Eight Ways We Can Return To Discipleship WITH Disciple-Making

Last week I wrote a post called “Programs, paradigms and presuppositions: Why we’re struggling with disciple-making.”  I began by rejoicing over the “new” disciple-making movement (DM) and how it is seeking to return the American Evangelical church to a version of Christian discipleship (the Christian life) that includes disciple-making as part of the paradigm.

I took a few paragraphs to bemoan the “old” paradigm, in which Christians can become church leaders even though they have no personal evangelism going on in their lives at all.

This shift back to the Biblical model is a wonderful movement; I rejoice in every one of the books, blogposts, podcasts and conference advertisements that come my way which are promoting this new reformation.

The post also shared four reasons why well-meaning churches and discipleship pastors are struggling with getting their members to catch on to the disciple-making paradigm:

• The simplest explanation is that “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” We’re asking people to…gasp!…change!
• Moreover, if your church’s leaders don’t appear to have changed their own lives to include intentional, time-consuming evangelism, it’s hard to even see how this lifestyle is supposed to look.
• Complicating matters is the time factor. Laymen and paid church staff members alike have filled up their schedules to overflowing with activity of all sorts.
• And then there’s the problem of our local church paradigms and presuppositions. Even in evangelistic (not just evangelical) churches, we’re used to thinking of evangelism, as with everything else, happening through services or programs.

Before I can launch into some solutions, I need to share the explanation that I somehow managed to miss last week:

• Almost all of us dread the “E-Word” (evangelism). No matter how many sermons we’ve heard, classes and seminars we’ve attended and books we’ve read¹, most of us still find sharing our faith with unbelievers to be just plain scary. We count ourselves blessed if we can come up with a good excuse for not doing it, like: (a) “I’m too busy with my church to do evangelism,” (b) “As a church leader I have to shepherd the sheep, not multiply the sheep,” (c) “At our church, evangelism is considered a spiritual gift, and I don’t have it,” or (d) “My church doesn’t really care if I ever share my faith or not.”

By all means read last week’s post first if you’re interested enough to proceed to my proposed solutions.

ENOUGH SAID. HERE THEY ARE:

(1) Pastors and other church leaders can model the Christian lives that they want their followers to live. The Apostle Paul boldly said that he taught Christian living, not just with his words, but with the teaching tool of his life. Looking these up will be worth your time: I Corinthians 11:1-2, Philippians 3:17 & 4:9, I Thessalonians 1:5-7. It will not work to bypass this step.

(2) Full-orbed discipleship, discipleship that includes disciple-making, will become the expectation in your church if you make it a requirement for any leadership position. Church leaders need to agree on their description of the “designer disciples” their congregation is seeking to make (Matthew 28:18-20) and these ideal disciples must be men and women who regularly seek to win the lost.

This doesn’t mean that we all have to use the same evangelism style. I remember being encouraged and liberated to learn that there are a number of different ways to be a disciple-maker; we don’t all have to button-hole strangers on the sidewalk, preach sermons or engage in intellectual discussions.

But here’s a warning: Transitioning from a church board or staff of non-disciple-makers to a board or staff of disciple-making disciples is likely to take years or even decades rather than days, weeks or months. Woe be unto the pastor who thinks he can change his church’s Christian life paradigm in a year – especially if it’s his first year.

(3) Pastors and other teachers can enthusiastically teach the disciple-making discipleship paradigm consistently and persistently. One sermon a year is not going to cut it. Our teaching of this needs to be oh-so-simple and oh-so-clear. If you can agree on adopting something like the BLESS model² which spells out a plan for an evangelistic life that anyone can remember, that will be very powerful, especially if it is talked about and modeled consistently over time. Again, a “new program of the year” type of approach isn’t going to work. Those most resistant will simply wait for the pastor to stop talking about it and move on to another “program of the year.”

(4) Along with the modeling and teaching, church leaders will do well to highlight the testimonies and stories of those who are practicing disciple-making, even if they’re struggling.  Get these folks up front, in person or on videos, and encourage the entire flock to follow their example. Make heroes out of them.  Make their invisible ministries visible.

(5) Every opportunity for prayer in your congregation can involve prayers for the disciple-making aspect of your member’s lives. That includes Sunday morning “pulpit prayers” as well as requests on prayer chains and in small groups and classes. Note how the early church prayed for boldness (a subject worth studying) in response to persecution. See Acts 4:29 and 8:4.

(6) You can evaluate all proposed programs for their clutter quotient. Do we really need this new ministry? Should everyone attend this just because a few people need it? Just because the event went well this year, should we repeat it every year until Jesus returns? If this new proposal is about “fellowship,” what does that word even mean? Would our people be better off having fewer things to go to “at church” and more of a margin for personal disciple-making?

(7) We can avoid the quick fixes of new classes, programs or staff members. Adding a class or seminar on disciple-making, without the church changing its overall discipleship paradigm – especially if the whole movement bypasses the senior pastor – is not likely to change the church. Worst of all is hiring a “discipleship pastor” whose assignment is to try to change the church’s culture from the second seat position, for any sort of church “fix” from the second chair is bound to fail.

(8) Pastors who seek to change the discipleship culture should remember to rejoice in the few members of the church who “get it” and actually practice it. By all means resist the temptation to turn your best evangelists into ministry managers or board members; they are too valuable out in the mission field for such a fate!

 QUESTIONS FOR ANOTHER UNCOMFORTABLE DISCUSSION:

1. How many people in our church have evangelism as part of their healthy Christian life paradigm?
2. How about our leaders? Is a balanced Christian life, which includes sharing the gospel with lost people, viewed as a prerequisite to leadership in our church?
3. Would our people say that they are too busy doing church “stuff” to stop and share the message of Christ as they are living their day-to-day lives?
4. Does our church pray for the evangelistic efforts of our members?
5. Does our church honor the evangelistic efforts of our members?

1 Some of us have even read, “Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult,” by Nick Pollard

^{2 The BLESS model stands for – Begin with prayer, Listen with care, Serve in Love and Share your story.  See Dave and Jon Ferguson’s book: “BLESS: Five ways to love your neighbor and change the world.”}