is helpful to identify the stages in which people are located so that we can come alongside them and help them move toward the next stage. As we help people become more spiritually mature, we need to help them:
- Grow in their relationship with God
- Develop godly character qualities
- Understand and live out God’s calling on their lives
- Develop strong relationships
- Learn how to serve well on a team
- Maximize their gifts and abilities in living out their calling.
How do Churches Position Themselves for Maximum Discipleship?
Based on numerous conversations with church leaders, the perspectives of those who have written books on discipleship and my own observations as a leader in the church for the past 25 years, I suggest that there are five layers of discipleship within the church: 1) church culture, 2) large group, 3) small group, 4) one-on-one, and 5) individual. As we strengthen each layer, we will position our churches for more effective disciple-making (which is the focus of this book).
Layer #1 – Church Culture
Obviously, we want our people to make disciples naturally as they go through their day. Five cultural factors facilitate this kind of continuous disciple-making:
- Prayer Saturation – Prayer permeates disciple-making churches. How can we grow a culture of prayer – a culture in which God delights to work deeply in peoples’ lives?
- Loving Christ-centered Community – Discipleship occurs best in deep communities where people lovingly practice life-on-life discipleship. What can leaders do to develop this kind of intimacy?
- A Growth Orientation – When everything in the church is geared toward helping people take next steps, growth becomes normative and expected. Discipleship can flourish in this kind of growth-oriented environment.
- A Personalized Approach – Even though programs can provide a context in which discipleship can occur, we must strive to come alongside individuals and help them take next steps. This personalized approach is a requirement for in-depth discipleship.
- A Missional Mindset – Without a strong desire to reach lost people, churches are unlikely to have the passion and motivation to devote a significant amount of time and energy to making disciples. A main goal of making disciples is so that we can make more disciples.
As a church facilitates growth in these five areas, people will be much more inclined to be and make growing disciples of Jesus.
It may be helpful to view this church culture layer as the soil in which discipleship grows in a local church. As we strengthen these five cultural dimensions, we enrich the soil so that discipleship can flourish.
The next four layers of a church discipleship approach move from a global level (church-wide culture) to an individual level. As we move toward the inner layers, we are often able to make our discipleship much more personal and relevant to the individual. These layers provide the necessary structure to promote spiritual growth in the church (like a trellis does with a vine).
Layer #2 – Large Groups
Discipleship that occurs in our worship services and large group training events (e.g. a marriage-builder course) is vitally important. We need biblical teaching that inspires us to move forward in our Christian lives. We need practical training to equip us with knowledge and skills that build capacity in us to love God and others more deeply and serve Him (and others) more effectively.
Layer #3 – Small Groups
Small groups have immense potential for becoming loving Christ-centered communities on a mission to be and make growing disciples of Jesus. Robust small groups do four things well: 1) prayer, 2)outreach, 3) care, and 4) empowerment. When small groups are growing in these four areas, they will be in a stronger position to see people come to Christ and grow in him.
Layer #4 – One-on-one
Coaching/mentoring is a wonderful way to come alongside people in a highly personalized way and walk with them as they take steps in their personal growth. A coaching approach that moves beyond simply listening and asking good expanding questions (as important as these are) to lovingly calling people to action (and following up with supportive accountability) is a key discipleship strategy.
Layer #5 – Individual Spiritual Disciplines
We all recognize the importance of spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditating on Scripture. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to help us live a life of spiritual discipline where we surrender every part of our lives to Him. As people grow in their capacity to live spiritually disciplined lives, they will live as vibrant disciples of Jesus who actively make disciples of others.
Let’s return to the question I posed at the start: “How do we develop a discipleship strategy in our churches?” I suggest that we need to work diligently to strengthen each of these five layers while recognizing that the five cultural elements are foundational to the growth of the other elements. As we strengthen the large group, small group, one-on-one and individual layers, we look for ways to help people mature in Christ (i.e. moving people through Jim Putnam’s spiritual stages mentioned above). To help us do this, we assess how people are doing in each of the six dimensions of discipleship (e.g. godly character) and then preach, teach, facilitate, and coach in ways that help people take next steps in the areas of greatest need.