Intentional Path to
Discipleship
How do we get there from here?
By Reverend Don Jamison,
Chair of the Virginia Annual Conference Board of
Discipleship
Within
the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, we have a
mandate to develop an Intentional Discipleship Plan by 2020. The truth is that
we as churches across all denominations should have within our focus a clear
path to discipleship. In my work with corporations and now churches, the
success of an organization results from an understanding of who we are, why we
are here and what is the process that we need to accomplish our goal. Apple
Computers answers the “why” question by saying that “we are here to create new
technology to make the world a better place.” Notice they did not say, “We are
here to create computers or computer devices” and yet that is what they do and they
do it well. When we understand the “why” question then we can begin the process
of creating the how to solution. I remember working with a company who made
taillights and they are the best in the world at making taillights. They
understood that their “why” is answered, as “we want to promote safety with the
best vehicle light.” They wanted to get into the stop light business. They knew
nothing about stoplights. After sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars in
stoplights, they wanted to know why they could not succeed. Lights are lights
right? They discovered that they had ventured away from their reason for being.
They knew nothing about Department of Transportation rules and regulations nor
were they versed in the market for street lighting. When we know our why, we
can be successful at the how. When we deviate away from our purpose, we waste
resources and fail.
We also
know that there are numerous ideas about discipleship and how to bring that
into reality within the local church. We also the clearly understand that discipleship,
like the ministry of the local church, is contextual to the geography and
demographic of the community that surrounds it. My hope is to provide a process
that others can follow as they develop their own level of intentional
discipleship process for their church. There is no one-way to achieve success in
making disciples, except to say all discipleship making begins with
relationships. I believe that there are some clear steps that can be followed
that would assist a local church in developing individual and corporate
discipleship in their church. Much of my work centers on the work done by Phil
Maynard of EMC3Coaching and Junius Dotson, General Secretary of Discipleship
Ministries. I will also interject some experience that I have had in over 16
years in the ministry plus over 30 + years working with corporations,
businesses and churches at revitalization.
WHY
So how do
we begin? We begin with the “why.” Why do we need a discipleship path or
discipleship process? Why do we even care about discipleship at all? Many years
ago if we opened our doors to the church, people came. Many came because their
mothers made them come and they got used to the routine. Some came because
there was not anything else to do on Sunday morning and all the cool people
were at the church. Nevertheless, today, life is very different. Jim Griffith
of Griffith Coaching uses the example of the breakfast cereal aisle. In 1950,
it amounted to three or four basic choices. However, today it requires a whole
aisle as we have differentiated our tastes and desires. Churches today are full
of empty seats and salt and pepper hairstyles. Not all of them, but many. Why
are congregations shrinking and aging? Because we forgot the why question. Why
are we here? Let me share the reason. It comes from scripture.
NRS
Matthew
28:18 And
Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."[i]
The why
question is answered for us by Jesus and the Scriptures. We are to go and make
disciples. Some of you are probably saying why did He not spell out for us how
to do that. Didn’t He?
NRS
Matthew
22:36-40 "Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37 He said to
him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and
first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: 'You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets."[ii]
So how do
we get started? “So the beginning is to define your purpose. Without
definition, people are uncertain about how the church is making disciples.
Without definition, people are clueless about how the church is designed to
bring people toward spiritual maturity.”[iii] What is our why? Well I
have attempted to declare it with scripture but let me carry it a step further.
I believe that Jesus gave us our mission statement in Matthew 28: 18-20. We do
not need a rewrite for our local church mission statement. However saying that,
the Methodist Church has done a great job of defining the mission statement for
us.
¶ 120. The
Mission—The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.[iv]
So in
clear terms we have our “why” question answered. Notice that neither Jesus nor
the Book of Discipline put limits on this mission statement: it is meant to
apply universally for all size churches in all locations and for all
demographics.
Each
church should then begin to understand in their own context how to live into
that mission. We call this our vision. Bishop Bob Farr in his writings states
it in an easy way to understand it.
“The
vision of your church is how your church uniquely carries out the mission in
your community.”[v]
Bob Farr
further goes on to say,
“We have never seen a church grow by simply
hanging a mission and vision statement on the wall…On the other hand, we have
never seen a growing congregation that didn’t deeply understand their mission
and vision.”[vi]
How
The next
steps are what this work is about. Once you have established a vision for your
church, then the process begins at the end. When we know, what we desire to do
then our focus can be on how to do it. We have established that our end result
is to make disciples. What we need to next is think about what that means and
what does a disciple look like in the end. Junius Dotson in his work, Developing
an Intentional Discipleship System lists the following characteristics:
“A disciple worships
Is part of a community
Commits
to spiritual practices
Is
generous and serves
Is
seeking to be Christ-Like”[vii]
Phil
Maynard says it a different way. “The maturing
phase represents people who are ‘sold out to Jesus.’ They have discovered that
there is nothing more life-giving than being in the presence of Christ.”[viii] In other words, as a
member of your church leadership, you need to define what a mature disciple
looks like in your congregation, how they act, what they need to grow and what
they can do to mentor others along the way.
Once we
have described what a mature, full disciple looks like, we now need to
understand that everyone is on a journey of discipleship, even those who do not
personally know God in this moment. Phil Maynard’s work suggests that there are
five points on the discipleship journey that a person finds himself or herself.
They are: Searching, Exploring,
Beginning, Growing and Maturing. For more information, I recommend that you
spend time with his work, Shift and Membership to Discipleship.
Our goal as a church then is to assist everyone to move toward Maturing
Discipleship and part of the process requires us as a church to understand
where everyone is on the journey. Maynard’s Discipleship Survey tool is a great
way of determining the answer to that question. My suggestion then is for every
person in your congregation to fill out the survey. It can be obtained at
EMC3Coaching.com or if you are in the Virginia Annual Conference, it is free.
You might need to obtain the password from your District Office or your Board
of Discipleship Regional Director.
Maynard
also makes a connection with our United Methodist membership vows. It is not
enough to say that we walk through the five points listed above, but within
those points, we are also potentially in different places in our journey as
compared to each vow.
|
United Methodist Vow Maynard Dimensions
|
|
United Methodist Hymnal Membership to Discipleship Page 31
|
|
|
|
Prayers Opening
to Jesus
|
|
Obeying
Jesus
|
|
|
|
Presence A Life
of Worship
|
|
|
|
Gifts A
Life of Generosity
|
|
|
|
Service A
Life of Service
|
|
|
|
Witness A
Life of Hospitality
|
I highly
recommend that you spend time with Phil Maynard’s and Junius Dotson’s work in
defining what you mean by discipleship before moving further in developing an
Intentional Discipleship Plan. In Virginia, the Board of Discipleship is
willing to assist you in this process.
Let us
get to work
So let us
get to work. You have prayerfully accepted Jesus challenge for the mission of
your local church. You have established a vision for your church within the
context of you location and demographics. But wait! What? Demographics? It
might be important here to talk about demographics and why they may help you
paint the picture of vision for your church. If you do not know your neighbor,
how in the world are you going to connect with them? In Virginia, we use a
great tool called MissionInsite.com, which gives a tremendous amount of
information about who your neighbor is and is based on work done by Experian. I
once worked with a small church who told me that what they needed was young
people, children and young adults. They were sharing that they had created all
these children activities and programs and were having no success. When we examined
the demographic, we discovered they lived in a retirement prone area where
there was an almost total absence of children. I suggested after sharing the
demographics with them that they needed to focus on inviting more mature adults
to be part of their congregation. Since that time, they have modestly grown
after a long period of decline. Defining who your neighbor truly is allows you
to determine who your actual harvest field is for discipleship.
If we
understand what a disciple is and why we need to make disciples and how our
potential disciples in our neighborhood are, then the next step is how. In
simpler words maybe, how do we assist individuals to develop their own
discipleship journey and how do we develop the activities, programs and
structure of the church to facilitate that individual growth. Meanwhile we must
keep in mind,
“To attract the nonchurched, we need to have at least three things going
on Sunday morning and do them very well. They are children’s ministries,
passionate worship, and radical hospitality.”[ix]
We need
to create a clear and concise path to discipleship that is easy to understand. From
there we need to focus on two very important aspects of discipleship,
individual and corporate. Junius Dotson defines it this way:
“Personal
Discipleship (the individual): Equipping and empowering disciples for their own
growth.”[x]
“Corporate
Discipleship (the church): Doing everything that we can as a church to provide
opportunities for disciples to grow and mature in faith.”[xi]
At Sydenstricker United Methodist Church in
Springfield, Virginia we have defined that path as Connect>Develop> Serve.
Connecting with our Neighbor
We begin
with understanding how to connect with our neighbor. This process is all about
creating and building relationships with people in your community.
Statistically we know that many of them do not have a personal relationship
with God.
1.
In
order to Connect, we have to learn who our neighbor is. Some form of assessment
or demographic tool is necessary to do so. I highly recommend
Missioninsite.com. Whatever tool you
use, you want to know ages, projections by age, households (whether they are
married, single, single parent, etc.) and future projections. Mosaics provided
by Missioninsite give significant data about who your neighbors are their
spiritual habits, etc.
2.
Pay
attention to neighborhood activities. When and where do people congregate and
for what purpose. Mothers with small children may congregate in the park but
might like to have a nice place when it’s too hot or cold to do so. Hmmmm, like
your church maybe?
3.
Begin
a practice of prayer walking. Prayer walking does not require knocking on doors
or even engaging people though either of those practices can be helpful. Let
people know that we are from XYZ Church and we are in the neighborhood praying,
Can we pray with you? While we are prayer walking we can be paying attention to
the neighborhood. Is there evidence of young child toys in the yard, is the
house struggling to be maintained (might be an elderly couple who needs
assistance), or the absence of toys indicates the absence of children, etc.
4.
Begin
to form small groups, what we call Affinity groups. These groups share a common
interest. One church I served had a Beer Making group. Granted it was a little
out there, but there was true relationship and eventually true discipleship
occurred. Another group formed at the local pub on Monday nights in the fall
(can we say Football). Folks in the pub who would never be seen in a church
began being curious about what the group was doing, relationships were
developed and they eventually came and professed their faith there.
5.
Take
those small groups to public places. I once served a church where the entire
town could be seen at the local restaurant. Small groups that met there were
often engaged by the town folk. The folks you engage in relationship just by
being present might pleasantly surprise you.
6.
Plan
activities that invites neighbors to participate. These activities can be
anything of interest (remember the significance of the Mosaics) that would be
engaging to folks. They do not need to be at the church and at this point some
may actually be counterproductive to be in the church. Nonchurched people may
be uncomfortable at first being in the church building but not in your home or
the park or the local Fire Station fellowship hall.
Notice
that at this point we have not discussed worship. It is because we are about
creating and building lasting relationships that lead to the desire to seek
more from the people we are establishing relationships. To use Phil Maynard’s terminology,
Membership to Discipleship, many of these folks are the ones in the
journey who are still searching and exploring about God and Christ.
Once we
have built relationships with nonchurched folks outside the context of the
church itself, the next point in the process is folks moving through the doors
of the church. Bishop Schnase in his Five Practices for Fruitful
Congregations said that there are five things great churches do well,
Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Risk Taking Mission, Intentional Faith
Development and Extravagant Generosity. Two of them, radical hospitality and
passionate worship directly relate to this point in the connection phase of the
journey. I might note here that folks coming to your church at this point may
well be anywhere in the discipleship journey. We will discuss how to discern
that later. The two things we must do well are radical hospitality and
passionate worship.
Radical
hospitality means that meet people where they are with the best we have to
offer. As we connect with people at the doors of our church, we need to be
there with friendly welcoming faces and behavior. Greeters who meet folks in
the parking lot with umbrellas when it is raining is a great example of radical
hospitality. Once the folks are in the pews, being greeted by their close
proximity neighbors, having a neighbor open the hymnal to the first hymn or
responsive reading or pointing where it will be projected is radical
hospitality. Exploring and assessing how we do this is essential to assure
visitors return.
Passionate
worship means that on any given worship experience, the people sitting in the
pews, experience God. Nothing less is acceptable. The music, the liturgy, the
sermon and the welcome all play into this experience. I have served small
churches and now a mid-size church and the way to do this does not change. It
takes planning and preparation so that everything flows, follows the theme of
the scripture / sermon, and the sermon is meaningful, relevant and biblically
based. If you want to engage the visitor (and your member), you need to do all
these things well.
Finally,
gathering visitor information assists you in follow-up (if you do not have a
visitor follow-up process, GET ONE) and also allows you to know where live and
how they got to you. At Sydenstricker UMC and other churches I am familiar
with, Welcome Centers are established where people gather. We even attempt to
change the language of Narthex (church speak) to lobby. At the welcome center,
visitors are invited to fill out a card, receive a gift and are introduced to
others in the church.
Connecting
with people at this point is about where they are and where they desire to go.
By that I mean, where someone is on the discipleship journey may lead them to
ask where certain classes, small groups, etc.
meet so be prepared to be able to answer those questions. Churches who take
this seriously have brochures available for most if not all of their ministries
so that these questions can be easily answered. Churches that know the
discipleship of small groups are more able to engage new comers in existing
small groups. You would not want to take a beginning Disciple and drop them in
a very mature accountability group. We need to know then not only where people
are on the journey, beginner, growing, etc. but what the church needs to do to
assist them in that growth. More on that later.
From this
point, the next logical step in the process would be what I call a new member
class. I have to admit that membership in the church is not as important to me
as where you are on the discipleship journey but at the current church I serve,
it seems to be the logical step to determine the answer to that question. A new
member class should have candidates take the Discipleship Survey if that is
your tool for measuring discipleship. At my last two appointments, I also had
candidates take the Gallup Strength-finders survey and that survey was used by
nominations to fill vacancies and engage new members. Clear expectations about
what is expected of new members should be a fundamental part of the class. They
should know what it means to take a vow that says we will participate with our
prayers, our presence, our gifts; our service and our witness (see United
Methodist Hymnal). Presence means something different today than it did, once a
month may indicate actively attending members in today’s world so understand
what the person sees as actively attending.
Making Disciples
We have
connected with our neighbors, we have built relationships and now they are
interested in being part of our family. It is here that the hard work of
discipleship begins. “Disciples are
lifelong learners who influence others to serve.” (Bishop Sharma Lewis
vision for the Virginia Annual Conference 2017) Earlier I said that folks are
on the journey, in various places on the journey and arrive at your door with
unclear expectations of how you are going to help them grow. Understanding the
disciple making process for your church is paramount to being successful here.
Remember early on that we defined what a mature disciple looked and acted like.
We also have discussed understanding the journey.
I utilize
Phil Maynard’s terminology of Searching, Exploring, Beginning, Growing and
Maturing. Phil in his work describes the Jesus model of discipleship where you
spend your youth in memorization of the Torah, learning the concepts or being a
Jew. Then some are called out to go further and they engage in their life with
a teacher, a rabbi, who takes them under his wing and trains them up to be
rabbi’s themselves. In Wesleyan theology, we understand that God is desiring of
us to be in relationship and is engaging us throughout our lives. We call this
Prevenient Grace where God’s primary desire is to draw the searcher and
transform them into an explorer and then ultimately into a believer. At this
stage in our faith journey, we seek more in the relationship and come to the
altar to profess our faith publicly. More importantly, we ask Jesus to begin a
process of transformation. In Wesleyan theology, we call this moment Justifying
Grace. From that point on, we move towards maturity or perfection. In Wesleyan terms,
we call this Sanctifying Grace. Maynard suggests that at the point of
justification we become a beginning disciple, not sure yet of all this “Jesus
stuff” or how to live our lives in accordance with God quite yet. The church
has a fundamental responsibility to assist folks along this road. How do we do
that?
One way
is through the use of Sunday school or even small study groups. There we would
engage people to grow in their discipleship by teaching more about the Bible,
about Jesus, His life, death and resurrection and the story woven in the fabric
of the Epistles. Knowing where a small group is in their collective
discipleship would be significant. As I said earlier, you would not want to
drop a beginning disciple into a group of very mature disciples. They would be
lost and disoriented. Using tools like the discipleship survey to determine the
collective position of each of your small groups of Sunday school classes on
the discipleship journey is helpful.
Another
way is the growth of small groups within the congregation. Building small group
leaders who are tuned into mentoring folks along the way is essential. Small
groups who share common interests can lead people into meaningful relationships
and those relationships can be an effective way to assist growth in
discipleship. One way to start a small group is take the scripture and sermon
for the week and expound upon the message with time to share joys and concerns.
This goes to the heart of the original Methodist movement with classes and
small groups of people focused on growing deeper in their relationship with
God.
From the
pulpit, biblically based sermons on what a disciple is and does becomes important
to the progress of those in your flock. Along with this, the development of
materials that identify (such as brochures, handouts, etc.) where small groups
are so that engagement of a new person becomes as easy as matching the
individuals point in their journey with a group that fits. We as a church as
tasked with developing opportunities for folks to grow in their discipleship.
Knowing where people are allows you to develop the best opportunities.
I have
included some suggestions:
Searching Develop
relationships with Christians
Participate in small affinity groups
Ask
questions
Listen and look
at how this
church engages the
community
Exploring Attend
worship as often as possible
Ask questions
Participate
in serving at the church in
some way through
volunteering
Take
a Christianity 101 class
Beginning
Make a
commitment to Christ through
profession of faith and
baptism
Participate in an Alpha or Disciple
class
Attend
Worship regularly
Begin
to explore daily devotional time
Begin
to read the Bible daily
Serve
the church in some form, volunteer in
some church aspect or
mission service
Growing Attend
church regularly (2-4 times a month)
Join
a small group
Participate in a small study group
Attend
discipleship training
Regularly engage in devotion and
daily Bible
Reading
Engage
in daily prayer practices.
Work towards a Tithe
Serve the church as a
volunteer in ministry and
serve the church in
mission
Maturing Learn and
explore deeper spiritual practices
Be
a mentor for a younger Christian
Be
a small group leader
Engage
in mission
Witness
to those not in a relationship with God
Tithe
Serving
NRS James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you
have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a
brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you
says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you
do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has
no works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith
and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my
works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do
well. Even the demons believe-- and shudder. 20 Do you want to be
shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21
Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac
on the altar? 22 You see that
faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by
the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,"
and he was called the friend of God. 24
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25
Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she
welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is also dead.
I believe James sums it up nicely. Disciples have works
that demonstrate their faith. Without those works, we are no different from the
world around us. Jesus said that we must love God with all our hearts, our
minds and our souls. We must love our neighbor in the same way. So how do we do
that? We begin by serving. Most local churches have great mission opportunities
and ministries in their local communities. Maybe you have a local food bank or
clothing pantry or school programs that mentor to children. All of these are
great ways to serve God. Service as a disciple is two-fold. One is to the world
around us. We serve one another, especially where there is poverty, hunger,
homelessness and oppression. If abuse is prevalent in your community, engage
ways to save those being abused and classes to stop the cycle. If there is
poverty in your area, find ways to break the cycle and feed the hungry. There
are so many opportunities that they cannot be named. If you are a local church
and not engaged in mission then you are not focused on intentional
discipleship.
There are opportunities within the church to serve. I know
of churches in Korea where fresh flowers and the cleaning of the church is done
by church members. There are opportunities with administration, with buildings
and grounds work, with finance if that is your thing and many more. Maybe you
can serve on the funeral reception committee. The church should be inviting
people into service within the church and disciples should be looking for
opportunities to serve the church.
Endnotes
[i]
New Revised Standard, World Publishing, Nashville, TN, 1997
[ii]
Ibid
[iii]
Rainer, Thom S & Eric Geiger, Simple Church, 2011, B&H
Publishing, Nashville, TN, page 113
[iv] Book
of Discipline, 2016, The United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, TN
[v]
Farr, Bob, 2011, Renovate or Die, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, page 11
[vi]
Farr, Bob & Kay Kotan, 2015, 10 Prescriptions for a Healthy Church,
Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN page 1
[vii]
Dotson, Junius, 2017, Developing an Intentional Discipleship System,
Discipleship Ministries, page 26
[viii]
Maynard, Phil, 2015, Membership to Discipleship, Dr. Phil Maynard, page
53
[ix]
Farr, Renovate or Die, page 33
[x]
Dotson, page 8
[xi]
Ibid, page 9
Additional
Resources:
Phil
Maynard – See EMC3Coaching.com for a variety of resources about engaging people
in discipleship. Some of the books I have used, Shift, Membership to
Discipleship, Connect and the new one Discipler is a great
individual resource.
Discipleship
Ministries – again a variety or resources available and many if not all are
free to the local church
Anatomy
of Peace
by the Arbinger Institute
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