In my last article, I (Paul) shared stories from church leaders who are working to shift away from a purely attractional model and embracing a culture of disciple making. I emphasized the importance of changing what we measure—from butts in seats to transformed lives and genuine embrace of the Great Commission.
But metrics are only part of the story. The deeper, more difficult work is creating a sustainable culture that actually lives out those new priorities week after week, and eventually year after year. In this article, we want to share what churches who are taking this seriously are actually doing. These are real practices, not just good ideas, but practical shifts that are reinforcing a culture where disciple making isn’t only talked about from the stage but embedded in the DNA of the church.
Let’s take a look at a few of the emerging trends we’re seeing in churches that are learning to “go and be.” As we seek to share these emerging trends, I (Paul) have invited my friend Josh Howard—who helped to establish a disciple making movement in India and is now back in the States working in a number of capacities, including as a fellow coach to churches seeking to make the shifts we will describe—to join me for this conversation.
1. They’re Training Everyone—Not Just Leaders—to Make Disciples
In the traditional church model, discipleship training was often reserved for leaders or volunteers. But churches making the shift realize the necessity of decentralization. This is why they are dedicating themselves to creating simple, reproducible discipleship tools that anyone can use—such as RENEW.org’s Trust and Follow Jesus material.
We’ve talked with church leaders who’ve built multi-week “Disciple Maker Boot Camps” for their people. We’ve seen churches develop clear pathways with defined steps to help a new believer grow into a multiplying disciple. One church in Las Vegas has worked disciple making training into their 101 and 201 (new member) classes. Churches like these aren’t assuming people know how to disciple others—they’re training them.
And perhaps most importantly, they’re raising the bar of expectation. It’s not “if you want to”; it’s “this is what it means to follow Jesus.”
“It’s not ‘if you want to’; it’s ‘this is what it means to follow Jesus.'”
2. They’ve Rewritten Job Descriptions Around Disciple Making
This one often seems to catch church leaders by surprise, initially—but it’s brilliant. In several churches I (Paul) have visited, every staff role, from children’s ministry to facilities, has disciple making baked into the job description. Not just outreach and not just leadership development, but disciple making.
In other words, staff aren’t evaluated primarily by program success or “Sunday excellence,” but by how well they’re identifying, training, equipping, and then releasing/commissioning disciple makers.
A commitment to disciple making that’s lived out in this way carries weight. It reinforces the church’s values from the “top down” and clearly signals how seriously the leadership is embracing the culture shift.
In India, the team I (Josh) worked with realized that to turn a nation upside down, we first had to turn our job descriptions upside down. In Ephesians 4, Paul makes it clear that apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers were given to equip the saints for works of service. Leadership roles are support roles, existing not to do ministry, but to empower everyone to do ministry.
We would encourage you to put disciple making into every job description and to flip the whole structure, so the people at the top put themselves at the bottom, supporting everyone else coaching and releasing to make disciples who make disciples.
“Leadership roles are support roles, existing not to do ministry, but to empower everyone to do ministry.”
3. They’re Prioritizing Micro-Environments Over Big Events
There’s a growing understanding among these churches that disciple making doesn’t thrive in the crowd, but in micro-environments. It thrives in circles, not rows. That’s not to say nothing meaningful happens in rows, but some of the most essential elements of disciple making can only take place face-to-face—when we’re looking into someone’s eyes, not at the back of their head.
These churches are investing less in large-scale events and more in cultivating intimate, consistent environments where people can be known, challenged, and sent. We’re seeing a resurgence of simple, reproducible “discipleship groups” (3–5 people—a church in Tennessee calls these “T” groups or Transparency groups), where real accountability happens. Some are actively working to move their best leaders out of Sunday roles and into weekday discipling roles. That’s a bold move—but also a potentially powerful one.
4. They’re Telling Better Stories
These churches have realized that what you celebrate, you replicate.
So, instead of highlighting event attendance or building progress, they’re telling stories of transformation. They do this from the stage, in newsletters, on social media. You’ll regularly hear testimonies of people stepping out to disciple others, of neighbors coming to Christ through personal relationships, of families starting Bible studies in their homes. A church leader and friend in the Cincinnati area is actively working to build a collection of stories that highlight the victories and struggles of disciple making—not only stories about what is happening in his own church community, but in others as well.
This is because leaders like these have come to realize the power of stories. Stories shape culture. And these churches are using them to reorient people around what really matters.
“Stories shape culture.”
5. They’re Creating Accountability Structures for Disciple Making
In attractional churches, people are usually accountable for showing up and serving. But in disciple making churches, people are also accountable for multiplication.
This doesn’t mean heavy-handed micromanagement. It means leaders check in regularly to ask: “Whom are you discipling? How’s it going?” One church has even created “disciple making coaches” whose role is to walk with people as they take their next steps as disciple makers. Other churches use a “quad strategy,” whereby groups of four divide into groups of two that through invitation become groups of four again. In these quad groups, new disciples learn what it means to follow Jesus while learning how to lead others to follow Jesus as well—it’s all baked into the experience.
If we’re going to prioritize disciple making, we have to build systems and structures that support and sustain it.
6. They’re Sending—Constantly
And now for perhaps the most counterintuitive change: These churches don’t just celebrate attendance growth—they celebrate when people leave…and not leaving out of frustration, but because they’ve been sent.
One church I know blesses and commissions every person who starts a new discipleship group or plants a house church. I recently heard about another that has made it their goal to send out more leaders every year than they retain. That kind of math doesn’t work in a purely attractional model. But it fits well with what Jesus had in mind when He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
Pastors often ask me (Josh), “Why isn’t my church growing?” My answer? “How many seeds are your people sowing?” Your harvest is always in direct relation to the amount of seed you’re sowing.
You have to sow to grow.
The problem is many churches mostly have only one person (the pastor) planting the seed of the gospel on one day (Sunday) a week. We must constantly send everyone out to make disciples—sharing the gospel, making disciples, starting new discovery groups.
To see an abundant harvest, we need an abundance of seed sowing.
“To see an abundant harvest, we need an abundance of seed sowing.”
7. They’re Praying in Radical and Transformative Ways
At the heart of every thriving disciple making movement is a deep dependence on God—and that shows up in the way these churches pray.
These churches aren’t just opening meetings with a quick word of prayer. They’re cultivating cultures of radical intercession and intentional fasting. They’ve recognized that if disciple making is truly the work of the Spirit, then it must begin and be sustained by the Spirit. So they’re doing the hard, slow, beautiful work of seeking God together.
Many have established rhythms of corporate fasting—weekly, monthly, or around key seasons of ministry. They hold regular prayer gatherings that aren’t focused on programs or performance, but on listening to the voice of God and interceding for their communities. Some have trained their leaders to walk in discernment, inviting the Holy Spirit to lead not just their decisions, but their day-to-day conversations.
For the past decade, I (Josh) have been leading a disciple making movement in India—and one of the most powerful things I’ve witnessed is the culture of radical prayer and fasting that has emerged.
Recently, we conducted a survey of our top disciple makers to better understand the rhythms that shape their lives. Every single one of them spends two to three hours alone with Jesus every day. It’s focused, intentional time. They cry out by name for the lost. They plead for spiritual strongholds to be broken. They pray for revival to sweep through their cities and villages.
“They plead for spiritual strongholds to be broken. They pray for revival to sweep through their cities and villages.”
Many of these multipliers fast two or three times a week. When they fast, they’re praying prayers like, “God, make the people of my city hunger for You the way I hunger for food. Make them thirst for You the way I thirst for water.”
History tells us every great spiritual movement has begun as a prayer movement. What we’re witnessing in India is not just an exception—it’s a glimpse of what God can do when His people humble themselves and seek His face with everything they have.
Increasingly, we’re seeing it here in the West.
One pastor in Tennessee said, “We stopped asking God to bless our plans, and started asking Him what His plans were—and then we fasted and prayed until we could hear Him.” Radical—we know. Another church in North Georgia told us that they were setting specific targets for what percentage of their church they hoped would engage in weekly fasting and prayer this year. That kind of surrender changes everything.
When churches pray like this—radically, collectively, persistently—the result isn’t just spiritual activity. It’s spiritual authority. And that’s what we need if we’re going to see lasting transformation and true disciple making in our churches.
“History tells us every great spiritual movement has begun as a prayer movement.”
The Culture Shift Is Messy—and Worth It
Let’s be clear: None of these churches have it all figured out. Most will tell you they’re still learning, still experimenting, and continually wrestling through the tension of change.
But here’s what they do know—what you measure matters. What you celebrate shapes culture. And what you equip your people for reveals what you actually believe.
Disciple making is more than a ministry strategy; it’s a way of life. These churches are showing us that when we prioritize the mission Jesus gave us, the church becomes what it was always meant to be: a multiplying movement of ordinary people who follow Jesus and help others do the same.
So, if you’ve started rethinking your metrics, that’s a great first step.
But don’t stop there.
Ask yourself: What are we actually doing to build the kind of culture where making disciples is normal, expected, and celebrated?
And then—disciple on!
