You want to make disciples because it was Jesus’ last command and one of the most important expressions of love you could show to another human being.
I cannot think of a more important focus. Disciple making is to help a person place his or her faith in Jesus Christ (evangelism, conversion) and then to help him or her form their life around Jesus—becoming more and more like him (sanctification, maturation). Disciple making includes both parts.
It is helpful to look at the earliest church to see how they made disciples. There is a key word used at the beginning of Acts 2:42 that I want to highlight. The word is devoted. It is a word that describes how the earliest Christians were very committed to set practices and disciplines in their disciple making focus.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42, NIV)
Because of their devotion and commitment to three practices (following the apostles’ teaching, joining the fellowship, relying on God’s presence through communion and prayer), they witnessed amazing life transformation. The text goes on after verse 42 to describe the things that happened:
- Everyone was filled with awe
- The apostles did miracles
- They had everything in common
- They met in the Temple courts and from house to house
- They enjoyed favor with the people
… And the Lord added to their number those being saved (Acts 2:47).
Let’s go back to the word, devoted. The word in Greek is proskartereō—it is to be devoted to, to be dedicated to, to focus on, to be committed to, to persist in, to give unremitting care to a thing.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
The text says that they were devoted to three key things, which lead to many people being saved (Acts 2:47). Let’s slow down, and we will see four habits, witnessed in this text, that I believe are key to a disciple making culture in a church. We want to be like the early church in Acts 2 and be devoted to…
- The Word of God (the apostles’ teaching)
- The People of God (the fellowship)
- The Spirit of God (the breaking of bread in communion and prayer)
- The Mission of God (those being saved)
I believe that we need these commitments and specific practices, and that when we are devoted to them, they will lead to the fourth, which is the mission of God. We want to see many lost people saved so that we too will witness what they witnessed.
These four items describe behaviors that are different from those utilized in most churches in North America. We want to note these differences and what it means to have a different operating system. This is because we are committed first and foremost to creating a disciple making culture.
The Word of God
Scripture is vitally important. We cannot objectively know the truths we need to know about God and how we are to obey him apart from Scripture.
The People of God.
Relationships are essential in disciple making. Jesus’ method, above all, was relational. In the Gospels, he was with his disciples—walking, talking, experiencing—most of the time. So, like Jesus, we must engage in meaningful relationships with those we are discipling so that we can relate to them, love them, teach them Scripture, and help them to obey it in practical ways.
But relationships and Scripture are not enough.
“In the Gospels, he was with his disciples—walking, talking, experiencing—most of the time.”
The Spirit of God
The Spirit of God is the ultimate agent of transformation in disciple making. Scripture teaches us that it is the Spirit who convicts a person of sin and draws that person to place his or her faith in Jesus (John 16:7-11; 1 John 2:20-27). And then God tells us that the power that brings change in discipling relationships is the Holy Spirit, who transforms us from one degree of glory into the other, as we become more and more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
The Mission of God
The mission of God is the intentionality factor that grounds discipling relationships in purpose, forethought, and strategy. Every disciple and every potential disciple needs someone to guide them, to disciple them. They need someone who knows what Jesus meant when he told us to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:18-20). Intentionality is to be purposive, to know where we are guiding someone.
Think of it this way: An Android phone has a different operating system than an iPhone. You cannot take the operating system from an Android and make it work in an iPhone. In a like manner, people often come to us from churches with different operating systems, and they inadvertently expect our church to operate the way they were used to operating. Most modern churches focus on 1) preaching, praise and worship, and programs, or 2) education and Bible classes. We are seeking a different operating system, which is only found in less than 5% of churches. Less than 1 in 20 churches in North America have a disciple making operating system.[1]
“Intentionality is to be purposive, to know where we are guiding someone.”
Again, when Christians come to your church, they often bring their own DNA, unwittingly, to your church, in terms of how they think church should be practiced. They unconsciously want your church family to do things differently than disciple making churches are committed to doing them. Here is one way of contrasting things:
|
EDUCATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP |
INTENTIONAL, RELATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP |
| Preaching, Praise & Worship, Programs | Intentional, Relational Transformation |
| A Focus on Classes | Focus on Relationships (Jesus-Centered) |
| Head Focused | Head, Heart and Hands Focused |
| Content/Inspiration | Transformative Relationships |
| Building/Campus | Homes and Coffee Shops |
| Lesson is the Agenda | Being/Making Disciples is the Agenda |
| The Setting is Formal | The Setting is Life-on-Life |
The problem is compounded because when people come to our church, they are good-hearted, and they honestly believe that what they know is probably better, as they seek to make us like the church of their past or another church that they know about. It may also be the church of their youth they are trying to recreate—a simpler time or nostalgic church culture. But we ask everyone to commit to being devoted to a disciple making model. We will not create the culture we desire without this commitment.
“We will not create the culture we desire without this commitment.”
Around the world, God is changing countless lives because the gospel is spreading through disciple making movements. Over 80,000,000 people are a part of these movements that started a little over thirty years ago. Shodankeh Johnson is a friend and he has an amazing story of his disciple making movement in West Africa. In the last twenty years, the number of those who claim to be Christian has grown from 9% to close to 50%. This disciple making movement—and others like it—take away our breath in terms of the disciple making movements that have been created and what they have accomplished (millions of people are disciples who make disciples).
When a group of us met with Shodankeh, he challenged the conventional wisdom on how a disciple making culture is created. Since he has such a significant track record in creating disciple making churches and movements, we slowed down and listened to his advice.
He surprised us with his emphasis on discipline.
He is a big advocate that we embrace discipline as the heart of disciple making. What he means by discipline is the explicit practice of specific things like Home Groups, T-Groups, fasting and prayer rhythms, starting with persons of peace, etc. He believes that discipline is more important than talking or explaining.
“Discipline is more important than talking or explaining.”
He believes we place too much emphasis on narrative (our stories and words) without first putting disciplines into place. Here in North America, stories, and language are very powerful in terms of influencing people and helping create a culture.
The best thing, better than listening to Shodankeh, is to take heed of the earliest church in Acts 2. As a reminder,
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42, NIV)
Let’s go back to the word, devoted. Again, the word used in Greek is proskartereō: to be devoted to, dedicated to, focus on, be committed to, persist in, give unremitting care to a thing.
We need balance, and we do not want to overstate the role of discipline, but we believe there is also wisdom in listening to Shodankeh, Acts 2, and other churches that have disciple making cultures.
[1] See the National Study on Disciple Making Culture at https://discipleship.org/shop/national-study-on-disciple-making-in-usa-churches/.
Excerpted from Bobby Harrington & Josh Howard, Everyday Disciple Makers.
