What does a Missional Disciple Making Process look like?

[Miguel Labrador]

What would distinguish a missional disciple making movement from the commonly practiced methods of the day?  

[John Dobbs]

I think it would have to have three elements (sorry, I think in 3's, preacher reverb)

*Intensive study of the Scriptures (intensive=purposeful studies w/accountability)

*An element that escapes the study and takes student and teacher into the marketplace together

*An emphasis on the student becoming a teacher

Just some initial thoughts to kickstart discussion. :)
john

[James Nored]

Miguel, I had a conversation about this just Sunday with one of my friends and a fellow church leader. I am at heart an evangelist. But I have long sought to put people in discipleship groups after their baptism to help them continue to grow in the Christian faith. I have used Greg Ogden's work, Discipleship Essentials, for this. It is good material, but pretty standard stuff. The real secret to this group is the use of triads or quads (groups of 3-4 people) of the same gender.

What I discovered, however, was that though people were building good relationships in these groups and growing in knowledge, this was teaching them that becoming a better disciple was exactly that--relationships and knowledge.

I now do two things. First, when putting people in discipleship groups, I try to make sure that these groups have a lived out, service and outreach element to them. I like using Michael Frost's BELLS missional lifestyles practices.

Second, I am now integrating the call to mission more thoroughly throughout my evangelistic study, the Story of Redemption. You will see this in the revised version which is about to come out. This teaches people that coming to faith in Jesus and accepting his Lordship is also a call to be a disciple making and engage in mission.

I am finding that by integrating mission into the conversion process, people start reaching out immediately. They don't have to wait to be "mature" Christians to reach out. By this time they are usually so socialized in the church that they have few friendships remaining with non-Christians. We want to create disciples like the woman at the well (Jn. 4), who went and told her whole village about Christ after a single powerful encounter.

Jesus' first call to the disciples was, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people." Discipleship should not be separated from mission.

Great question, and I'll be interested in others' responses.

[James Nored]

Miguel, did you publish this post to your Facebook page? All you have to do is click on the Facebook icon above. It is a really great feature. This means you can compose posts here and not have to re-post them to your page. Please try it out and see how it works!

[Jon Van Bruggen]

James, your concept for the inclusion of service and outreach was precisely the approach we took with our house church network in LA. Even before some in our community professed to be followers of Jesus they were serving alongside us and acting like Jesus. Our emphasis was on teaching people how to behave as disciples of Jesus (what I like to call "hand knowledge") and then applied "head knowledge" when appropriate.

This approach assumes there is a relationship of trust already established. Why else would someone respond to our invitation to join us in serving others? It also assumes that evangelism and discipleship are not distinctly separate processes in one's faith development, but that's a whole separate discussion! :)

Peace to you bro



James Nored said:

Miguel, I had a conversation about this just Sunday with one of my friends and a fellow church leader. I am at heart an evangelist. But I have long sought to put people in discipleship groups after their baptism to help them continue to grow in the Christian faith. I have used Greg Ogden's work, Discipleship Essentials, for this. It is good material, but pretty standard stuff. The real secret to this group is the use of triads or quads (groups of 3-4 people) of the same gender.

What I discovered, however, was that though people were building good relationships in these groups and growing in knowledge, this was teaching them that becoming a better disciple was exactly that--relationships and knowledge.

I now do two things. First, when putting people in discipleship groups, I try to make sure that these groups have a lived out, service and outreach element to them. I like using Michael Frost's BELLS missional lifestyles practices.

Second, I am now integrating the call to mission more thoroughly throughout my evangelistic study, the Story of Redemption. You will see this in the revised version which is about to come out. This teaches people that coming to faith in Jesus and accepting his Lordship is also a call to be a disciple making and engage in mission.

I am finding that by integrating mission into the conversion process, people start reaching out immediately. They don't have to wait to be "mature" Christians to reach out. By this time they are usually so socialized in the church that they have few friendships remaining with non-Christians. We want to create disciples like the woman at the well (Jn. 4), who went and told her whole village about Christ after a single powerful encounter.

Jesus' first call to the disciples was, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people." Discipleship should not be separated from mission.

Great question, and I'll be interested in others' responses.

[James Nored]

Jon, it is great to hear what people like you who are "on the ground" are doing with mission and discipleship. Whatever insights you can share on this will be greatly appreciated!

By the way, where is Bob Logan on this?