DISCIPLESHIP BEST PRACTICES: 13 Ways to Make Disciples

By On March 14, 2011 · 5 Comments

Simple Discipleship logo

A friend on Facebook recently posted a question: “Do worship and discipleship really go together?” Of course my answer was a resounding, “Yes.” In fact I added that in order to be effective, discipleship must be ubiquitous and is how disciples live life around the cross—a verbal description of the visual logo of Simple Discipleship.

Even with all of the recent focus on discipleship, many churches remain paralyzed in their 20th century silo-style of discipleship delivery which has proven ineffective at transforming lives and making disciples. In fact, silo-delivery of discipleship reinforces behavioral compartmentalization defined as “a state in which some integrated part of a person’s life becomes separated from the rest of the personality and functions independently.” You know this concept: people hear teachings of Christianity in a Bible study or sermon and then fail to integrate the principles into their lives since, as they see it, they have their church life and their other life. A ubiquitous (all inclusive-everywhere present) discipleship delivery system provided in a process manner is much more effective.

13 WAYS TO MAKE DISCIPLES

This series of articles will focus on eleven delivery methods of a ubiquitous discipleship process which include but are not limited to:

  1. Passive Discipleship: the least effective method but essential to support other methods
  2. Private Discipleship: the Christian and the Holy Spirit (most effective but under used)
  3. Presence Discipleship: In times of crisis the disciple invests time, assistance, and prayer.
  4. Participation or Proximity Discipleship: applies to all areas but most of all to giving
  5. Projected Discipleship: Actively but humbly projecting a Christian example of living Christ’s teachings.
  6. Platform or Presentation Discipleship: preaching in church and lecture-style Bible study
  7. Program Discipleship: Pre-packaged materials delivered in large or small groups.
  8. Personal Discipleship: One-on-one discipleship (very effective but seldom used)
  9. Peer Group Discipleship: Bible study and Sunday School
  10. Practical Discipleship: Hands on service, evangelism, and missional projects
  11. Proficiency Discipleship: Leadership Development
  12. Proclamation Discipleship: Evangelism and preaching to unchurched
  13. Process Discipleship: All of the above delivered in a systematic way

If your church is only using three or four of the delivery methods through the course of a year, your church is not effectively making disciples. At issue is whether the church leadership is intentionally employing each of these discipleship delivery methods in a process manner continuously. It is even better if the leadership is measuring the effectiveness of the process on a regular basis by the use of a spiritual vitality assessment and congregational scorecard.

Evaluate how you and your church are doing in the 13 methods of discipleship: Copy of 13 Ways to Make Disciples_Evaluation

Disciple Coach Training

I offer five 1 hour sessions of rapid Christian growth coaching for you in the privacy of your home or office via high speed internet. Simple Discipleship recommends training 4 people from each church to be Discipleship Coaches and each one is responsible for one of the primary areas of the cross…WORSHIP >> WORD >> MINISTRY >> MISSIONS. Here is what we will cover together:

Disciple-Maker’s Coaching

  1. Basics of Simple Discipleship
  2. Stages of Spiritual Growth
  3. 10 Things You Can Do to GROW
  4. Spiritual Vitality Assessment
  5. Balanced Christian Life Assessment
  6. Disciple’s Doctrinal Assessment for evangelical Christians (cross-denominational instrument statistically tested for validity and reproducibility)
  7. A 12 Spiritual Gifts Assessment (the focus is ministry disciple-making gifts)
  8. A Unique DISC Assessment
  9. DISC Personality related to Disciple-Making
  10. 2 Simple Evangelism Methods
  11. Training for Discipling New Christians

HOW IT WORKS

FEE- $150.00 prepaid. Send an email to tom@simplediscipleship.com saying that you want the online discipleship coaching. I will send you a PayPal e-bill from my ministry company, RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC. …or go to http://www.simplediscipleship.com to register on the store page.After payment I will send you a printable pdf copy of the Disciple-Maker’s Toolkit and we will schedule the online meetings. It’s as simple as that!

Discounts are available for training up to 4 people from the same church as Discipleship Coaches. I have limited calendar openings. Let’s get started!

RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES

There are several books that discuss the principles related to making disciples as a process:

Not to be self-serving since I am the author of one of the listed book, but many churches would be energized to make disciples if the leaders studies them and applied the principles.

Make disciples!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece, The Disciplist

——————–

Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century was published by Church Smart Resources. To learn more about Simple Discipleship and to order the book and other discipleship resources, follow the link below:

http://www.simplediscipleship.com

——————–

Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
He is a pastor, author, professional coach, leadership specialist, and is a member Coach/Teacher/Speaker for the John Maxwell Team

Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Web | Blog | Book | Coaching

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5 Responses to DISCIPLESHIP BEST PRACTICES: 13 Ways to Make Disciples

  1. AugustBibleStudy says:
    March 29, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    I love the point that every day and every part of your life should be used for this purpose, not just during discipleship bible study and church. Making sure not to separate church and “other” life is something everyone should work on, including myself. I will definitely be checking back to read more from this series. Thanks Tom!

    Reply
  2. shama2 says:
    June 4, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    Dr. Tom,
    To me your 13 ways sounds very like a generic use of the term “discipleship” having not mentioned any of the following:
    Jesus taught that to make disciples requires that we teach everything that he commanded.

    (Mat. 28:28-30) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

    The following are the “all that I have commanded you” what I would call the terms of discipleship or the commands of Jesus to anyone desiring to follow Him:

    1- Loving Jesus more than self or others. Mat. 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
    Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

    2- Denial of self. Mat. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

    3-Taking up your cross. Mark 8:34-38 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

    Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son
    of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”

    4-Love for all who belong to Christ. John 12:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

    5-Abiding in His Word. John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”

    6-Forsaking all to follow Him. Luke 14:33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

    The gospel we are called to walk worthy of and contend for, once delivered to faithful men, is lived out in taking up our cross and denying ourselves. The invitation is to come and die. Everything else is better understood in this light. Romans, the Gospel of God, is more easily understood as we obediently bear our cross. Paul asks in chapter 6:2-11, (NKJV) “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
    For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

    Death is understood from our experience of taking up our cross. If the Christian experience/life starts with blood washing away our sin and placing us in right standing before God, then the cross is for our deliverance from sin. 1 Cor. 1: 17-18, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

    Many Christians struggle with sin, sinning and asking forgiveness, over and over never really overcoming the practice of sin. Yes, I realize we still sin and need to ask for forgiveness, but the cross delivers us from its bondage and we are set free from its slavery through death. Paul’s letter to the Galatians chpt.2:20 now becomes the cry of my heart, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And Gal. 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

    Finally in regards to discipleship, I reference 1John 2:3-6, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”

    In Christ,
    Mike

    Reply
    • Dr. Tom Cocklereece says:
      June 4, 2011 at 6:13 pm

      Mike,
      Thanks for your extensive and very good comments. However, you discussed the “what” of discipleship. In other words, “what” (content) is in the glass. The article discusses the “how” of discipleship or the delivery system or methodology. In other words how is the content going to be delivered…i.e. glass, bucket, pitcher, hose, etc. Your comments cover the “what” very well. The point of the article is that churches must use a variety of delivery methods in order to reach everyone. Not all people learn best in the same manner. Western education methodology is great for those who memorize fragments of information for a multiple choice test and then walk away and forget the content. Jesus used preaching, small groups, large groups, one-to-one, go and do it practicums, observe while I show you, and other methodologies as his delivery system. His disciples experienced EACH methodology before Jesus ascended to heaven. By employing just one or two delivery methods, churches are short changing the discipleship development of their people.
      Tom Cocklereece

      Reply
  3. Castle seakhela says:
    March 26, 2012 at 6:17 am

    Can you please expail to me what can i do for practical dicsipleship.

    Reply
  4. Tom Cocklereece, DMin, LBCT says:
    March 26, 2012 at 7:08 am

    For explanation of “practical discipleship” go to http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/discipleship-best-practices-10-%E2%80%93-practical-discipleship/

    Reply