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Dear Discipleship-first Friends,
I am a lead minister/pastor in addition to my CEO roles at Discipleship.org and RENEW.org. I am telling you this because I am going to be doing something in my lead minister/pastor role at Harpeth Christian Church that I recommend to all church leadership teams.
I am asking all our leaders to process the recordings of the four mainstage sessions on Disciple Making Culture at next week’s National Disciple Making Forum. I am asking our team to do this because the most important work we do in our church is culture creation.
We know that culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
So, strategically, and prayerfully, the best thing I can do as Lead Pastor is to ask all our leaders to
1. Understand how a disciple making culture is created, and…
2. Work together, as a team, to consciously create the culture in our church that we believe God wants. We will work through the paradigm pictured above, even if it is just to improve an already good disciple making culture. I recommend that plan to everyone.
For King Jesus, Bobby Harrington
We had a great first day of the National Disciple Making Forum! We wanted to give you a recap of the main stage sessions each day. If you aren't able to experience these sessions live, you can always watch it later with the Digital Access Pass.
Here are some highlights from each of today's main sessions:
Main Session #1 – Anthony Walker: The State of the U.S. Church and Creating a Disciple Making Culture
Anthony shared the current state of the U.S. Church, including some eye-opening statistics related to disciple making in American churches. He laid out a clear understanding of the shift that needs to take place in our churches if we want to impact the current landscape of the church—we must create a disciple making culture in our churches. He shared how a disciple making culture is created, and how we can work together as a team to consciously create the culture in our churches that we believe will help us carry out the great commission.
Main Session #2 – Sean McDowell: Intellectual Challenge of True Discipleship (The Battle for a Biblical Worldview)
Sean brought it—he emphasized the importance of creating a biblical worldview that becomes the light of truth that guides everything we do—in our homes, our relationships, our jobs—literally everything. He encouraged us to motivate and equip people to live out their faith as ambassadors of the church. As someone who has devoted himself to training and discipling the next generation, his message was straight forward… if we do not intentionally disciple the next generation to have a Biblical worldview, they will unintentionally be discipled by world.
Main Session #3 – Ashlee Catizon: Discipling People Into Radical Change (Repentance & Discipleship)
Ashlee is a boots-on-the-ground practitioner when it comes to making disciples. She shared her first-hand insights about how Jesus' method of relational disciple making is where it all begins. She stressed the importance of making fundamental decisions about our values and beliefs, leading to transformation of the head, heart, and hands, all within the context of authentic relationships. Ashlee highlighted the significance of teaching obedience to Jesus' teachings, emphasizing that it is only through these authentic relationships and a life-on-life disciple making approach, that we will we will see radical transformation that has a lasting ripple effect for generations to come.
Main Session #4 – Renée Sproles: Disciple Making Requires Relationship
Renée explored the essence of transformation through heart and soul connections. She dived into the significance of emotional intelligence and the need for wholehearted attachments, emphasizing the importance of resilience. As a home school mom for over 15 years and three decades of discipling young mothers, Renee shared her personal experiences and insights about finding connection and purpose in relationships has been pivotal to her disciple making success. In a world that is hurting and lonely we need wholehearted attachments to lay a foundation for genuine disciple making relationships.
We hope you will process the recordings of the four mainstage sessions on Disciple Making Culture at the Forum. The leadership team at our church will be asked to do this because the most important work we do in our church is culture creation.
To watch these and all of the main stage sessions and main stage track breakouts in the comfort of your home, check out the Digital Access Pass here where you will get all 4 main stage sessions and 4 track sessions (10 hours). You can order the DAP recordings now and watch them as soon as the recordings have been processed next week.
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The second day of the Forum is in the books! If you weren't able to watch today’s sessions live, you can watch it later with the Digital Access Pass.
Here are some highlights from each of today's main sessions:
Main Session #5 - Jason Shepperd: Our Disciple Making Practices at the Church Project
Jason brought a powerful message today, igniting a fire and a passion for the Lord's work in our churches and communities. He challenged us to rethink how we disciple others in our small communities and shared his personal experience with leading a movement of house churches. Jason highlighted the importance of recapturing the beauty of the house church and explored the concept of a "church of house churches," emphasizing the distribution of pastoral leadership and the embrace of decentralized, diverse discipleship communities. He underscored the church's role in equipping believers for ministry and discipleship, urging a return to Jesus' model of small, geographically based communities that naturally foster diversity. If you want to energize your ministry--this is a must listen.
Main Session #6 - Shodankeh Johnson: God's Disciple Making Stories
Shodankeh reminded us of the importance of beginning our disciple making journey with others with prayer and fasting from the outset—it’s the foundation of any disciple making movement. Our focus should be on discipling the lost to salvation and discipling the saved to spiritual maturity so they can disciple others. The target is to multiply rapidly within a movement by coaching, mentoring, and replicating the disciple making process. Everyone should wear their 'disciple-making hat' and view coaching and mentoring others as their love language.
We need a paradigm shift from slow, individualized training to rapid multiplication, moving from one disciple to making disciples who make disciples. This requires us to be strong and courageous, especially when facing the enemy and persecution, which can be challenging. Simplicity is key. Jesus gave us a simple gospel—let’s be careful not to complicate it.
Main Session #8 - Josh Howard: Choose the Language of Disciple Making
Josh shared his broken beginnings and it resonated deeply, highlighting the power and importance of sharing stories—the victories and the fails. He emphasized that what gets celebrated gets repeated, stressing the need to celebrate aspects of our disciple making culture to instill them in our hearts. Jesus should always be the hero of our stories, and everyone should be equipped to fulfill their mission. Josh encouraged us to recognize when God opens doors and then be willing to walk through them in obedience, as He is always moving and working ahead of us. He urged ordinary people to step out in faith, move beyond their comfort zones, and ask God to use them. God loves to do extraordinary things through ordinary people. Save the lost and train the saved—remembering every effort, no matter how small, matters in the Kingdom.
Main Session #7 - Brandon Guindon: Choose the Language of Disciple Making
Brandon emphasized the importance of living out the language of disciple making in our church. Highlighting the need to define the disciple making language and ensure it is reflected in our actions. Brandon noted that while the church often tries to adapt to fit into culture, Jesus did not ask us to redefine the Bible. Instead, we are called back to a biblical language and to live it out authentically to show what it means to be and make disciples.
He outlined three key steps to implement this language effectively:
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Define it: Clearly define what disciple making means for your community.
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Communicate it: Continually communicate this definition to reinforce its importance.
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Live it: Incorporate this language into your daily life, living out the principles of disciple making.
We need to focus on the fundamentals of Jesus' teachings and to communicate in a way that aligns with how Jesus communicated with His twelve disciples. He reminded us that disciple making is not optional and should be our core mission. He encouraged us to disciple others with the end goal in mind, which is to equip them to become disciple makers themselves. Define it. Communicate it over and over and live it out in our daily lives.
We hope you will process the recordings of the four mainstage sessions on Disciple Making Culture at the Forum. The leadership team at our church will be asked to do this because the most important work we do in our church is culture creation.
To watch these and all of the main stage sessions and main stage track breakouts in the comfort of your home, check out the Digital Access Pass here where you will get all 4 main stage sessions and 4 track sessions (10 hours). You can order the DAP recordings now and watch them as soon as the recordings have been processed next week.
For King Jesus,
The Discipleship.org Team
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