For discipling people, I like to use the analogy of rubber bands and shoelaces. People need both enough stretch (rubber bands) and enough support (shoelaces) to be able to move forward. One without the other is incomplete. People need to be stretched and challenged in...
We want people to grow as disciples and make other disciples, yet we often never get discipleship efforts off the ground. As I’ve looked at hundreds of different discipleship initiatives, I’ve come across five key mistakes to avoid. These are the elements that prevent...
I had a curious observation recently as I was reflecting on the idea of extremes. My thoughts went to the two biggest groups that opposed Jesus: The Pharisees and the Sadducees. On the extreme conservative side were the Pharisees with all of their nitpicking and...
When someone knows what God wants them to do, sometimes there’s still a reluctance to move forward. If you’re in a position of trying to help guide people toward change, you’ll need to consider the nature of the blockage. What gets in the way? Here...
In conversation with my colleague and professor of Psychology at Texas A&M, Dr. Charles Ridley, we talked about what really gets in the way of personal discipleship growth and process. There are many types of impasses—blind spots, assumptions, patterns,...
When I was first planting a church, we had an enviable problem: too many new Christians. We began seeing numerous people come to faith and were trying to keep up with discipling them and helping them grow. At the time I was using a simple follow-up tool—something with...
