In my ninth year as lead pastor of my church, a crucial question loomed large. Were believers truly growing spiritually?
Despite an influx of people and an air of excitement at my church, the pastoral team grappled with the depth of discipleship. Should discipleship happen organically, casting aside a purposeful process, or deliberately?
Our decision was clear: We would use an intentional approach to make disciples.
Disciple-making, as Jesus commands in Matthew 28:19–20, stands at the core of a church’s mission. While many churches emphasize disciple-making in their mission or vision statements, a question remains: Are we truly making disciples?
Our leadership team extensively explored disciple-making, drawing insight from groups that were successfully—and deliberately—making disciples. That introspective journey uncovered internal issues that demanded attention before our church could intentionally make disciples.
Identifying the Issues
Here are some of the issues we uncovered and would need to address.
Primary focus of the pastoral team. The pastoral team viewed preaching and teaching as the primary mechanism for disciple-making, overshadowing any other methods.
Priorities of the leadership team. For the leadership team, stewardship of relationships and resources took precedence over making disciples, who, in turn, make disciples.
Perspective of teachers. Teachers perceived their role as delivering content (curriculum, scope and sequence), overlooking the importance of helping students live out their faith week by week.
Perception of volunteers. Volunteers considered their role burdensome rather than a meaningful outworking of their walk with God.
Perception of the congregation. The congregation identified godly individuals based on elected positions rather than a wholehearted love for God and others.
Responding with Repentance
Acknowledging these issues required humbly acknowledging my need for repentance. I felt like the servant in Matthew 25 who received money and buried it!
I needed to repent—for ignorance, poor planning, and not investing in others.
Next Steps
Our pastoral team recognized the need for change. So we took steps to transform our church’s approach to disciple-making.
Here are measures we implemented.
Collective commitment. The pastoral team committed to initiate change collectively, fostering unity and shared responsibility. Regular prayer sessions strengthened our resolve.
Teaching the congregation. A comprehensive list of necessary changes led to a preaching series exploring everything God said to the church in Ephesus (Acts 18–20; Ephesians; 1 and 2 Timothy; Revelation 2). Educating the congregation became a cornerstone of intentional disciple-making.
Seeking external perspectives. Recognizing the need for external insight, the pastoral team sought help from organizations to provide fresh perspectives and accountability.
Yearly evaluation. We instituted yearly evaluations to identify gaps in our disciple-making process. We acknowledged the gaps to the congregation and promptly took action to address those gaps—fostering both transparency and accountability.
Discipleship track. We introduced an intentional discipleship track. In that track we challenged people to go beyond the confines of small groups or Sunday School to deepen their walk with God.
The Transformation
Over the last five years, my church’s deliberate approach to disciple-making has borne fruit. Reflecting on this transformative journey, I adore God and express gratitude for His blessings. I could never return to a nondeliberate approach to disciple-making.
To church leaders struggling to make disciples or wondering how to teach people to make disciples, the challenge is clear: Consider the transformative power of deliberate disciple-making.
If you want a fresh perspective on disciple-making (as my church wanted), please reach out to Regular Baptist Ministries. Together you can explore how intentional disciple-making can reshape the fabric of your church.
Brian Cederquist is lead pastor of Good News Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a Council of 18 member for Regular Baptist Ministries. He holds degrees from Faith Baptist Theological Seminary (MDiv) and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (DMin) and is a certified Biblical counselor with the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. He blogs at shepherdthoughts.com.
