“Quoting a passage about making disciples isn’t the same as having a plan for making disciples.” --G.F.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try doing what Jesus told you to do in the first place.” --Anonymous
If, as a congregational leader, you are inspired by the idea of your people joining Jesus on His mission as a daily lifestyle, but have struggled to help them actually implement such a lifestyle, there is one likely culprit: a lack of clarity about how to go about it. Today I will help you tackle that culprit.
If you’ve been following my latest series of blogs, you know I have been answering three questions with the goal of seeing the people of your congregation participate in accomplishing the mission of your congregation consistently and frequently, over and over again.
The questions are as follows:
What is the mission of our congregation?
What does it look like for our people to participate in accomplishing the mission?
What is the discipleship process that prepares our people to participate in accomplishing the mission as a daily lifestyle?
To answer these questions accurately, we have been going to Jesus in the gospels; and, so far, we have seen that He answers the first two questions something like this:
Our mission is to join Jesus on His mission
by living in the abundance of the Father’s love
and looking for others who need it, too.
Boom! Simple. This is who we are. This is what we do.
(See Luke 19:10/Mark 1:17, John 10:10/1 John 3:1, and Matthew 22:37-40/John 13:35.)
Now, it’s time to press into answering our third question: What is the discipleship process that prepares our people to participate in accomplishing the mission as a daily lifestyle?
It’s important to answer this question clearly and simply because if we want to see our people participate in the fun of accomplishing the mission, then they need an effective discipleship process that prepares them for participating. Otherwise, without such a process, they are going to attend church and Bible class for literally decades and miss out on all the fun of mission participation.
Leaders, our people deserve better than that from us.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t know what to do about it. Why? Because we ourselves are products of a “discipleship process” that left us unprepared to participate in accomplishing the mission, too. (No judgement here. We just need to be aware of this blind-spot in how we were discipled so we don’t keep replicating it with others.)
Most of us were discipled to “study” and not “do.” Our training was largely scholastic: full of classes, and books, and tests. The goal of the discipleship process was for us to understand the teachings of Jesus. And that’s very good. But what about preparing us to participate in accomplishing Jesus’ mission by putting His teachings into practice for the good of others? Oops. Not so much.
So, that’s our “discipleship blind-spot.” And we are inadvertently passing this blind-spot along to our people by how we are now discipling them. It may not be our intended goal, but our process is producing people who know how to understand and believe the teachings of Jesus, but don’t know how to put them into practice for the good of others.
Now, how do we fix that?
We return to the discipleship process of Jesus; but, this time, being fully aware of our discipleship blind-spot. As someone once said, “If at first you don’t succeed, try doing what Jesus told you to do in the first place.” (Ouch! But fair.)
Ready?
Discipleship According to Jesus
To begin returning to the discipleship process of Jesus, let’s first clarify the definitions of two key words: disciples and discipleship.
“Disciples of Jesus” = trainees or apprentices of Jesus who have entered His training process.
“The Discipleship Process of Jesus” = Jesus’ training process that prepares disciples to participate with Him in accomplishing His mission.
In passages like Matthew 4:19, when Rabbi Jesus calls people to follow Him, He is inviting them into a training process that prepares them to participate with Him in accomplishing His mission. His goal is not only that they hear, understand, and believe His teachings, but that they gain experience and skill in living out His teachings for the good of others.
Next, to further clarify Jesus’ discipling process and return to it, let’s answer two questions according to what He shows us in the gospels:
What do we disciple our people to do?
How do we disciple them to do it?
As we start, let’s make sure we keep something straight. Being a disciple of Jesus starts with Jesus. Jesus first comes to us and then He invites us to come with Him. He comes with His forgiveness and restoration, and then empowers us to come with Him to be trained to live a life of love for the good of others. Philippians 2:13 says it this way, “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”
With that reminder, let’s answer the two questions.
What do we disciple our people to do?
To join Jesus on His mission
By living in the abundance of the Father’s love and forgiveness which they have already freely received through Jesus,
And then to look for people who need that abundant love and forgiveness and offer it to them.
2. How do we disciple our people to do it?
As we watch Jesus in the gospels, we see His process has three main parts:
Proclamation: Jesus prepares His trainees to live a life of love by teaching them what to believe and do. (Mark 1:14/Matthew 5:2)
Imitation: Jesus models how to live a life of love and then mentors His trainees as they imitate His example, gaining experience and skill. (Mark 1:17/John 13:15)
Replication: Jesus immediately sends His trainees to repeat His discipling process with more trainees. (Mark 3:14/Luke 10:1)
Proclamation is about teaching. Imitation is about a relationship with a model and mentor. Replication is about multiplying disciples.
(In future blog posts, I will further unpack what each of these parts include.)
So, now we can answer our main question, “What is the discipleship process that prepares our people to participate in accomplishing the mission as a daily lifestyle?”
The answer is Jesus’ process:
Proclamation: Our people participate in the congregation’s preaching and teaching ministries as well as personal Bible reading to learn what they are to believe and do, namely, to live in the Father’s abundant love because of Jesus and look for others who need it, too.
Imitation: Our people are a part of a small group of people who model how to live out Jesus’ teachings for the good of others and then mentor each other so they gain experience and skill imitating Jesus’ example.
Replication: Our people go home and repeat the discipling process with their family and willing friends (immediately not eventually).
Next time we will unpack each of the parts of Jesus’ discipling process with an eye toward overcoming our “discipleship blind-spot.”
Need help crafting a plan for your congregation?
To help you craft a mission and discipleship plan for your congregation, I offer leadership retreats in St. Paul, Minnesota. Your leadership team arrives on a Tuesday and on Thursday you leave with a clear, simple, biblical plan for making disciples who accomplish the mission. Need to do it over a weekend? Let’s talkTo start the conversation, contact me via the button below.
My book, “Joining Jesus: Show Me How,” is another helpful resource for you to gain insight about what discipleship is according to Jesus and how to follow His example.