This just in: The church’s mission is to make disciples. Not just programs, processes, or worship gatherings. The mission has always been the same since Matthew 28 . . . but it took me five years of Bible college and two years of full-time ministry for it to actually sink in. It took me that many years to realize that, in general, the church in the West has not fully been on mission with the One we worship and dedicate our lives to.
And yet we all know the passage of Scripture that tells us this. We all could quote it:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV)
These are some of the last words of Jesus to His disciples before He ascended into heaven. He’s saying we are called to walk in obedience toward Him and teach others to do the same. A helpful definition of “disciple” comes from Matthew 4:19: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” We accept Jesus as our leader (“Come, follow me”), He begins to shape and transform us (“I will make you”), and He puts us on mission with Him (“fishers of men”).
“It took me five years of Bible college and two years of full-time ministry for it to actually sink in.”
What’s more is that most people who’ve spent any time in ministry over the last decade would agree that Jesus didn’t say, “Go create church events,” or “Go fill groups.” Most of us understand that we don’t need another program that leads merely to knowledge of God or even knowledge of obedience to God but which doesn’t actually lead to obedience, transformation, and disciple replication.
And yet the elephant remains in the room. “Discipleship? That’s what our small groups are for.”
Now, let me state upfront: I’m in favor of small groups. As a “Groups Pastor” at Traders Point Christian Church, it would be strange if I wasn’t. In light of the church’s disciple making mandate, are small groups a sham? Do we throw them out the window and replace them with something dramatic and revolutionary? In the words of Paul: By no means!
Yet these questions do call for careful thinking. If like me you’re a groups pastor, you’ve probably heard the terms used interchangeably a million times: groups pastor and discipleship pastor, groups team and discipleship team. But here’s the truth, and I mean this with everything in me: Discipleship does not equal groups, and groups do not equal discipleship.
Here’s what I believe is a better way to view discipleship: Every part of church life should engage a discipleship strategy. And yes, we absolutely see Jesus use a small group as a primary vehicle for discipleship. Groups can be a powerful tool. But discipleship must run deeper than attendance, consistency, or even relationships or commitment to a weekly meeting.
“Discipleship must run deeper than attendance, consistency, or even relationships or commitment to a weekly meeting.”
In order to take Jesus’ Great Commission more seriously, I believe discipleship and disciple development ought to exist in every ministry department. Take kids ministry as an example. We can have kids attending programs and volunteers serving faithfully, all executing the plan, the structure, systems, curriculum, check-ins, rotations. And none of that is bad. But the systems exist so that leaders can see the people God has placed in front of them—real kids and real volunteers—and invest relationally in organic ways that go beyond running the program.
That same intentionality and vulnerability need to exist in small groups, maybe even more so.
Groups can easily become disguised as discipleship without discipleship actually happening. We all know the group everyone loves because they’ve been together for 25 years. And yes, there’s something beautiful about that. But there’s also that hard question: What exactly have we been doing for 25 years?
It’s easy to have great relationships, great conversations, great discussions, great Bible studies, and walk out feeling full—but while never taking an actual bold step of obedience or even knowing what that step would be. The discussion was good. The theology was solid. The community felt meaningful. But the truth remains: It became something I know or feel, not something I live and replicate. And the enemy is more than happy to keep it that way.
So what do we do? As with everything else, we look to Jesus as our model.
“It became something I know or feel, not something I live and replicate.”
Historically, we can trace the power of small groups all the way back to Jesus and the Twelve. And yet if we compare our typical modern small group with Jesus and His disciples, the pictures look very different. Jesus didn’t gather the Twelve on Tuesday nights for 90 minutes, run discussion questions, and say, “See you next week, maybe Sunday too.” He cared deeply about them. He was strategic with them. He knew their gifts, their weaknesses, their potential. He contextualized His teaching so they could understand it and put it into practice.
His private time with the Twelve was a laboratory for leadership. He didn’t just repeat His public sermons. He gave His disciples the interpretive keys to the Kingdom. He moved them from spectators to architects of the Church.
For the sake of discipleship, groups today must move beyond “What did you think about the sermon?” to “How do we obey what Jesus is calling us to do?”
And then there were an inner three: Peter, James, and John. Jesus invested in them even more intentionally. He challenged them more. He entrusted them with more responsibility. He called out their potential. He developed leaders who would multiply leaders. This is replication. In our context, we might ask, What does it look like to identify the “inner 3” in your group who are hungry and ready for more and catch the mission of the Great Commission? Why not replicate an inner one, two, or three in our small groups as Jesus did?
“If we compare our typical modern small group with Jesus and His disciples, the pictures look very different.”
Jesus spent time, gave responsibility, and called out potential, and then, before ascending into heaven, He placed much of the future of the Church in their hands. Are our small groups being formed for that kind of mission? 
When we miss this, we produce consumers instead of disciple makers. We create people who take instead of reproduce. Groups become low-challenge, high-invitation environments that produce comfort but not transformation. Churches become busy but shallow. Active, but not multiplying. Engaged, but not advancing.
We cycle programs. We fill calendars. We stay occupied. But transformation becomes rare, and disciple making becomes almost accidental.
When we get it right, everything changes.
A healthy disciple making culture produces transformation and multiplication. People stop seeing their growth as limited by what the church can provide and start seeing themselves as disciple makers. Programs and groups become vehicles, not substitutes, for the mission.
In my own context, we break our groups’ expectations into four essentials:
- Disciple: equipping and releasing
- Care: carrying one another’s burdens
- Serve: meeting needs inside and outside the church
- Multiply: developing leaders for the Kingdom and the movement
Multiplication is why any of us are here today because the first disciples took the mission seriously and gave their lives to it.
“Multiplication is why any of us are here today because the first disciples took the mission seriously and gave their lives to it.”
So what does this look like for you? I recommend starting with a few questions:
- How clearly are you communicating the goal?
- How are you defining discipleship for your leaders?
- Are you raising the bar or just managing the system?
- Are you giving people real responsibility?
- Are you evaluating what’s actually producing transformation?
- Are you praying for the Spirit’s power to move?
Don’t leave off that last question. Remember that disciple making is Spirit-fueled, not just leader-driven.
So, no, this isn’t breaking news. It’s just the oldest mission in the Church. The question is whether we’ll keep treating it like a headline or finally make it our operating system.
We can’t outsource discipleship to programs.
We can’t delegate it to departments.
We can’t hide it behind structures.
It is the identity and purpose of the Church.
My prayer is that none of us will look back one day and realize we did church our whole lives—but never made disciples.
