Five Tips on Biblical Discipleship for Ministry Leaders
I grew up in a bible-teaching church and did everything my church offered. After high school, I attended a solid four-year Christian college – including three ministry internships during those years. It was not until after being on full-time staff at a church, that I was taught discipleship. Since those first days of hearing about discipleship, it has been a gradual learning and implementing process. By God’s grace, nineteen years later I am the lead pastor of a church that emphasized, prioritizes, and practices personal disciple-making.
Because I was fully entrenched in “how to do church” and had been formally educated on “how to do ministry” completely apart from discipleship, I recognize it is hard to let go of some old things we know and love. So, for the Ohio pastors struggling with how discipleship fits in the local church, here are my top five lessons learned on leading the church as a pastor (Ephesians 4:11):
#1 START NOW (Ephesians 4:12)
The best thing anyone can do to understand discipleship (after a rudimentary knowledge is obtained) is to "get going." In addition to learning through doing, another reason to get started on discipleship is the lesson we are reminded of by the axiom “practice what you preach.” This reminds us that even if a pastor is intellectually convinced that disciple-making is what God wants Christians to do, his congregation will become convinced by what he does, not what he says.
#2 NEVER FINISH (Ephesians 4:13)
Continually be humble enough to admit that no matter how much you know and live discipleship, you are still growing and learning. This is an absolute requirement for discipleship. Why? Because at its root, disciple means “a student.” When we stop learning or stop being a student of Jesus, then we have ceased to be true disciples. And when we are not disciples of Jesus, we cannot make disciples of Jesus – we cannot lead others to be what we are not.
#3 BE CONVINCED (Ephesians 4:14)
Invest the time to study God’s Word and become fully convinced that “making disciples” is (or is not) the one job that Jesus gave us for the church age. Trends have become normal in local churches and we face massive cultural tidal waves in America. Jesus’ church cannot afford to have leaders who make reactionary decisions regarding eternal priorities. Either Jesus told His followers to intentionally invest their lives into others – or He did not. Be fully convinced one way or the other. A pastor who is fully convinced will lead consistently and confidently. If he is not, then he will lead God’s people to chase the waves of change and winds of promised growth.
#4 EMBRACE TRUTH (Ephesians 4:15)
It is tempting to find ready-made simple answers that fix all the problems. For many years, I worked on settling the argument of “which is more important: discipleship or outreach?” As God has grown me, I have come to realize they are not in competition in any way. A great way to think about the relationship between discipleship and outreach is that they both flow from the same gospel. Like a fire gives off both heat and light – they are the natural outflows from the fire. No one sits around a fire asking which one is more important, heat or light. We know both are valuable and needed, and we are thankful for both! The more God has grown my understanding of the gospel, the more I am excited, encouraged, and engaged with both outreach and discipleship.
#5 START SMALL
Do not start by trying to get the whole church to jump on board next Sunday. Start growing with whomever you have been given, and whatever size you are. The verse says “growth of the body” not “growth to a certain size body.” How can we start in small ways? Begin discipling one of your leaders. Point out discipleship as a course of routine expository preaching. Bring it up with mature believers to see what their experience and understanding are. As you read and study, look to nail down the fundamentals of discipleship, not every detail and nuance.
“Go make disciples of all nations!” -Jesus
-Steven Hodges
Gospel Baptist Church | Gallion, OH