Church Leaders: Focus on Disciple Making

If you are a church leader, you need a clear focus for your ministry. There are so many things to do—sermons, pastoral visits, planning meetings, and more—and, if we’re honest, most people in ministry struggle with distraction and a lack of clarity.

The good news is that Jesus provides us with the ideal focus, model, and clarity we need.

Jesus focused on making disciples, and then at the end of His ministry He commissioned His disciples to become disciple makers. Disciple making includes bringing lost people to salvation and leading saved people into Christlikeness and full obedience. I’ve become convinced that disciple making isn’t just another program—it’s the core of what church leaders are called to do. We see it in multiple New Testament texts:

• It is the core commitment Jesus modeled in His ministry, as described in Matthew 4:19.
• It is the core of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20.
• The book of Acts describes how the apostles “preached the gospel…and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned…strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” (Acts 14:21-22, NIV)
• The apostle Paul described his ministry in similar terms—presenting everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).
• The apostle Peter describes the calling of Christians to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and become more like Him in their lives (1 Peter 2:21).

Disciple making is the core mission of the church.[1] Yet many churches lack this clarity, prioritizing attendance, events, buildings, and programs while spiritual depth lags. At RENEW.org we want to help church leaders find the focus and clarity they need.

RENEW.org’s mission is to “renew the teachings of Jesus to fuel disciple making,” and in the next two months, we will be providing church leaders with crucially helpful resources:

Discipleship.org Pre-Conference: “Own the Mission”

The Discipleship.org Pre-Conference on Disciple Making on Monday, April 20^th happens the day before the RENEW.org National Gathering at the same location. The pre-conference is called “Own the Mission” and will feature the same main-stage content as the National Disciple Making Forum in Houston. The pre-conference runs from 12:00 noon to 5:45 PM and here are the four sessions:

• Session 1 – “Own the Mission: Being a Disciple Maker” — Ralph Moore, Josh Howard
• Session 2 – “Bleeding the Mission: Making Disciple Makers” — Ralph Moore, Bobby Harrington
• Session 3 – “Empowering the Mission: A Simple, Effective, Reproducible Model” — Carl & Alicia Williamson, Ashlee Catizon
• Session 4 – “7 Character Traits of a Disciple-Making Church” — Bobby Harrington, Josh Howard

For more information on the Disciplepship.org pre-conference, click here.

Two Forthcoming Books

We want to announce two forthcoming print resources on disciple making: Ralph Moore’s book, Making Disciples: Developing Lifelong Followers of Jesus (Revised Edition), and Bobby Harrington and Josh Howard’s 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches: New Research on What Works in North America.

Leadership Alignment Training for Disciple Making

We want to invite your church to consider Leadership Alignment Training for Disciple Making Churches—a 12-month training and coaching experience for church leaders and their teams. It guides you to completely transform your church into a disciple making culture. Click here for more.

Jesus didn’t say, “Go and make converts” or “Go and build big crowds.” He said to go and make disciples who obey all His teachings (Matthew 28:19-20). This echoes Deuteronomy 6’s call to impress faith on the next generation through daily life. Leaders neglecting this focus produce shallow faith. Let’s purse Jesus-style disciple making, for it is the greatest mission on planet earth as it restores the church’s purpose: advancing the kingdom of God relationally and intentionally.

It’s what the RENEW.org Network is all about.

[1] See Bobby Harrington and Scott Sager, Disciple Making: The Core Mission of the Church (RENEW.org, 2021).