This is from "Real Life Discipleship Training Manual" by Jim Putname & others.
If a disciple makes a disciple who can make disciples, mathematically the process might look something like this:
- One disciple makes three disciple-makers every five years.
- If those disciples do the same every five years, in ten years there will be almost 180,000 disciple-makers.
- If they continue, in seventy years (less than the average life span) there are potentially fourteen billion disciple-makers. That is twice the number of people currentlying occupying our planet.
I don't know about you, but I find this exciting and inspiring! Makes me even more committed to do this.
I have started this process by meeting with two other women who I am training to be disciplemakers, and in the Fall, I will be training a group of 12 to be disciple-makers.
How about you? What are you doing to be intentional about disciple-making? I'd love to hear your stories.
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Jenni - At what point do you know that the two people are now ready and do not need your input and all of you can go on to making other "disciplers?"
Although not a formalised "Discipler/ Protege' relationship, we meet quite regularly with a brother in the Lord, and the other time, he made a comment that he wished he could find someone that he could influence as well. I thought to myself that he is ready and both of us can now "move on"
Hi Charles,
I believe that we should communicate from day one that we are all responsible for discipling others. Some will become disciplers quicker than others. I believe that discipleship is a life long process rather than a set time frame. When those we are discipling show a readiness to disciple others, that simply become another stage of our disciplemaking process. If we remain teachable, discipleship never ends, because there is always something new to learn or grow through.
You can take your discipleship with this person to a different level. Look at what Jesus did with his disciples. Perhaps this is the "apprentice" phase in which you are teaching this person how to disciple others. I am finding the "Real Life Discipleship Training Manual" a good starting point for this. I have someone that I'm training to disciple others and part of what we are doing is exploring how to connect with people who have other belief systems (ie. Judeism, Buddism, Atheists, etc.). I like the idea of having a "reproducible" method of discipling others and of teaching them to be disciplemakers rather than just winging it or throwing this or that into to the process. With an intentional, somewhat structured process, you have some clear goals and a specific set of themes that you can use.
Charles Kasumba said:
It's a manual that is meant for teaching others how to disciple. I am six weeks into it (30 lessons). It has a lesson a lfor five days a week and a total of twelve weeks. You can get one through NavPress or Amazon. I got a case of them from Amazon because they were a bit cheaper. If you google the book, you'll be able to quickly find out how much they are from each place.
The authors are Jim Putnam, Avery t Willis Jr., Brandon Guindon, and Bill Krause.
By the way, in reference to connecting with people from other belief systems, this is something additional that I am doing with the person that I am discipling, not part of the book. I highly recommend this book.
Discipleship for me and from what I see Jesus, Paul and others model is it is all about living life on life with a group of people - a group of people (not one on one) you are saying to "be like me" - by the grace of God I am attempting to be like Christ - as Paul said imitate me.
It is a life long commitment not a set time, not a program, not a study etc, it is relational, all about discipling or coaching people through the learning events God is dealing with them on (a disciple is a learner, learning from God to obey), helping them observe these events, reflect on them, make a plan and then act and be keep accountable to act so they come the full circle of learning. A life long learner. The key is learning to obey - hear from God, act, obey - so you can say as Jesus said my food is to do the will of the Father.
The main question to the people you are discipling is always - What is God saying to you? And what are you going to do about it? This means you are not focused on teaching them as such, you let God do that, you are not putting in a CD, watching it and asking questions about it, you don't need to be a scholar of scripture. All you have to be is show love, grace as you take them on a journey - asking the important questions, What is God saying to you? And what are you going to do about it?
They are then all as a group growing by observing, acting and all keeping each other accountable. The end goal is they start their own group who they now disciple in this way like Jesus did. This happens once God speaks to them about it (not when you think they should, as it is about them hearing from God and obeying) and you then keep them accountable to starting their discipling with others. You start with 6, they do 4, who do 2 then you are obeying the Lord - go make disciples. Discipleship done right always leads to mission, disciples on mission and church forms - we do it around the other way and why we have a discipling problem in the church.
My thoughts and experience but yes if we all did this effectively we would have reached the whole world many years ago.
Danny
Anyone ever notice the big thick book Jesus wrote on discipleship?
You cannot make a reproducible disciple if you do not meet with someone personally. Jesus told his disciples what they were to do. He said ". . . teaching them to observe all I commanded you." Paul followed it up by saying were are to teach in such a way that they can teach others to observe all Jesus commanded. Most every book I have read on discipleship is full of ideas that have not made disciples but brought in people. Almost every book says to start with small groups. Small groups do not make disciples, people do. Ask any small group leader if the people in their small group are having a quiet time, praying, and memorizing scripture. Discipleship starts with one person not a crowd. Jesus did not call 1,000 at first.
A few weeks ago I discussed the success and failure of groups with a man who is making disciples. He said the failures say to come join us and we will make you a leader. The successful ones say to come join us and we will help you become a follower of Jesus.
Many people have big dreams but they have not made one disciple who makes disciples. Many churches have small groups and say they are making disciples because the number of groups is growing. That is like saying as the number of churches are planted we have more disciples. The health of a church is not how many nickels and noses there are or how many disciples they say they are making, but in how many reproducible disciples are being made. So anytime we take a look at a model or read something ask the question about how many reproducers are being made. I can say from experience that most I have asked who are leading small groups are leading nothing more than a discussion group and the leader cannot lay out a method of making disciples because he has never made disciples. When a man says he is fishing and never catches fish he is not a fisherman. The lake can be well stocked but if he is not catching fish something is wrong.
People are great at coming up with ideas and they are usually by young excited people who have not lived out their ideas for very long. When I see a man who has been consistently making disciples for over 40 years I see a seasoned man who is on the right path because he has the results to prove what he says.
Hebrews 13:7, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith."
Consider how much Jesus knew and the disciples he chose knew by the time they were twelve. although they had not studied under a rabbi to become a disciple in Judaism they knew their Bible well. Obviously they quoted parts of it and strung the parts together to form a message. No doubt they knew the oral traditions too. They did not come with an empty plate.
I believe disciplemaking is like parenting. Some are better at it than others and some will rise up to teach other disciplemakers. Some will become experts while others will lead just one at a time.
Jon said: