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Great Idea 14: Be in the Business of Making Disciples

MIKE BREEN

Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations

Matthew 28.19

Top Tip: If you ‘make’ disciples, you will always get the church. But if you’re seeking to build the church, you rarely get disciples.

Business Perspective: In the commercial world successful commercial businesses put sustained effort into creating and nurturing advocates for their brand. Advocates both inside and outside the organization practically and verbally support the organization by buying, using and recommending the product to others. In commercial terms external advocates are a very cost effective way of sustaining the business. They become emotionally attached to the organization.

The church also needs advocates.

In the church context, advocates are disciples. Discipleship may not sound new or revolutionary, but if taken seriously, it will change everything for you and your church and your community.

There is not a leadership problem in the Church in the West. There is not a missional problem. There is a discipleship problem. If we make disciples, like Jesus made disciples, the way we’re supposed to, we get more leaders than we can handle and more vision and action for mission than we will have ever seen. The same can be seen in every successful commercial business.

That’s the way Jesus did it.

That’s the way his disciples did it.

That’s the way the early church did it.

That’s the way every missional movement in history has done it.

And yet there is a full-fledged discipleship crisis which has led to a full-fledged crisis in the Western Church. What we have failed to understand is that the church is the effect of discipleship rather than the cause. In other words, if you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you’re seeking to build the church, you rarely get disciples.

If you wish to make disciples there are two managerial questions that need to be answered.

1 What is your plan for making disciples?

2 Does the plan work?

Most of us are in communities that plan for making disciples, but sadly, these plans haven’t really worked for quite some time. The absence of an effective discipleship plan is often a product of church-based focus.

The discipleship plan at St Thomas Sheffield works and is based on that vision which has ultimately spawned a global discipling and missional movement. We started something we call Huddle, which is a group of four to ten people who are being intentionally discipled by the Huddle leader which, while similar in size to a small group, is actually quite different. The Huddle meets at the very least, every two weeks.

The leaders invest in the disciples and the disciples give the leaders access to their life outside the Huddle space. At the end of every Huddle gathering, each person in the group will be able to answer two questions:

1 What is God saying to me right now?

2 In the next two weeks, what am I going to do about it?

The next time the Huddle gathers the leader will ask, ‘Did you do what you said you were going to do?’

The purpose here is to inject accountability into the process. We cannot make disciples without intentionality and accountability. Jesus didn’t.

It goes beyond this. Every person entering a Huddle knows that within 12 to 18 months they will start a Huddle of their own. Why? Because every disciple disciples.

That’s not radical. That’s not revolutionary, that’s just the Great Commission.

For reflection and discussion

1 Do you have a discipleship plan?

2 Is the model outlined above practical in your church?

3 Do members of your congregation always act as advocates for the church?

4 What strategies do you have for countering a negative view of your church?