During the National Disciple Making Forum earlier this month, I attended four conferences led by Craig Etheredge, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Colleyville, TX. In those conferences, he shared his experiences which formed seven steps (bold moves) necessary to transition a church to become an intentional disciple-making church. Those seven…
On churchleaders.com, Bobby Harrington asks ten disciple-making questions for churches in an article entitled 10 Disciple-Making Questions You Need to Ask. I encourage you to read the entire article. Many good questions are in his list: How does our church define discipleship? What does a disciple look like? Do we…
At the National Disciple Making Forum, I received a sampler (two chapters) of The Disciple Maker’s Handbook: 7 Elements of a Discipleship Lifestyle by Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick. Because I have been around Bobby at the discipleship track at Exponential and this year’s Forum, I look forward to reading…
The local church in America is realizing she needs Jesus-style disciple making. Leaders know they are in trouble without it. Jesus commanded it. And everyday Christians are increasingly expressing their need for it. There already exists an unorganized group of men and women committed to this focus in America. They…
As followers of Jesus Christ, our ultimate source for examples and teaching related to disciple-making is Jesus Himself. Sometimes we miss His disciple-making actions. The Bible is our source book about Jesus, and as a result it is our source book about disciple-making. The further we get from the source,…
I mentioned in Part 1 that what follows are some of my observations of the biblical account of the disciple-making example of Jesus. I am not attempting an exhaustive treatment. STOP. At the beginning of Part 1, I invited you to press Comments and list 4-6 descriptors of how Jesus…
In Part 1, I shared that Dr. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote an article in the most recent edition of Facts & Trends. The article was entitled 7 Indicators of True Church Discipleship. There he shared 7 evidences, measures, or indicators of disciple-making taking place in and…
Dr. Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote an article in the most recent edition of Facts & Trends. The article was entitled 7 Indicators of True Church Discipleship. In the article, Dr. Rainer shared 7 evidences, measures, or indicators of disciple-making taking place in and through the church.…
Who is involved in your disciple-making? There are three important “Who’s” of disciple-making. Let’s look at each of them: WHO: Jesus. When we follow Jesus, He promises to make us fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). We are all apostles (sent ones) who are sent to make disciples of all nations…
You are having a conversation with another Christian. He says, “My boss expects me to lie to my customers. I don’t know what to do.” The conversation is a teachable moment, a discipleship opportunity. What if you seriously asked, “What does the Bible say?” What if you sent him home…
Two encounters are critical. First, the leader encounters God in His Word and is changed. Second, the leader guides the group to have a life-changing encounter.
In John 13:34-35, three times Jesus said, “Love one another.” Your group is the ideal place to practice and launch the kind of love for one another that shows the world that we are His disciples.