As someone who has been in ministry in one way or another for over 35 years, I noticed a gap in the field recently. We have assessments for leaders, pastors, and church planters, but how do we know if someone is a disciple? That’s really the starting point and foundation for any ministry, but too often we simply assume it. And when we try to make leaders from non-disciples, it creates all kinds of problems.
Therefore, our real starting point must be discipleship. Yet how can we measure that? How can we assess for it? I wanted to help people do an evaluation of themselves by giving them the capacity to measure discipleship behaviors in their own lives accurately.
I began with a study of the portrait of Jesus as given in the four gospels, looking specifically at the reported behaviors of Jesus. Behaviors can be measured in ways that intangible qualities cannot, yet behaviors point to those underlying qualities.
At this point, I enlisted the help of Dr. Charles Ridley, a research psychologist, who worked with me on the previously developed church planter assessment and coach assessment. We sifted through the behaviors of Jesus, looking for overlaps, gaps, and comparing them to other discipleship rubrics. You can see the dimensions of discipleship we came up with here in a free downloadable document.
After refining the behaviors we wanted to measure, we set about creating a 360 degree assessment. This type of assessment involved not just a self-assessment, which is helpful but limited, but also the perspectives of peers, people who are discipling the candidate, and people the candidate is discipling.
The results generated by the assessment pinpoint both strengths and growth areas, setting forth a clear way forward for the disciple’s continuing development. Visit the Dimensions of Discipleship online assessment page to find out more and take your assessment today.
Purchase our latest book:
“The Discipleship Difference: Making Disciples While Growing As Disciples”
About the developers:
Dr. Robert E. Logan. Bob has well over 30 years of ministry experience, including church planting, pastoring, consulting, coaching, and speaking. Bob has seen a great deal, yet remains on the cutting edge of ministry through hands-on missional involvement. Bob earned his DMin from Fuller Theological Seminary. Current favorite ministries: volunteering in a recovery community, helping lead a house church gathering.
Dr. Charles R. Ridley. Chuck has utilized his expertise in the area of measurement and assessment in the development of the Church Planter Profile, which has shaped the foundation of church planting all over the world. He has also done extensive work on coach competencies and assessments, supervising a qualitative international research project. Chuck earned his PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Minnesota.