Discipleship
See Lives Transformed
Why did you go into ministry in the first place? Most likely you wanted to make disciples, see lives changed, see the Kingdom of God advanced. You wanted to see transformation.
Churches and ministries only grow as well as the disciples they develop. It’s time to go back to the basics with a focus on discipleship. We can help you create a simple, relational, yet focused system that can help you get traction for making disciples at all levels.
Intentional conversations to grow as disciples
Are you looking for ways to measure discipleship growth? Numbers are indeed important to measure but, as we discussed last week, we can get distracted from the real goal by looking too closely or solely at attendance. Making and growing disciples is the goal. But...
The metrics of quarantine worth measuring
Since at least the beginning of the church growth movement in 1961, we have been trying to find quantitative measurements for success. As a former science major, I can appreciate that emphasis on results. How would we otherwise know if we were doing well or not? We...
Listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit
How we can we come alongside one another in times of social distancing? How can we pray together, disciple one another, help people grow, and connect with God? None of that can currently be accomplished through a program, through a gathering, or through a number of...
How spiritual conversations can disciple children
By guest blogger Janet Logan In September of 2019, Barna research organization announced that the number of kids raised in the church who drop out of fellowship and faith between 18-29 years old has reached 64%. That's nearly 2 out of every 3 who drop out! What we’ve...
FREE resource for ministering to children during Covid-19
A couple of weeks ago I recorded a few episodes of the New Churches Q&A Podcast. Originally, it was to promote The Church Planting Journey, but then Covid-19 hit. We quickly decided the first episode in the series would address leadership in times of crisis. As...
Sending people on mission trips: Who is being served?
Often churches send their people out on mission trips. The purpose is to serve others and reach out with the gospel—to be a light in the world. Yet there’s a secondary purpose we often miss: How can we use mission trips as an opportunity for discipling the people who...
My recommendations for discipleship processes
This blog post is adapted from an excerpt from my latest book, The Church Planting Journey. In any healthy ministry, there needs to be a strategy in place for passing discipleship along from one person to the next. Here I cover a few of my most important...
What’s holding back disciplemaking?
What’s holding back the acceleration of disciplemaking movements around the world? Someone asked me this question recently and I thought hard about the answer. Here are some notes I took on some of the obstacles I see holding back the acceleration of disciplemaking...
Looking for a Christmas gift idea for your lay leaders?
We have recently released a new edition of Becoming Barnabas: A Ministry of Coming Alongside. The focus is on the simple ways everyone in your congregation can contribute to an environment of encouragement. This short and readable book would make a great Christmas...
Top to bottom accountability
Within any ministry or church, a clear system of accountability is essential. Yet when things get busy, that’s one of the areas that often falls to the wayside in the midst of the urgent. We may have good intentions, but entropy can take over unless we make an ongoing...