Jesus didn’t tell churches to make members

In talking with pastors, one thing I commonly hear is, “If we had more members we would be able to do more…” Because of the way we have been programmed in the past, a lot of times pastors and churches think if they are small there impact is small.  This isn’t the way Jesus thought. Jesus could have called the masses, but instead he called a dozen, ordinary men, and sent them out on a mission to make disciples.  Churches don’t need more member, they need more disciples that are making disciples. 

The Great Commission is everyone’s mission

Jesus’ words to the disciples were not a suggestion, they are a commandment.   The disciples knew that this mission was important, and they took Jesus’ words seriously.  Every Christian is given this same commission, and we need to take Jesus’ words just as seriously.  What would have happened if the disciples didn’t tell others?  What would have happened if the person who told you about Jesus didn’t take this command seriously?  How will others know if we don’t tell them?

The Great Commission is not to make more members

Just adding “members” does not fulfill the mission, but when the members you already have tell others about the mission, the mission spreads, and the Great Commission is being fulfilled.  The Great Commission is to make disciples, not members.

Friends, I know churches need members, and I have been a pastor of a small church.  I know the challenges, and that you’ve heard some of what I’m telling you before.  So why am I telling you again?  Because it’s time for the disciples of today to start taking the words of Jesus serious, and focus more on making disciples than members.   What I want you to hear is that every disciple needs to be “making disciples”, and teaching them how to make disciples, so that the mission will continue to spread.  Being a Christian, and a member of a body of Christ (a church) means more than attendance, it means being a follower of Jesus that is telling and teaching others what it means to do the same.   

So let me ask you, are you being intentional about making disciples? 

I was recently at a gathering of disciple-making leaders, and one of the leaders said this; “Many of our churches are doing addition, when we need to be thinking about multiplication when it comes to making disciples.”  What he was saying is that we add people to our church, but we don’t expect them to reproduce themselves. Why? Do we communicate the expectation of reproduction to the people in our churches?  For many I believe this is a foreign concept, and if we want to see healthy churches it is something that needs to change.  Jesus had expectations of His disciples, and reproduction was one of them.  Jesus clearly told the disciples to go and make more disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).

I will say that I’ve been encouraged by the number of churches that are starting to recognize the need for a change, and because of this I’m starting to get a lot of calls asking me to come and help them develop an intentional disciple making process.  Most of these churches begin their disciple making process in groups, and this is an effective (and biblical way) to do this, but I’d like to share with you why I believe churches should also implement a one-on-one disciple making process as well.

1. The Friendship Factor – let’s be honest, following Christ’s example can be hard at times, and there is something about knowing that you’ve got a friend by your side that is comforting.
2. Individual Care – this is one key advantage over groups. When you’re meeting one-on-one with another believer you can provide a level of personal care that is especially needed by a new believer, this can be a great help when you’re on a new journey.
3. Flexible schedule – when you’re meeting with a group you expect there will be times when someone in the group will be sick, have a sick child, or another commitment that makes them miss the meeting, and when this happens the rest of the group continues to meet. When you’re meeting one-on-one, you can decide together on another date that works and meet then.

These are just a few reasons, and I’ll share some other reasons in part two.  As always, if this is an area that I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dludwig@brnonline.org

G – In 2010 LifeWay Research set out to discover what were the essentials in churches that were seeing Spiritual Transformation take place.  One thing that consistently showed up was the importance of living in a healthy Christian community.  Churches that are intentional about seeing people get connected to other believers (LifeWay termed this as relational Intentionality) were also seeing believers maturing and growing in their faith.  A few years later, Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger co-authored a book that expanded on this called “Transformational Groups”, I highly recommend it.

In their book, Geiger and Stetzer write that “Group involvement makes attendees more likely to be intentional in spending time with other believers”, and the result is seen in spiritual growth.  Being involved in a small group (community) allows a person to not just hear God’s word, but apply it in our daily lives, and experience others doing the same.  I believe this is the church that we read about in Acts 2, and the church that God desires for believers today.

How do you live out this kind of community? In the “one-another” passages we can find examples, and here are a few:

• Love one another (John 13:34-35)
• Confess your sins and pray for one another (James 5:16)
• Care for one another (1 Peter 5:14)
• Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

And others… you get the point, God never intended us to live life in isolation, we are designed to live and serve in community!

Every day, every minute, every second, we make choices, and because we live in a time where there are so many choices, it can be hard at times to decide what’s important and how to best use our time and resources. We all face this challenge, at home, in school, at work, wherever and whoever we are.  That’s why setting priorities is so important.

I want to be clear up front, I am not an expert on this topic, in fact, I am a fellow struggler just like many of you.  So, the words that I’m sharing are for me too.  When it relates to time, here are three areas that I believe every follower of Christ should prioritize.

1. God first. I hope you knew this, as a follower of Jesus Christ there should be no greater priority. God is our everything. (Romans 11:36) As the psalmist reminds us, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.” (Psalm 16:2 CSB) Placing God first means that we place prayer and His Word, the Bible, first in our lives, and set aside time every day to hear from Him.
2. Prioritize the order of other relationships. Leaders have differing opinions on this one, but one thing they all agree on is that not everyone should get equal attention. I believe that next to our relationship with God should be the priority of yourself. The reason I place self ahead of others is because if you don’t take care for yourself, there may come a time when you’ll not have what you need to be able to take care of someone else. That means making exercise a priority (ouch), prioritizing your money, and having what I like to call some “me time” as well. If you’re married; your spouse should be next, and then other members of your immediate family.
3. The priority of rest. This goes right along with the previous one, and rest is just as important as exercise. No one can do this for you, so it’s important that you schedule down time and learn how to say “no” to the things that you can. In the long run you’ll have more time and energy to do the things that matter most.

This list could be a lot longer, and I know that I barely touched the surface on the topic of prioritizing. I hope this has caused you to think about your own priorities, and if they in the right order? Are you scheduling time for God, self, and family?  If this is an area where you’d like help, I’d be glad to talk with you and point you to some resources that I’ve found helpful. You can contact me at dludwig@brnonline.org

What is your plan for making disciples? Do you have one? 

The reason I ask is because as I lead churches through church health assessments, the one challenge that continually comes up is, “Our church does not have a clearly-defined discipleship process for moving a person from salvation to spiritual growth to significant ministry.”

Why is that important? In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commanded the disciples to go and make disciples, and that same command applies to the church today. Yet, most believers and churches are not doing it.

Why are we not making disciples? I believe part of it is because we have never been discipled ourselves; therefore we are not sure how to disciple someone else. This is why I am convinced there needs to be a plan for making disciple-makers.

I remember hearing this quote, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” There are a lot of implications to that statement that we already experience in life, such as developing a savings plan, a fitness plan, a vacation plan, and even a retirement plan. Yet, for some reason we don’t equate the need to plan with disciple making.

I hope you’ve heard my conviction as to why I believe this is important, and maybe some of you are saying “YES, we need a plan”, but you aren’t sure where to start. Here is one solution I’d like to recommend to you.

LifeWay Christian Resources recently released a series of studies called Disciples Path.[1] It was created by a group of pastors and other leaders, focusing on instilling the doctrines, biblical understandings, principles, and practices of discipleship that are needed to help equip the local church in making disciples who would make disciples. I recognize that making disciples is more than reading a series of books, but this is a starting point by providing believers with the resources needed to teach one-on-one and in groups, the principles and practices of Jesus. It’s an intentional discipleship plan.

If you don’t already have a clearly-defined process for making disciples, check it out! If you’d like some additional help with developing a discipleship process for your church, I or any of the consultants from the Healthy Churches Team would be glad to assist you. Let’s be intentional about making disciples that make disciples!

[1] http://www.lifeway.com/n/Product-Family/Disciples-Path