Intro to Disciple making

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”
– The Great Commission: Matt. 28: 19-20

 

“We need a different mental picture of church life and ministry- one in which the prayerful speaking of the word is central, in which Christians are trained and equipped to minister God’s word to others… and where people are trained and taught to be disciples of Christ who, in turn, seek to make other disciples…” – Col Marshall & Tony Payne

It’s clear from the mandate given to the church in the Great Commission above, that the ‘vision’ set before the church, the designated ‘task’ set before its people, the key biblical, theological and practical driver of ‘best practice church growth’ is to be achieved through a concerted and strategic effort to focus church ministry strategy on building churches of – ‘disciple making disciples’.

Bill Hull described the intention of the Great Commission this way:

“Disciple-making should be installed at the heart of the church, and the commanded product of the church is a fruit-bearing believer called a disciple. Christ’s command to his church to make disciples provides the scriptural mandate.”

Likewise Don Carson:

“The injunction made to the first disciples in Matt 28 to go forward and grow the gospel by ‘making disciples’ is a paradigm for all disciples that follow. 

This disciple making function and priority becomes binding on all Jesus’ disciples to now make others what they themselves are – disciples of Christ”

Here we notice two very important things:

1. The Great Commission not only calls the church of Christ to a missionary vision, it also provides the paradigm for the ministry of the local church.

2. The Great Commission calls every believer (men, women, teenagers & children) to not only be a disciple of Christ, but in doing so, they are also purposed to be a – disciple-maker!

In other words – to do as he did.

What this means is the activity of every believer (and therefore ultimately the Church) is to take up responsibility to grow in Christ, for reach the lost for Christ, and to nurture and encourage ‘disciple growth’ in others to become like Christ. That responsibility means you, and it means me. It means your church and it means mine.

This responsibility has been given to you, and it’s also been given to me. It means your church and it means mine.

The scriptures call to – discipleship and disciple making is a twofold process and activity:

Firstly, the call to discipleship is allowing ourselves, under Christ’s lordship, to be transformed by the Gospel (by that we mean unconditionally committing our lives, hearts and minds, to becoming more like Christ).

Secondly, the call to become a disciple maker is to ‘actively’, and ‘intentionally’ reach out to the lost, and encourage and nurture fellow disciples in that same gospel transformation (Deut 6:4-9, 10:12, Matt 27:37-39, Rom 8:29-30, Eph 4:1-16).

Geiger and Nation, authors of ‘Transformational Discipleship’ helpfully put it this way:

“In our research we found that many church leaders in [these] “transformational churches’ struggled with questions about discipleship programs or discipleship tools. They did not view discipleship as one “thing” they offer, whether a program or a strategy. Rather, making disciples is seen as the overarching reason they exist. They viewed disciple-making as their paramount calling with every activity being used as a pathway for transformation“

For believers, this call to discipleship and disciple-making is ultimately a call to begin to die to self and to live for Christ and his Church.

So, as we can see, the injunction made to the first disciples in Matt 28 to go forward and grow the gospel by ‘making disciples’ is designed as a paradigm for all disciples that follow. This disciple making function and priority becomes binding on all Jesus’ disciples to engage in ‘making others what they themselves are’ – growing, maturing and transformed disciples of Christ.

This is what it means for us to be a disciple, and to make disciples. In other words – to be a disciple-making disciple.

For helpful reference, E.M has described the church’s task and activity of disciple making in this way…

“Disciple making is – an intentional, relational, Christ-oriented activity, exercised by every believer, to use every opportunity in encouraging and teaching others to know, grow and faithfully follow Jesus.

Disciple making is to be done by every believer, through every opportunity.

It’s an activity that recognises individuals are at different stages of spiritual growth and understanding, and responds appropriately, urging them forward to the next step.

In this way, disciple making is a ministry of continuous replication and multiplication”

Important to note here is disciple-making is not just evangelism and it’s not just discipleship, we often confuse or unhelpfully seperate the two. In understanding disciple making it’s important to recognise that the spiritual process and activity of evangelism and Christian growth and nurture stand together, and flow on from each other on a spiritual continuum. In this way, ‘

In this way, ‘disciple-making‘, rightly understood, is one integrated process and activity. It involves spiritually helping each one whether they are at the point of just coming to ‘explore’, ‘question’ or ‘know’ Christ, to also ‘growing’, ‘transforming’ and ‘faithfully following’, him.

In this way, in any spiritually healthy Christian community each one will be seeking to actively grow in Christ, whilst also actively engaged in the ‘disciple-making’ of their fellow brothers and sisters around them.others.

Likewise, their fellow brothers and sisters will also be engaged in – ‘mutual disciple-making’ towards them in return. Quite a radical thought!

We see this mutual disciple making depicted beautifully in the words of Paul to the Romans – “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (1:11-12). Notice here that the Apostle Paul includes himself in the mutual ‘disciple-making’ process.

If this is right, then the fundamental goal and activity of the church needs to be to – teach and train every believer to become this kind of ‘disciple-making disciple’.

Biblically and theologically, if we’re to become effective at ‘growing the church’, at strategically achieving ‘true gospel growth’ (both numerically and spiritually), then we’re to implement the scriptures call to build churches where making ‘disciple-making disciples’ is our core – ‘vision’, and where challenging every believer to that task becomes our obvious – ‘call to action’.

What may be needed in churches today to achieve that kind of vision is a culture change, a return to the practice of daily and mutual discipleship and disciple making, by every believer and through every opportunity. For many, such a culture change will require a redirection in the order of our priorities, renewed focus in our lives, and greater gospel intentionality in our ministries.

If the goal is to ‘make disciples’, and more importantly, to make disciples who make disciples (disciple-making disciples) the question is – what processes, activities or ministries must be put in place to most effectively achieve that goal?

The aim of this website, and all its content, is to provide some answers to that question, with videos and researched ‘working’ papers to support, resources to supplement, as well as other materials that might better equip the Church in achieving that goal.

 

THE SCOPE OF DISCIPLE-MAKING:

Every aspect of the Christian life and ministry is a God given opportunity for ‘disciple making’. Every contact with a believer or non-believer is an opportunity to further their understanding, growth and encouragement in knowing God or faithfully following him.

Note: the term ‘disciple-making’ encompasses every aspect of ministry activity, from engaging unbelievers, conversion, through intentionally utilizing every opportunity we are given (individually & corporately) to full encourage growing maturity in Christ.

 

A FURTHER NOTE ON NOMENCLATURE:

1. We often use the terms discipleship, discipling and disciple making interchangeably

2. We thereby confuse the differing activity associated with discipleship, discipling and disciple- making

Common Misusage:

1. Disciple making = Evangelism/Mission

2. Disciple making = Discipling (Follow-up of new believers)

3. Disciple making = Discipleship (1-1 growth of a believer…though still often confused with new believer follow up)

Disciple-Making must be understood as an all-encompassing Activity:

Matt 28 commands us to: ‘go and make’…as well as-’teaching to obey’…’all I’ve commanded’

Disciple ‘making’ therefore is not just evangelism, it’s not just initial discipling of new believers 1-1. Disciple-making involves: an ‘all encompassing’ activity that reaches across every gospel movement – from first steps of engaging a person in evangelism, conversion and initial discipling, and including and encompassing growing believers  in such a way they become an intentional – ‘disciple-maker’ of others.

Our goal as a disciple-maker therefore: is that every believer becomes an active – ‘disciple -making disciple’

 

THE DEFINITION OF DISCIPLE:

The Greek word- mathētḗs translates into English as – ‘disciple’ or ‘learner’ or ‘pupil’. The word disciple itself typically has two aspects to it: the relationship of a student to a teacher, and the notion of following along behind someone. First and foremost our discipleship is to Jesus Christ, relationship with him and following him (Matt 16:24-25).

In the words of John Stott: “At its simplest Christ’s call was “Follow me.” He asked men and women for their personal allegiance. He invited them to learn from him, to obey his words and to identify themselves with his cause”. In this discipleship process we are being ‘transformed’ so that we will eventually be ‘conformed’ to his likeness (Rom 8:29, 2Cor 3:18).

The verb form – ‘to disciple’, describes the process by which we encourage another person to be such a follower of Jesus; it means the methods we may employ to help that person to grow as a ‘learner’of Christ, to grow towards full maturity in Christ, so they may also in turn disciple someone else (i.e. that they too may become a ‘disciple-maker).

By using the word ‘discipling’, Al Stewart best describes this activity as – “more than simply evangelizing unbelievers, discipling is defined as: prayerfully and faithfully building people up until they are mature followers of the Lord Jesus (Col 1:28). Discipling is moving people forward in their knowledge of God; in their commitment to Christ; and in their commitment to serving others”. In this regard, true discipleship and disciple-making must rightly be understood as a process not a program.

DISCIPLESHIP AND DISCIPLE MAKING IN ACTION

 

E.M RESEARCH AND RESOURCES ON DISCIPLE-MAKING

 

Ref: A. Stewart (ed): No Guts No Glory: How To Build Youth Work That Lasts: (Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2^nd ed. 1990) p64-65. J. Stott: ‘Knowing and Doing’ (C.S Lewis Institute, Summer 2011).