Helping people grow more spiritually mature is not a new concern for churches. It has been the goal all along. Developing a process of discipleship within your church structure, however, is a strategic issue that has been terribly neglected. Rather than developing a clear path of discipleship for all believers, church for many has become a series of disconnected and incongruent programs and activities.
In order for churches to best communicate high expectations and biblical depth, a simple structure must be in place to guide and direct people towards these goals. One way to begin this process of simplification is to develop a quotable and memorable vision, mission, or purpose statement. From this statement should flow the entire process of discipleship. All programs and ministries of the church should fit under the umbrella of this statement.
Biblical depth is more important than the discipleship structure of the church. But churches that do not have a structure in place cannot move people towards an understanding of this depth. A culture of high expectations is more important than the structure of a church. Without this structure, however, a church has difficulty communicating these expectations. A multiplying church is more important than the structure. But without structure, people do not know how to multiply. The right structure is not the most important facet of a church, but most churches cannot carry out their most important purposes because they do not have the right structure.
In a recent LifeWay article, Chuck Gaines addressed the issue of discipleship process. He presented ten questions that growing churches ask about their discipleship processes:
Growing churches don’t look for answers – they look for questions. Specifically, questions related to identifying and formulating a discipleship process.
- How does our church define discipleship?
- What does a disciple look like?
- Do we have an intentional process of discipleship?
- Does our church know this process?
- How does this process relate to the purpose of the church?
- Has our church prioritized distinct practices that relate to the discipleship process?
- Does our church practice the principle of abandonment based on the idea that activity doesn’t always mean productivity?
- How does our church measure maturity?
- How does our community describe our church?
- Do our church families spend more planned time in a week at church with each other or in the community with non-believers?
There is nothing new or striking about these questions. But seeing them collectively is quite helpful. What other questions might be beneficial to ask of your church’s discipleship process?
Those questions are good for bringing clarity to the discussion as the word “discipleship” can have varying definitions as you move from person to person and church to church. When we say we “disciple” students for nine months, that means that our Masters Commission students spend several hours each day with our staff, learning ministry. The first hour of the day is spent in prayer, worship and seeking God’s face… staff and students together. The next two hours are spent in academic course-work, studying the scriptures together, discussing the meaning to the original hearers and to us today. After lunch, the students work with staff members on ministry practicum’s, learning the ins and outs of hands on ministry from the office team databasing and sending out mailers, to the AV team producing multimedia videos, to the youth ministry team planning, setting up for, and running youth group, to the travel team practicing stomp and drama preparing for area youth rallies. Our students spend 10 to 13 hours each day with our staff. We live life with our students in much the same way that Jesus lived his life with the 12. Now, that’s harder to do with adults who have families, children and jobs… with the primary difference being that our students have taken 9 months, set them aside, dedicated them to God, and stated that they want to be discipled. Unfortunately, getting adults in a congregation to make that same commitment to daily discipleship under a mentor is a hard pill for many to swallow, but those who do, are changed forever. So I want to add this question to the conversation…. How to we convince the general population of our churches, that the unseen benefits of placing themselves into a discipleship relationship under a mentor will far outweigh any short term lifestyle changes that will have to be made?
I need seminar materials for discipleship process for me to conduct a church seminar.