How Not to Fix the Discipleship Problem

The following article was written by Chuck Lawless, who is Dean of Doctoral Studies and Vice-President of Spiritual Formation and Ministry Centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

He has authored several books, including Discipled Warriors, Putting on the Armor, Mentor, and Nobodies for Jesus, and was pastor of two churches in Ohio for 14 years.

He writes; Church revitalization is a big deal today – as it should be. One reason we talk about this topic, though, is the church’s failure to produce disciples. When the church fails to disciple, the result is baby believers who never grow (even though they may be placed in leadership positions). Stagnation results, and revitalization is in order.

That being said, here are some ways not to fix this discipleship problem.

Get angry with church leaders for not being disciples.

It’s easy to do. Get frustrated at church folks and wonder how they ever achieved the position they now hold. Your frustration is likely valid, but here’s the issue: you may have inherited the problem. Somebody else gave these leaders their positions without questioning their discipleship. So, they’ve come to this place honestly – and deserve our guidance, not our frustration.

Focus only on content transfer.

If discipleship is only about completing workbooks and classes, church members can do that on their own. Knowledge, while critical, does not itself make a disciple.

Discipleship requires content + application + accountability. It requires life-on-life fellowship that must be intentional.

Neglect evangelism in the process.

This is one of my concerns for the young generation of leaders who have recognized this discipleship problem: they are so committed to fixing this omission that they risk neglecting evangelism. If you don’t evangelize until you have the church in order, you’ll never evangelize.

Assume small group attendance + worship attendance = discipleship. 

Apart from Christian community under the teaching and preaching of the Word, of course, full discipleship does not occur. All of us know people, though, who are faithful to both activities but not really following Jesus. We need more intentionality – accountability through small groups and mentoring – to make disciples.

Plant a church in order to avoid the problem.

I fear too many young leaders move into church planting simply to avoid the issues of the established church.

They assume they can put a discipleship strategy in their DNA and never face an undiscipled congregation. It’s never that easy, though. Even church plants struggle with maintaining a strong discipleship strategy.

Avoid mentoring because it’s too complicated and slow.

Mentoring is work. It can get messy because you’re dealing with human beings. On the other hand, we can name biblical examples of those who took this approach. Moses and Joshua. Jethro and Moses. Naomi and Ruth. Elijah and Elisha. Jesus and His disciples. Paul and Timothy. Even the seemingly best discipleship programs are lacking if mentoring is not a part.

Expect everyone else to be a disciplemaker. 

If you want your church to be a disciplemaking church, you cannot stand on the sideline and cheer for others to do it. Your church’s discipleship approach can be stronger today if you choose to invest yourself in 2-3 other believers.

Focus on the growth of others only.  

Leaders who themselves stopped growing don’t worry much about discipleship. Those who don’t regularly pray and read the Word seldom challenge others to do so. Those who no longer fight sin don’t stand in the battle beside others.

If an honest assessment shows you’re not growing in Christ, your attempts to help others won’t last long.

Don’t train parents to be disciplemakers. 

The primary disciplers in the home ought to be parents. Our churches are to come alongside, support, and train them, but parents must take the lead. When we don’t challenge them or train them to do so, our disciplemaking strategy will be lacking.  

Obviously, these “bad” fixes help reveal some positive approaches to dealing with the discipleship problem. Build a strategy of mentoring, small groups, and corporate worship. Include structured accountability. Teach content, but do life-on-life. Never stop evangelizing in the process. And, leaders, keep growing while you invest yourself in somebody today.

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Spiramentum Ministries can help create breathing space in people’s everyday, busy lives and ministries. 

Utilising Natural Character Development,  a discipleship resource that can assist in clarifying where they are at in their Christian journey, it can help in setting a better course for your life, and enable you to experience life in all its fullness.

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

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Cultivate Your Gifts and Abilities

All of us have unused skills, gifts and abilities. Maybe you’re still trying to figure out what yours are, or you’ve had to set them aside for a while so that you can concentrate on other things that you feel were more important up until now.

Possibly you’ve ignored them because of life’s circumstances and made a number of sacrifices throughout your life up until this point in time.

But now you have a desire to start using them, or you’ve even got a sense that something is driving you to change your focus and start fulfilling what it is that those latent skills, gifts and abilities were there for. You see, God has given them to you for a reason – He wants us each to use them to serve Him and others! 

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life says that when we use our skills, gifts and abilities God smiles, “God intentionally gifted us differently for His enjoyment. He made some to be athletic and some to be analytical. You may be gifted at mechanics or mathematics or music or a thousand other skills. All these abilities can bring a smile to God’s face.”

Psalm 33:15 says “He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do.” (The Message)   

Below are three ways that Rick Warren* has shared to help us each start cultivating our gifts and abilities so that we can use them for good and for God’s glory. 

1. Estimate your gifts and abilities.

Do an assessment of your life, an audit of your gifts and abilities. Make a list. What are you good at? Know your weaknesses. Consider the capabilities God has given you.

2. Dedicate your gifts and abilities.

Commit them to God for the use He intended. Romans 12:1 says, “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him” (Good News Translation).

Pray this prayer, “God, you gave me these gifts and abilities. Now I’m going to give them back to you. I want to use them for the purpose for which you intended.”

3. Cultivate your gifts and abilities.

That means to practice, improve, sharpen, and develop. Any gift and ability that God has given you can be increased with practice.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10:10, “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success” (New International Version).

How do you gain skill? Practice. God says a dull ax takes more energy; you need to sharpen your ax. In other words, work smarter, not harder. Sharpening your gifts and abilities—your aptitudes and skills—is a spiritual responsibility.

God has invested enormously in you.

First, God created you; and he shaped you with spiritual gifts and abilities, and personality.

He then sent his son Jesus to die for you. God has made a great investment in your life! And he expects a return on the investment.

He’s going to ask you one day, “What did you do with what I gave you? How did you use your gifts and abilities to honor me, serve others, make a living, and be an example? How did you use them to help other people?”

In Luke 12:43, Jesus said, “When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed” (New Century Version).

The thing is, God wants to bless your life!

We each have a roll to play in this thing called life, God has assigned us with specific tasks to do and He has provided us with unique gifts and abilities to complete them.

And when God looks at you, he wants to see you using your gifts and abilities in the way that He intended so that you’ll experience His blessing.

The Ultimate Gift-giver

The thing is, God is the most generous gift-giver you can ever know. Think on that for a few moments.

He has given us so many things in life that when we take the time to acknowledge just a few of them we can be left feeling a little dumbfounded and in awe of all that He has done for us.

Psalm 145:3 says that the Lord is great “and most worthy of [our] praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” (New International Version)   

As human beings, we cannot even begin to comprehend the full extent of the glory of God and His greatness. He is our Creator, our King, Saviour and Lord. He is a loving, merciful, powerful, forgiving and awesome God.

God doesn’t just stop there, how about spending some time exploring some of the below gifts that the Bible says He’s given us:

Breath in our lungs (Genesis 2:7).
Family (Psalm 68:6).
Wisdom (James 1:5).
Joy (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
Freedom (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Peace (John 14:27).
Eternal life (John 3:16).

The ultimate gift God offers us is Himself!

The Bible tells us that God gave Himself to us in physical form in the person of Jesus. And when the time came for Jesus to return to His Father in heaven, He gave His presence to His followers to live within them — His Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Gifts

God gives us His Son as our greatest gift and He also equips and empowers us by giving us what we call spiritual gifts, or gifts of the Holy Spirit. When you intentionally develop and use these gifts for God, His own Spirit is working in and through you as you trust in Him.

“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” 1 Peter 4:10 (New Living Translation)

The Bible describes several spiritual gifts and the ways that Jesus followers should use them. All gifts are significant, and all come from the same Spirit. They are all meant to point people to God, and they are to be used for the good of His people.

Unfortunately, one of the largest issues and challenges facing many Christians and churches is that they don’t know their Spiritual Gifts. According to the Institute for Natural Church Development 80% of Christians that they surveyed had no idea what their spiritual gifts might be 😦 

So, if gifts come from God and are given to every Christian, how do you figure out which gifts you have? And how can you learn how to use them?

Natural Character Development has developed a trinitarian approach to identifying and developing our Spiritual Gifts which I can help explore with you 🙂

Identifying your spiritual gifts is one of the most significant discoveries you will make in your life.

Discovering your strongest areas of giftedness and how those gifts shape what you may be called to do in the world is one of the most important steps you can take to help reveal your purpose and calling in this world.  

Earlier this year I had the opportunity and privilege to complete some Natural Church Development (NCD) training to become a NCD Coach, which forms a part of the 3 Color Discipleship Series.

So, if you’d like to find out more about the NCD Spiritual Gifts Test and the coaching process drop me a line via email or leave a comment below – I’d be more than willing to let you know about the costs etc. and what is involved 🙂 

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* Originally posted on Rick Warren’s weekly Monday Encouragement, which is part of the Pastors.com ministry toolbox.

 

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[Re]Connecting People

Earlier this year I shared in a post about the Importance of Small Groups, that connection through small groups is vitally important to our mental health. 

Therefore, to coincide with the overall theme of Mental Health Awareness Week – Reconnect, I thought aspects of an article on SmallGroups.com was appropriate to repost here.

The thing is, small groups were important to Jesus and His disciples, and they should be important to you and I especially post Covid pandemic lockdowns as people start [Re]connecting socially.

In many settings the local church (Corps) needs to revisit their approach to small groups and ensure that they’re doing all they can in [Re]Connecting people to faith communities that they were once a part of pre-Covid. 

Jon Noto* explores three connection methods that could work in your church: 

Leaders Filling Their Groups

Jesus’ mission was not just to save the lost. His mission was to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And Jesus didn’t just tell stories about seeking lost sheep – He lived it!

While the common practice of His day was to avoid the sick and indigent, Jesus went right to them.

While most students sought out the most prominent teachers and pleaded to be their students, Jesus sought out his disciples. He found them and called them to follow him.

It can be powerful when small-group leaders actively ask God who might be their next group member and the benefits of groups filling themselves are threefold. 

First, when leaders and groups take the task of finding new people seriously, it stretches them. When a leader asks God who the next member of their small group should be, they depend more on their faith and less on the church staff. 

Second, your small groups have fantastic networks. Any group knows a multitude of people that might be open to an invite. When groups are tasked with filling themselves, they lean on networks to which the church does not have access.

Third, when a group leader invites people into their group personally, there’s a better chance of them sticking. When a group member invites a friend, there’s already relational equity, and there’s a higher chance of new people attending. Organic connections like this are fantastic.

There are some challenges with this method though. First, pushing a leader out of their comfort zone and into an invite-mindset requires frequent vision casting from leadership. Some group leaders will take it and run with it, but finding a leader who facilitates well and has an invite mindset is challenging.

Second, many of your leaders will need support and equipping to do this well. The more ownership and autonomy you give leaders, the more you need to train and develop them. This is not a bad thing, but it can present a challenge for churches with fewer resources earmarked for group life.

People Are Assigned to Groups

In the story of the prodigal son, the father does not seek out or go after his son. Instead, the father immediately received the son. People walk into our churches every single Sunday with needs just like the son. This approach shines in receiving people who come into the church looking to connect. It’s especially great for connecting people new to your church.

Churches who use this approach generally have a dedicated person who makes connections and makes sure they happen quickly.

A connection person can quickly connect them into a group that fits their geography, affinity, and stage of life.

The major benefit of an approach like this is control: You determine who gets new group members, how many, and when. You and your ministry team will need to determine how important this value is to you.

This leads to a second benefit. When a connection process exists, your team gets to see the development of your communities firsthand. 

One of the challenges of assigning someone into a group is that it can feel mechanical. Even if you have the warmest person at church serving as your connection person, these assignments can feel a little forced. After all, you’re being sent to a group of strangers.

Additionally, this approach requires a smooth process. Connection people are warm and inviting, and they love relationship. However, they often hate paperwork. Does your church have the support to provide them so they can do what God has designed them to do? To do it well, you need a system of tracking and relationship management with both group leaders and prospective group members.

Another challenge is if a connection doesn’t work out, the person might attribute the mismatch to the church. Without fantastic follow up, this can lead to major challenges, and people may not want to try getting connected again in the future.

Combine Both Methods

As with anything in ministry there is always a middle ground. This does not mean that the middle ground is best for you. Sometimes if we try to do everything well, we end up sacrificing too much in all areas. That said, there are many ways to combine these strategies.

Some churches host connection events where leaders and prospective members can interact face-to-face. Other churches primarily depend on leaders to fill their own groups, but still allow new people to sign up online or through a form at church, then assign them to a group.

Regardless of how you integrate these models there are still benefits and drawbacks of bringing them together.

The Benefits: If your ministry is pretty new, you might not yet know if either model is “right” for you. Combining both models or running them at the same time can be a great way to see what works best for your staff, volunteers, and culture.

Combining both strategies enables you to be flexible and allows you to pivot quickly, it also means you can empower a variety of types of group leaders. For instance, if leaders love evangelism, they may enjoy filling the group with people they meet. Others who are more focused on shepherding can depend more heavily on the church assigning people into their group.

The Challenges: When you use every strategy, you can find yourself without any clear strategy. Clarity is key when we’re challenging people to step up in their faith.

When there’s two different connection strategies it can be confusing.

The combination of strategies can also put stress on our team. If you are in a context where you have a sizeable team, this is less of a burden. You can have different people who handle different things. If you have a smaller team, it may be unnecessarily burdensome.

Choosing Your Best Connection Strategy

There is no right choice for everyone, but there is a right choice for you. Any of these strategies can thrive and produce spiritual fruit – but not in every context. Each church is different and every small-group ministry exists in a series of larger cultures.

Trust God, lean into your team, and be intentional in choosing your approach to connecting people – and don’t be afraid to try something new if your current strategy isn’t working.

We’ll benefit from thinking deeply on this topic to determine which method will work best for each of us. Hopefully, this stirs up the right questions for you and your ministry team to answer together.

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

* Jon Noto, author of the article (How Should We Connect People into Small Groups) on SmallGroups.com, is a Community Life Pastor and licensed clinical counselor at Willow Creek Community Church’s North Shore campus.

Note: I have abridged the article in places  

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Small Groups are an Important Part of our Mental Health

Over the past few weeks or so I’ve been sharing about the Importance of Small Groups and we have covered off topics such as the fact that;

They’re Vital to the Health of the Church, They can be a Key to Evangelism, they are an Integral Part of the Church, and even provided some Practical Tips for Small Group Leaders.

I’ve also shared a word of encouragement written by a pastor colleague of mine around the difference between Transactional and Transformational Relationships.

As part of my devotions the other day I read the following statement that struck me right to the core “Small groups are an important part of our mental health. They were important for Jesus and His disciples, and they are important for you.”

We need friends that we journey this thing called life with!

It is becoming increasingly obvious even more so after periods of lockdown due to the covid pandemic that we cannot do this life on our own we need others around us – we are social beings.

Sometimes the family unit is not enough to satisfy the social needs the we have as individuals. Even those introverts amongst us that are quite happy on our own need times where we are a part of a larger group, or something bigger just so that we can survive.

Mental Health advocates have for a long time spoken about the dangers of isolation and loneliness. As restrictions have eased around the world it is even more apparent that we need / long to be around others in small and larger group settings.

In a Christian context these are extremely important because not only does iron sharpen iron (refer to Proverbs 27:17) but they also provide an avenue for us each to help build us up and encourage each other (refer to 1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Social Media Platforms

But how many of us have friends that we can count on, and how many friends do you truly have?

Facebook accounts commonly claim to have hundreds of friendships. And when I looked at mine I recognised that a large proportion of them are what we’d normally associate as passing acquaintances, that is we only ever really connected for a short period of time.

Others are friends that I used to hang with and social media has made it possible to connect again after months or maybe even years apart, some are even on the other side of the world and we’re able to connect from time to time which is awesome 🙂

The thing is though, have you ever described someone as merely a “Facebook friend”? Or for those of you that are a lot younger than I, how about followers, fellow social media users, or people in my network.

According to Wikipedia “there are distinct groups of ‘friends’ that one can friend on a social networking service. The notion of a social network friend does not necessarily embody the concept of friendship.

Although terminology has not yet evolved to distinguish the different types of social networking friends, they can be broken into the following three categories:

1. Friends who are actually known – These are people that may be one’s friends or family in real life, with whom one has regular interaction either on-line or off-line.
2. Organizational friends – These are companies and other organizations who maintain a “friending” relationship as a contacts list.
3. Complete strangers – These are social networking “friends” with whom one has no relationship at all.

The misconception is that at least 3⁄4 of the people on your friend list are not meaningful relationships.

And although I would love for you to refer your friends to my blog to increase my reach and widen my network of friends of friends that are following me – I’ll leave that for you to decide if it is appropriate or not 🙂

The thing is though, that in most cases, a core group of friends can be counted on two hands or less.

So, why not spend a few moments thinking of who those friends are for you, maybe you might even like to go through and review your friends list. Asking as you go – who are the ones that you’d be able to pick up the phone and call (not just text) to laugh, cry, celebrate, and even pray with.

Studies have shown that those with 3-5 close friendships create more joy and satisfaction than the hundreds of “friends” on your social media account. It’s in this friend group that we find three keys to life; our belonging, our vulnerability, and our courage. These three keys to life are essential in small groups, cell groups, life groups, cell meetings, house churches – call them what you will.

Therefore, small groups are an important part of our mental health. They were important for Jesus and His disciples, and they are important for you.

In Psalm 35:27-28 David shares how his true friends are there cheering him on;

“let all my true friends shout for joy, all those who know and love what I do for you. Let them all say, ‘The Lord is great, and he delights in the prosperity of his servant.’

Then I won’t be able to hold it in— everyone will hear my joyous praises all day long! Your righteousness will be the theme of my glory-song of praise!” (The Passion Translation)

So, as we head out into today let’s celebrate the friends that God has given us and leave the rest of our worries, doubts, and concerns up to God.

Blessings ’til next time:-)

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Small Groups: A Key to Evangelism

Small Groups: a Key to Evangelism.

In a previous post about Small Groups I mentioned that they can (and should) be evangelistic in nature, as it is often easier to invite someone to a small group of friends that are gathering than it is to church on Sunday.

Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho author of Successful Home Cell Groups writes “The human body needs to renew and replenish itself constantly or it will die. That requirement is just as true for the Church, the body of Christ. Therefore, one of the needs of a dynamic and growing church life is evangelism. If a church is not involved in serious evangelism, it will either remain stagnant or it will begin to die.”

He came to recognise that each Home Cell Group (small group, life group, house church etc.) can become a nucleus of revival in it’s neighbourhood. Because the group is where real life is to be found.

Dave Mann in his book ‘Because We Care! A practical and motivational guide to evangelism in the new world‘ identifies that “we cannot rely on bringing people to a programme“, and I would add church service, ministry or event and hope that they may come to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Oftentimes I’d imagine that this is because we don’t even “do the ask” in these settings. Admittedly when we invite people into a relationships with Christ it may still happen in these contexts, but the methods that we are familiar with are becoming increasingly insufficient.

I believe that we need to embrace the challenge of evangelism in a different way to what we have been accustomed to and be a lot more intentional around holistic small groups and inviting people to a longer journey of faith, through both one‐on‐one relationships and through reigniting the evangelistic essence of small groups.

Dr. Paul writes; “When a home cell meeting is full of life, and when the people are happy and sharing their faith and witnessing to what the Lord has done in their lives, other people are drawn to them.”

Much like the early community of believers found in Acts 2:42-47, “they shared meals together with joyful hearts and tender humility. They were continually filled with praises to God.” (The Passion Translation)

But to attract the unbelievers within their neighbourhoods Dr. Paul goes on to unpack that those members within the groups needed to be intentional about inviting others to become a part of what they are enjoying.

The members of the group identified fully with the words of the Apostle Paul when he writes to the church of Corinth;

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” Romans 10:14 (New Living Translation)

Someone needs to tell them about Him – Will it be You?

Dave Mann identifies that in our post-Christian culture today we need to recognise that “there are various layers of belief and scepticism that hinder people from considering faith in Jesus – let alone doubt, hurt and confusion” especially when it comes to Christians and the church.

So we need to acknowledge that “sometimes it takes a person many years to journey in their beliefs to a place of readiness to follow Christ. We need to persevere not only in our prayers, but also in our efforts” especially when it comes to intentionally inviting people join us on a journey of life let alone faith.

Many people will need time and conversations to think through ideas and assumptions that they hold to before they are able to fully understand the message, let alone accept it. And they’ll need to be intentionally invited to discuss / share them on multiple occasions as they may not want to the first or second time around. So, what better way to do this than in small groups?

As people journey with us unpacking some of the faith questions and issues they will become like family, our brothers and sisters, who we care about and want to support and encourage in life.

One way to impact our community is by “speaking encouraging words to one another. Building up hope so that we’ll all be together in this.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (The Message)

That can be served best by journeying alongside people and inviting them to groups that you are a part of.

You see, Small Groups are a key to Evangelism and life change can happen within Small Groups in our communities. Be that the one’s and/or two’s, or even in slightly larger groups. And one of the greatest needs in the church is to evangelise our local communities, be that within a village, town or city.

To do that we need to invite people into our sphere and be open about who we are and who God is, sharing what He has and is doing in our lives and how they too can come to experience that for themselves. When the time is right we can then invite them into the larger church.

When we come together to worship and praise God in larger settings we need to celebrate what God is doing in our lives, the lives that He is influencing through us and the hearts and minds that are turning towards Him.

So in the first instance if you are not a part of a small group yourself – why not?

And if you are may you be used by Him to impact the hearts and minds of a neighbour, family member, friend or colleague and may you be intentional in reaching out to them just to build a kingdom focussed relationship.

Here are some resources that you may find helpful:

• Because We Care: Equipping Video Series available from the All Together NZ Website.
• I also created an 8 Week Life Group Study based around the book and video series here.
• Imagine the impact if every Christian had one person they prayed for and shared the gospel with – Who’s Your One?

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Five Practical Tips for Small Group Leaders

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been looking at the Importance of Small Groups, and this week I want to provide five practical tips on what it takes to lead one, which I hope you’ll find useful.

The below tips featured on The Church Revitalization Podcast, which is brought to us by The Malphurs Group.

The Malphurs Group aim to tackle important, actionable topics to help churches succeed in revitalization and leadership. They want to equip churches to break through barriers and maximize their Kingdom impact.

You can listen to the podcast here or watch the YouTube video below.

In the show notes Scott Ball (Vice President and a Lead Guide with The Malphurs Group) shares that as Small Group Leaders;

1. We Don’t need to be an Expert
2. We need to Prompt Lively Discussion
3. We need to Reign in the Discussion When it Goes Off-Course
4. We need to Spend Time on the Substance, not the Icebreaker
5. We need to Shepherd the Small Group Pastorally

The thing is, so often we can tend to think and do the opposite of many of these points and it can have a detrimental impact on the group when we do.

I pray that as you watch / listen and reflect on each of these points and determine where you need to grow as a small group leader, that you’ll be encouraged to continue working towards having a healthy and vibrant ministry. As your role is integral to the shepherding, discipling, and caring of the congregation and ministry that He has placed you in.

 

 

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