Three Key Ideas about Making Disciples

It was Jesus’s last command to his own disciples: Go make disciples of all the people-groups of the world (Matthew 28:19). If we are going to take Jesus seriously, we can see that making disciples is the central mandate of the church, and everything else is details.

Let’s not rush past this. Think about what Jesus didn’t say to his disciples as his last command. Jesus lived in times that were more brutal and miserable than ours, yet he didn’t tell his disciples to “change the world” or “alleviate poverty” or “combat social injustice.” 

These are all right and good and worthy goals, and Christians should be at the forefront in these endeavors, but they are not the primary concern of the church. As soon as the church makes any other project an end in itself instead of a means to the end of making disciples, we are neglecting – that is, we are disobeying – Christ’s command. We are, in the words of Dallas Willard, committing the Great Omission.  

In his excellent book The Great Omission, Rediscovering Jesus' Essential Teaching on Discipleship, Willard says it so well:

Jesus told us explicitly what to do…. He told us, as disciples, to make disciples. Not converts to Christianity, nor to some particular “faith and practice.” He did not tell us to arrange for people to “get in” or “make the cut” after they die, nor to eliminate the various brutal forms of injustice, nor to produce and maintain “successful” churches.

These are all good things, and he had something to say about all of them. They will certainly happen if—but only if—we are (his constant apprentices) and do (make constant apprentices) what he told us to be and do. If we just do this, it will little matter what else we do or do not do.

So if our aim is to “make disciples,” how do we go about helping another person toward the goal of mature discipleship? With a nod toward Mark Howell, pastor and discipleship and small groups coach whose blog inspired this post, here are three key insights on making disciples:

“Disciples are rarely made in rows”

I get this line from Howell. And he’s right. We cannot institutionalize this task; making disciples requires loving personal attention, the kind of attention that we cannot give in large groups.

As an educator in Christian schools for four decades, my primary task was helping my students see and understand the Bible and the biblical worldview. As a teacher, cognitive achievement was really all I could assess, especially given the sheer numbers of students in my classroom (more than 100 every day, all in rows). I could ask good test questions to discern what my students knew and understood, but I couldn’t spend enough time with each student to discern what was going on in their hearts.

Education is not in and of itself the same thing as disciple-making. As vital as transformation of the mind is, there is more to making disciples than providing sound and effective teaching. Disciple-making is not just about making good theologians and Bible students, it’s about shaping the heart as well as the mind. This requires consistent, persistent personal attention, the kind of loving personal attention that can happen only in one-on-one or micro groups (2-4 people).

Don’t get confused about the role of curriculum in disciple-making

A. You don't have to use curriculum to make disciples. Jesus and his first-century followers didn’t have access to the vast array of disciple-making resources we have today. They didn’t even have the completed New Testament! Yet they made disciples, relying on the same resources we have now: God’s Word, God’s Spirit, and God’s people.

B. Completing a course or curriculum doesn't make you either a disciple or a disciple maker. Mark Howell says it well:

You don't become a disciple by completing a course or curriculum. While some studies might be better at generating the kinds of conversations that open eyes and soften hearts, completing a study or a course isn't like completing a degree program that qualifies you to use a title or certain letters after your name (like Reverend or PhD). Completing a course or curriculum also doesn't make you disciple-maker. You might earn a credential, but what makes you a disciple maker is that you're actually making disciples.

So what role does curriculum play in making disciples? At first, a disciple-maker may feel the need of the structure and direction that a good curriculum can provide. But as a disciple-maker grows in experience and confidence in making disciples, he or she will develop a set of skills and methods that will work in the process, and curriculum will become auxiliary, even unnecessary.

Disciple-making is a slow, patient, pains-taking, long-range process

Education is, by its very nature, a time-bound endeavor. A course lasts a semester. A degree will take a few years to complete.

But disciple-making isn’t education; disciple-making is more like child-rearing. Raising a child takes a long-range and enormous and loving investment of personal time and energy. 

It takes a while to make a disciple. Just as parents must acknowledge that children grow and mature at different rates, so also we must give God's Spirit time and space to bring about the growth and maturity that will enable our disciples to stand and make disciples on their own. 

As Howell puts it, “You can’t microwave a disciple.”

The educator in me would love to be able simply to choose a good disciple-making curriculum, recruit and train a few good leaders, and roll it all out in a great multi-media launch. 

That may be a good way to launch a program, but it’s not a good way to make disciples. If we want to make disciples who make disciples, we will have to gear down our expectations about numbers and time, and we will have to pour our time and energy into a few at a time.

In other words, we’re going to have to make disciples the way Jesus made disciples.