Seven Disciplemaking Imperatives in Your Church

by: Barry Sneed

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Churches across the globe have begun to realize the importance of the biblical mandate (Matt. 28:19–20) for disciple-making, and are imagining the transformation of lives and the culture where their church exists. Church leaders like you are dreaming of a congregation and community saturated with mature followers of Christ willing to do whatever it takes to further God’s Kingdom.

As you contemplate that dream, consider these 7 imperatives to disciple-making.

1. Whether your church is a church WITH small groups or OF small groups, if your church is making disciples who make disciples you are accomplishing the Great Commission.

2. Curriculum is not the key to making disciples, however choosing the right curriculum at the right time is important. Disciples are made as the Holy Spirit works in tandem with a human disciple-maker to move a disciple to be more like Christ. Curriculum is simply an important tool in the disciple-making process.

3. It is vital that the pastor and all staff members of any disciple-making church be the leader of a disciple-making group of or is involved in a disciple-making group. If any of these key leaders choose not to be part of the disciple-making ministry, others will find no need to be involved themselves.

4. The most important promoter of the disciple-making ministry must be the senior pastor.

5. Pray that God would lead you to the right people to be your first disciple-makers. Jesus prayed prior to choosing His, it is vital that we do the same.

6. It is vital that the group’s first studies teach the disciple basic spiritual disciplines, doctrines, and practices of a disciple in relation to the church they are members of. While felt-need studies and sermon based discussions have a place in the church, a disciple without a firm foundation to stand on will easily become self-focused and begin to serve themselves rather than focusing on the cross and Jesus’ Kingdom agenda.

7. Utilizing a “reproducible process” is the key to long-term success. It has been proven that disciples who make disciples are much more likely to do so if they utilize the same principles and practices as well as the same curriculum as those who discipled them. It is for this reason that I recommend training every group leader using the Real Life Discipleship Training Manual and that each group do the three studies, Growing Strong in God’s Family, Deepening Your Roots in God’s Family, Bearing Fruit in God’s Family, as their foundational and first studies.

Read more from Barry here.

Tags: Barry Sneed, Disciplemaking, Multiplication

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The Power of the Preposition: Are You a Church OF or a Church WITH Disciplemaking?

by: Barry Sneed

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Is your church a church OF disciple-making or a church WITH disciple-making?

The question is not meant to offend or criticize, but rather to clarify. The question has been generated from numerous conversations with pastors and discipleship leaders on a daily and weekly basis.  From experience, I know that these conversations are generated from “pain points” of these leaders.  This blog post and the next several to follow will be centered on this subject or question.

I’ve borrowed a quote from a good friend of mine that begs consideration.  “When the pain of staying the same is the greater than the pain of change, we will consider change!”  One of the issues I hear from pastors on a consistent basis is dealing with spiritual immaturity in the church.  This begs the question, is the church today doing a better job of teaching people how to be good members or disciples?

The term “disciple” simply means, “learner.” A disciple is some one who learns principles from someone else, sees those principles lived out by the discipler’s practices.  Those principles and practices are then passed on to others.  If a church is to be a disciple-making church, making disciples that make disciples, she must first embrace the following ideas.

1.     Disciple-making is relational – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  This is my command: Love each other.  (John 15:9-16)

Disciples are made as a disciple-maker befriends and mentors a disciple.

2.     Disciple-making is a stage-by-stage process – “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Notice I said stage-by-stage, not stage-to-stage.  The process is cyclical not linear.  Disciples experience the following stages of spiritual growth; spiritually dead, spiritual infant, spiritual child, spiritual young adult, and spiritual parent.  (Note: these stages of spiritual maturation are outlined in Real Life Discipleship)

3.     Disciple-making is generational – “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

Disciples are made, as one person who has been or is being discipled is discipling others.

Tags: Barry Sneed, Disciplemaking, Multiplication

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3 Keys to Making Disciples

by: Barry Sneed

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What does a church look like when it succeeds? A church is successful when everyone in the church is in the game, maturing into disciples who can reproduce other disciples.

Matthew 4:19 gives us a clear, uncomplicated image of what a disciple looks like, and helps a church know if it is obeying the command to make disciples. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

Follow me – a disciple knows and follows Christ. (Head)
I will make you – a disciple is being changed by Christ. (Heart)
Fishers of men – a disciple is committed to the mission of Christ. (Hands)

Back before we all had a GPS, finding our way on road trips turned out to be adventures. A successful road trip required planning and preparation. A successful journey needed a driver, a vehicle and a map. A successful journey needs three elements as well; an intentional leader, a relational environment and a reproducible process.

A Driver: The Intentional Leader
A road trip cannot begin if someone doesn’t turn the key, start the car, and drive. A driver with a destination in mind is essential. In the discipleship process, the driver is the intentional leader driving the discipleship process toward the goal of making disciples.

A Vehicle: The Relational Environment
A driver must have something to drive. In discipleship, the vehicle the intentional leader drives is the relational environment. Relationships are what God uses to communicate His truth and help people grow. Without relationships, the journey of discipleship is boring and ineffective. Relationships create the environment where discipleship happens best.

A Map: The Reproducible Process
The third component for a successful journey is a map. The road map is a reproducible process. This road map allows us to measure a disciple’s progress and teach that disciple the route so that he or she can intentionally lead others on the same journey.

An intentional leader plus a relational environment plus a reproducible process equals disciples. I am certainly not a math scholar but it seems to be a good equation. See you downstream…

Read more from Barry here.

Tags: Barry Sneed, Discipleship, Measures, Multiplication

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