The goal in a church is not simply to make disciples. It’s to make disciples who go on to make other disciples. Passing it on is the difference between one generation and multiple generations. So whatever type of system or method or approach you take to making...
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...
A good model for discipleship needs to be a simple, reproducible method that helps guide a person toward becoming an obedient follower and disciplemaker. Whatever model you use, you must build in reproducibility. A few good models are outlined below: just...
One of my mentors is Carl George. He was strategically involved when I was a church planter and throughout my ministry– sometimes as a consultant and sometimes in more of a mentoring role. One of the things he cautioned me about was what he called “the tyranny...
This entry is the fourth in a four-part series on what it takes to build a coaching culture. Many pastors and leaders want to have coaching be part of the very fabric of how they do ministry– they want it to permeate their whole discipleship and leadership...
I was on an international flight flipping through business magazine when I saw an ad that caught my attention. It was a plain white page with a golden egg at the bottom and a single caption that read, “What you really need is the goose.” It was a great ad. In...
When you’re field testing something new, and it seems to be working effectively, the next thing you need to do is hand it over to someone else to let them do it without your involvement and see if it still works. I’ve done this on a number of occasions only to find...
If you’re putting together a training system, a coaching structure, a discipleship approach, a leadership development plan—almost anything—there are five core elements you’ll need to put into place to make a truly great system: Keep it focused. Have a clear...
