There are hundreds of videos out there of well-meaning pastors who challenge their people to start making disciples. Everyone knows Christians are supposed to make disciples, but so few Christians are actually doing it. Pastors have offered explanations for why this is.
Maybe it’s because no one is really serious about their faith?
You know, Christians don’t really love Jesus. They’re selfish, lazy, and carnal. If they truly loved Jesus, they would get out there and make disciples.
I just don’t buy it. I know plenty of Christians who fit the bill, but I also know myriads of Christians who genuinely love Jesus and want to make him known. But still they don’t do it.
Maybe it’s because no one’s preaching the real gospel anymore?
You know, we’ve watered it down, offering a “safe” version of God that just isn’t biblical. If Christians would preach the wrath of God, sinners would not fail to respond.
[Related: What Is the Gospel?]
Again, nope. Sure, Christians have a hard time getting in a neighbor’s face and telling them they’re going to hell. But that’s not the main problem. There’s something more basic at the root of the disciple-making crisis in our churches.
The real problem is that they’re not equipped
Paul said that the pastor’s job is to equip the regular believers to share the truth in love (Ephesians 4:11-15). Not to cram the gospel down someone’s throat, but to make the intentional commitment to share the right truth at the right time with people who need Jesus. That takes knowing the gospel, of course. But it really takes having the relational sensitivity to walk with someone to the point where they’re able to hear it.
Sharing the gospel is a part of disciple-making (we call it “mentoring”), it’s not the whole thing. Pastors need to equip people to share the truth of a biblical worldview on every topic, not just on the ones that seem “spiritual”. If the average believer understood that, I think we’d see more disciple-makers.
[Related: What Is Mentoring and Who Should Do It?]
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- How many people have you personally discipled? How did you do it?
- If you asked the average person in your church what they think disciple-making means, what do you think they’d say?
- Read Ephesians 4:11-15. According to this passage, what is the job of the pastors? What is the job of the average people? How many people are doing their job at your church? Where’s the problem?
- What discipleship tools does your church make available to the people? What effect are those tools having on Christians in your church? What effect are they having on non-believers in your community?
- Talk about the How It Works page at pursueGOD.org. Do you think these tools would be helpful for equipping your church? If not, how will you equip the people to do the work of disciple-making?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
Ministry Tools:
