It’s as if the harvesters came through and found only a small fraction of the fruit each tree was expected to bear. Upon closer inspection they realized that what was lost was diseased and what remained was in danger of becoming too damaged to grow or nourish anyone. In its current condition, the majority of the fruit that remained would be unable to reproduce.

What happened is not a result of the gardener not trying or caring. Pastors and church leaders care deeply and put in long hours for those in the church. And it’s that type of loving-commitment that makes the results all the more frustrating.

Church leaders who have seen so many fall away are deeply discouraged, exhausted, and questioning their call. Most want to quit. This in-between season hasn’t been easy, but perhaps it’s bringing clarity to mistakes of the past and ushering in needed change.

What mistakes? Typically, churches make four mistakes when trying to make disciples who make disciples. These mistakes prevent healthy disciples from growing and contribute to a culture that inhibits Jesus-style disciple making.

Mistake #1 Discipling to Help the Organization First instead of the Individual First

Many pastors start disciple making efforts because they are trying to solve an organizational problem. They see a need for small group leaders and Sunday volunteers. When churches grow these needs get greater and greater. They need more leaders and fast. For many, discipleship looks like the solution that will scale as quickly as their church is growing. Unfortunately for them, disciple making tends to resist systematic approaches and high control settings.

Jesus focused on people, not organizations. When he looked out at the crowds He wept because they were harassed and helpless (Matthew 9:36-38). He shed tears because he cared for individuals before institutions. He was burdened by the need, but instead of finding programs, He searched for pray-ers. He asked His disciples to pray for workers to meet the need, then continued training them to be those workers. His approach was individual and slow. He prepared them to go out, they went, then they came back to report and to be trained further. Their needs and their development were more important than meeting the needs of the masses.

Initially, it left the need unmet. His way would eventually allow the average person to be helped and then pass on to others. His target was their becoming and flourishing, not just knowing.

Mistake #2 Emphasizing Discipleship Programs instead of Discipleship Relationships

Not all programs are unhelpful, but most churches carry out their discipleship plans programmatically instead of relationally. It’s a twelve-month micro-group, bound by a covenant to lead one after you’ve experienced one, and driven by content-heavy curriculum. They produce some results, but not the kind that reproduces over the long-term. After a few generations, these non-relational groups (and the momentum they’ve generated) fall in on themselves; the result of building without a foundation.

Jesus-style disciple making is primarily relational. At the risk of being obvious, relationships are relational. Relationships are more important than curriculum. When relationships lead, then discipleship feels relational. Learning is secondary to obeying. Much like Jesus’ invitation to the twelve, they come together to “be with,” but are sent out to make a difference in the uniqueness of their lives.

Mistake #3 Discipling Methods that Make Individual Design Peripheral

When scale and efficiency are paramount then individual design is deemphasized. The curriculum is the plan for everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, spiritual maturity, or gifting. This one-sized-fits-all approach to disciple making is dehumanizing. And it doesn’t work. Instead of developing disciples en masse, these disciple making systems make some disciples while alienating and injuring others.

Of all places the church should value individual gifting and design. The church is the body of Christ. We serve different functions towards the same goal (making disciples). A person who is gifted as a teacher will make (reach) different disciples than someone gifted as in hospitality or mercy. The various spiritual gifts shold be used in unique ways towards the same end. Yet discipleship curriculum is unable to train individuals sufficiently, precisely because curriculum is written to a common denominator.

Mistake #4 Discipling Methods that Make Personal Presence Optional

When disciple making focuses on content rather than character then presence becomes optional. The internet will never be a sufficient substitute for presence. Yet, there are many churches and disciple making organizations who believe that an online course, master class, or zoom cohort will make a disciple maker. There’s certainly a way to leverage technology in disciple making, but it should never be seen as a replacement for presence.

God sent Jesus to be with us.

In. The. Flesh.

That was important to Him. He didn’t wait until we’d developed the internet to send a sermon, book, video series, or other non-incarnational means to deliver the Good News. He sent Jesus as a human because relationship is important to Him, and so is presence.

Life on life ministry allows a disciple maker to observe what the disciple is unwilling or unable to communicate. “Blind spot“ character issues can be seen when time is spent together. Virtual disciple making can never provide such depth.

Disciple making that makes disciple makers long-term is that which starts small and goes slow. That’s hard for pastors and other church leaders to hear.

Churches have been making these disciple making mistakes for decades. And many still are! It’s understandable because that’s the way consumerism has taught us. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with disciple making. Yet, the pandemic is showing these consumeristic approaches for what they are, inadequate alternatives to the real thing.

Originally posted on JustinGravitt.com.
Justin Gravitt is Dayton (Ohio) Area Director for Navigator Church Ministries. Check out his blog, One Disciple to Another, where this post first appeared. Also, don’t miss his podcast, The Practitioners’ Podcast.

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Culture is the environment where something thrives or fails. A church’s culture is made up of beliefs, practices, habits and history (or perception of history). These shape common behaviours throughout a group of people, influencing ideologies and personalities.

Many of us think disciples are made by the programmes that we run within our church community, but this is not the reality. The battle of discipleship is lost and won in your church culture. There may be engagement with fundamental teaching and courses but if the culture that they are in isn’t a discipleship-making culture, they will struggle to thrive. An important core principle of an apprenticeship culture in any sphere is a strong foundation of coaching reinforced by regular feedback to help the apprentice develop into a qualified ‘craftsman’ and, in many cases, a future leader.

This holds true within a disciple culture; discipleship is highly relational, highly engaging, and requires high levels of trust and support.

A course is only as good as the culture that it is taught and shared in.

Within our leadership role, we clearly shape the culture by our behaviour – we communicate what’s valuable by the way we act. If we want to shape our culture, then we need to relentlessly be communicating these values in as many ways as possible. When time and resources are short we default to processes and programmes in our rush to get the job done, but in doing so we can neglect the hard and important work of culture building.

Until our gatherings focus more on equipping the saints with Christ’s toolkit, we will continue to struggle to make disciples. If we focus our time on shaping a mind but not also connecting the heart with the hands, then we are missing the whole life of a disciple.

To learn more about a discipleship culture we would love to encourage you to read “Leading and Shaping a Discipleship Culture: Six Essential Shifts for Creating a Culture of Biblical Discipleship” copies can be purchased from here.

Originally posted on WeAreMakingDisciples.com.
Cris Rogers is a Church of England church planter, artist, maker and Star Wars fan. In 2010 Cris and family took on the leadership of All Hallows Bow which had shrunk to seven people and is situated in one of the toughest estates in East London. Cris and his family moved to Tower Hamlets with the desire of restarting the church and seeing people flourish. Cris has a deep passion for discipleship and apprenticeship in the way of Jesus.

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Being Christian is more than a saved soul. Jesus is not only truth for your soul, but for every area of life. A person can give his life to Jesus and still not be Christian even though he has become a Christian. Discipleship is required for a new Christian to become Christian in thought and praxis.

An unbeliever can be Christian in thought and action and not be born again. Just the same a born again believer, can be more Buddhist or atheist in worldview and life style than Christian.

To be Christian in life is to be living out that which is biblically sourced theology. Much of our modern cultural way of life is not biblically derived. Praxis comes from worldview and worldview has an origin point.

The Christian worldview originates from biblical theology – not simply a Bible verse – but application of sometimes centuries of applied theology based on biblical starting points.

For instance, in our Declaration of Independence Jefferson wrote “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. . .” Benjamin Franklin had edited Jefferson’s first draft which read “We hold these Truths to be sacred. . .” not Self-Evident. Equality has never been self-evident. Nature does not teach us equality. Equality, unalienable rights, these are from the Christian worldview. Even though Christians throughout history, including American history, have not always thought this way or acted according to this truth – the truth is only found from within Christian theology.

The Christian worldview encompasses and informs theology on marriage, family, gender, government, nations, justice, economics, personal finances, babies, children, education, burial practices, pets, business, agriculture, taxes, vocation, death, life, the earth, the foreigner, nations, borders, etc.

To be Christian is to think and behave within the context of a Christian worldview. To be a Christian is to be born again trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. However, these two should be one. The former should develop through discipleship and mentorship of a new believer. Thinking and behaving like a Christian is not returning to the law of sin and death, but what it looks like to have a new nature prone to righteousness.

Without Christian discipleship you basically have saved unbelievers thinking they are living the Christian life when they are still emerged in the way of life which is not Christian.

What we want is the whole package of truth applied to our entire life. Jesus matters not just to our souls but to our everyday living in every way conceivable.

In so doing, He made sure we had His written revelation (the Bible) and His Holy Spirit so that we could have the glory of kings to search out His truth in Word and Spirit manifesting the Kingdom of God to every area of life.

Originally posted on KarlaPerry.com
Karla Perry, worldview revitalizer, author of Back to the Future: Rebuilding America’s Stability, and her new release, The Reformation of America, is an avid writer with a penetrating and thought-provoking style. Karla helps people develop healthy worldviews through biblical Kingdom-based thinking. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Old Dominion University where she majored in English and minored in American History. Karla is a co-founder of The Serve Initiative; a think tank and task force organization designed to equip and empower believers for the work of reformation. Karla lives with her husband, Joseph, in Virginia Beach, VA where they pastored for eleven years.

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Originally posted on KrisVallotton.com.
Kris Vallotton is an author, international speaker, culture leader, and most of all, a spiritual father to this generation. As the Senior Associate Leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California and co-founder of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) and Moral Revolution, Kris has helped thousands of Believers over the last 20 years realize their identity as sons and daughters of God.

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Worldwide Challenge® writer Jess Fong asked Cru staff members Jennifer Hu and Gary Padgett for their advice on discipleship, a commonly used term yet vaguely understood subject.

WWC: What is discipleship?
Jennifer: It’s walking alongside someone; challenging them to study and live out the Bible in their life, and to influence others with the gospel.

Gary: Discipleship is meeting people where they are. It’s [an invitation to] someone who relishes carrying the cross: suffering, sacrifice, service, submission. It’s the highest calling, being a disciple of Jesus.

WWC: Where can I find someone to disciple?
Jennifer: I think a good place would be your church. Talk to the pastor and find out if there is a need. If you are a mom with older kids, maybe connect with a mom with young kids. If you are a young adult, maybe you can disciple someone in the youth group. If you are near a campus, connect with the local Cru staff members and ask if you can help.

WWC: How do you ask someone to begin a discipleship relationship?
Jennifer: I always like to ask the question, “How would you define discipleship?” Some people think it’s just counseling. Some women think, I just want to talk about the boy I have a crush on. I explain the Great Commission in regard to discipleship [Matthew 28:18-20] and 2 Timothy 2:2, about entrusting the ministry to reliable men. Then I say, “I’ve had people pour into me in a discipleship relationship and found it really beneficial. Would you be interested?”

Gary: I say, “We need to have a good understanding of who Christ is and how He wants us to associate with Him and one another, both the church and the unchurched. We’re going to do a Bible study, and get out and talk to others.”

WWC: How do you pick a disciple?
Jennifer: The acronym we use is F.A.T.: Are they faithful, available and teachable? If you are going to be investing time in this person, you want to make sure they are going to show up to the appointment. When you have conversations about what the Bible says, you want to know they will strive to walk in obedience.

Gary: I also say “T” is “telling others.” Even if they are scared [about doing evangelism], or don’t want to, they have a heart for people or want to have a heart for people.

WWC: Should you disciple members of the opposite sex?
Jennifer: No. Discipleship is too intimate, and you get into each other’s business too much.

WWC: What is your commitment to your disciples?
Jennifer: My expectation is you wouldn’t take this information and keep it to yourself, but you would be pouring into other people’s lives.

I sign a covenant with my disciples, which includes [these words]: “I commit to meet at our agreed-upon time. I commit to come prepared and offer you three things in our relationship: grace, truth and time. Grace: I accept you. You don’t have to perform, you have the freedom to fail, and you can be honest with me. Truth: I love you for who you are and too much to let you stay that way. I’m committed to the Bible and will use it. Time: Growth takes time, we are both in process, and neither of us has arrived. I agree to keep things confidential that we have discussed together.”

Gary: I tell them what they are getting into. Like their classes or their guns, we’re not just going to talk and look at pictures. We’re going to do it.

WWC: What would you say to someone who doesn’t think they need discipleship?
Jennifer: We need to be sharpened and poured into by other people. As you read the Bible, [you see that] people were in community together. We all have our blind spots. We are all susceptible to temptations. I’ve been walking with Jesus for a long time, and I need people to refine me. I need people to tell me how I affect them. I need to know when I’m not being fully humble and when I’m not being completely loving.

WWC: What should a discipler never do?
Jennifer: Do not act shocked. When the person is sharing something they are tempted in or did, they’ve just poured out their heart to you. Help them understand God’s best and extend a lot of grace with truth.

Gary: I never tell them [walking with God] is easy. The battle of the heart is the ongoing thing we live with. And maturity just takes time, and is sometimes a painful lesson. Following Jesus is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and the most rewarding.

WWC: Should there be a life span to discipleship? How should we stop?
Jennifer: Set up a short time initially, maybe three months, and a time you can re-evalute, even just to make sure if the other person is appreciating it. Be a good steward of your resources and time.

Gary: I have no problem saying, “You graduated, and it’s time to move on, and you and I can continue to encourage each other, but we don’t need to be a group forever.”

WWC: How can one be a good discipler?
Jennifer: We have to be teachable. We have to be willing to ask for help. If most of us are honest, the first time we do this, we don’t know what we’re doing. Be available to be used by God.

Gary: It’s the same as being a good disciple. I suffer with pride. It’s hard to follow Jesus, so to humble myself makes me a better disciple.

Originally posted in Cru.org.
Cru is a community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ. Their purpose is helping to fulfill the Great Commission in the power of the Holy Spirit by winning people to faith in Jesus Christ, building them in their faith and sending them to win and build others.

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