Intentionally Train Disciples to Do What Jesus Did

by: VRcurator

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How do I develop a discipleship process while acknowledging the organic nature of making disciples?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in The Cost of Discipleship, states, “On two separate occasions Peter received the call ‘Follow me.’ It was the first and last word Jesus spoke to His disciple. A whole life lies between these two calls.”

Could it be possible that those two simple, yet profound words hold the key for pastors who are desperately seeking solutions to overcome the dismal state of discipleship in their churches?

The call to Peter – and to other disciples – is one of single-minded obedience. Jesus was asking them – and us – to rely on Christ’s word – the Word of God Himself.

Solution – Intentionally train disciples to do what Jesus did.

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Conversion and Discipleship by Bill Hull

Discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus how to live his or her life—as though Jesus were living it. The end result is that the disciple becomes the kind of person who naturally does what Jesus did.

How the church understands salvation and the gospel is the key to recovering a biblical theology of discipleship. Our doctrines of grace and salvation, in some cases, actually prevent us from creating an expectation that we are to be disciples of Jesus. A person can profess to be a Christian and yet still live under the impression that they don’t need to actually follow Jesus. Being a follower is seen as an optional add-on, not a requirement. It is a choice, not a demand. Being a Christian today has no connection with the biblical idea that we are formed into the image of Christ.

In this groundbreaking new book, pastor and author Bill Hull shows why our existing models of evangelism and discipleship fail to actually produce followers of Jesus. He looks at the importance of recovering a robust view of the gospel and taking seriously the connection between conversion—answering the call to follow Jesus—and discipleship—living like the one we claim to follow.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

In Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18-20, which we refer to as the Great Commission, the primary action is not on going, but making disciples. Whatever making a disciple means, Jesus Himself did it. Whatever a disciple is, the twelve were.

It stands to reason, then, that understanding and practicing the principles that Jesus lived and taught His disciples is a sound starting place to making disciples. 

Develop a plan that follows the lead of Jesus and intentionally train willing disciples to become the kind of people who will naturally do what Jesus did and react the way Jesus did.

Four phases mark Jesus’ discipleship ministry. I think of these as four key invitations.

Come and See – An invitation to explore (John 1:38-39). This was a period when Jesus introduced a group of disciples to his nature and ministry.

Come and Follow Me – An invitation to learn (Mark 1:16-20). In this period, the chosen disciples and other followers left their professions to travel with Jesus.

Come and Be With Me – An invitation to serve (Matthew 9:37-38). During this period, Jesus kept his twelve called disciples with him and concentrated on training them so they could go out and preach.

Remain in Me – An invitation to multiply (John 15:7-8). Jesus introduces the new relationship he will have with his disciples and how they will relate to him as they take over the mission of making disciple. He wants them to know they will have a helper, the Holy Spirit. They will not be left alone; they will have special power to fulfill his instructions.

Bill Hull, Conversion & Discipleship

A NEXT STEP

Conduct a study with your team of each of the four phases of Jesus’ discipleship ministry, beginning with the Scriptures listed above. List each of the four phases on a separate flip chart sheet, including the Scripture reference.

Work through each phase, brainstorming what it would take for your church to launch a disciplemaking emphasis that is built on these four phases. As a part of these discussions, include each of these areas:

• Preaching – Pastors can often make a bigger difference, faster, than any other person. Develop individual sermons or a series that will encourage the congregation to be aware of, and more importantly, obey, the Great Commission.
• Small Groups – The best way to reach the most people in the most meaningful way is through the small group. Done correctly, small group involvement makes disciples, identifies leaders, and gives people the relationships and accountability they need.
• Leadership Development – Through small groups, leaders are identified and can be placed into a leadership development process.

Using your discovery, prayerfully develop 2-4 next steps toward a renewed emphasis on training disciples to do what Jesus did.

Consider this: Jesus only had three years to set a plan in motion that would rescue the world – both His existing world and all the people yet to come. Three years is not a very long time – it’s less than one term of a U.S. president, one-half the term of a U.S. Senator, and just a year longer than one term of a U.S. Congressman.

But Jesus didn’t come to establish a political system to rule over a world. He established a disciplemaking process that changed eternity.

We must be His disciples and make disciples.

Taken from SUMS Remix 36-3, published March 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Bill Hull, Conversion and Discipleship, Discipleship, Make Disciples

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10 Ways Mission Statements Backfire

by: Will Mancini

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The idea of mission is simple: Do you and those who you lead know what you are ultimately supposed to be doing? While most pastors think they are clear on mission, most church attenders are not. And in some ways, how we use the default language of “making disciples” is to blame, even though these words represent a very important biblical passage.

To say it a different way, how church leaders cut and paste Matthew 28:19-20 as a crown-jewel text of the Great Commission is actually working against their accomplishment of it. Our church mission statements backfire on us!

Here are ten quirky realities about church mission statements that illuminate how they backfire. Which one is most applicable to your current situation?

Quirky Reality #1: No Process

Even though the Bible records many examples of leaders articulating the mission of God’s people, we fixate on Matthew’s version of it. Rather than going through a process to articulate the Jesus-given mission for our specific time and place, we parrot the words of one particular gospel over the others.

Quirky Reality #2: No Definition

By photocopying Matthew’s version of the church’s mission, we traffic in words like “make disciples” with little to no definition or context and in some cases very little actual experience. Because we get it from the Bible and preach with biblical intent, we don’t think we need to.

Quirky Reality #3: Anything Goes

It is easy for church attenders  to reinterpret their experience of church—whatever it may be—as a “making disciples” experience because there is little to no definition or context for these words. This creates a vicious cycle within the church of assuming we know what we mean as the church continues to make decisions, spend money and add ministries. A church can be anything it wants to anybody. It can do anything it wants to do with perfect justification underneath its undefined mission statement.

Quirky Reality #4: Missing Scorecard

Pastors validate the mission of “make disciples” with a scorecard that has nothing to do with whether or not a disciple has been made; that is with the scorecard of attendance and giving only. Concerts and circuses have great attendance and giving too.

Quirky Reality #5: Incomplete Competence

Because we can name “make disciples” as the “right answer” for the mission of the church, we think we know how to lead with mission. When it fact, we are substituting “a knowledge about” mission with the lifelong competency development of “leading from” mission.

Quirky Reality #6: False Assurance

Because of the notion of “mission as statement,” the written statement in our membership class or website creates a false sense of completion. Stating the mission one time becomes a “been there, done that” step.” Since it is stated somewhere, we think the work of leading with mission is done, when it has hardly begun.

Quirky Reality #7: Reinforced Consumerism

In the process of articulating a “make disciples” mission, 95% of churches reinforce consumerism without knowing it. This happens because most statements imply to the church attender that they, as the disciple, are the beneficiaries of services and groups provided by the fulltime pastors. The pastors and staff, they assume, do “the making.” Why does this occur? Simply put, the language of “making a disciple” is not accessible enough to the mindset of our culture. People don’t get out of bed and think to themselves, “I get to make disciples today.” They leave that to “the professionals” and to the “place they go” to attend church.

Quirky Reality #8: Misdirected Energy

The primary growth challenge of any church is having culture of mission. By focusing on a thousand things to grow our church, we miss the first and most important step to healthy multiplication and dynamic growth. All growth and renewal in a church comes from the process of re-founding the mission with the leadership core, which is hopefully a growing leadership core.

Quirky Reality #9: Little Transference

When a church is in its most entrepreneurial form, a culture of mission is “in the atmosphere” and little intention is necessary for people to “feel it.” The start and the big bang of the church itself substantiates the mission whether it is thoughtfully articulated or not. But once the church grows past 75 people, how you articulate the mission is critical to its transference.

Quirky Reality #10: Shadow Mission

In addition to your stated mission, every organization has a functional mission or “shadow mission.” Think of the functional mission as the unstated driver or notion of “success” that most naturally tempts us to drift off the Jesus-given mission of the church. For example a functional mission of many churches would be something like to “have more people attend worship services” or “to sustain enough giving to keep our current staff” or “to not make anyone unhappy.”

One Application: Your Own Words

Perhaps the best way to summarize this post is to recall one of the fundamental exercises of learning: “putting it in your own words.” Your second grade English teacher asked you to read something. And when she wanted to know if you understood what you were reading, she asked you to restate it in your own words.

Likewise, our people won’t understand the mission of Jesus until they can put in in their own words.

Would you like to learn more about developing mission statement that reflect your church’s unique mission? Connect with an Auxano Navigator and start a conversation with our team.

Tags: Make Disciples, Mission, Mission Statement, Mission Stattements, Vision, Will Mancini

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