A great Disciple Making Leader is someone who is clear on the mission. You would think that “knowing the mission” is a given for all discipleship leaders. It isn’t! I have experienced interactions with many leaders who do not truly understand the mission of the discipleship groups they are leading.
Deep fellowship, personal sharing, and biblical study are great benefits of a disciple making group, but they are not the main mission. Please understand that these are truly good things, but they are not the end goal of a discipleship group. A discipleship group should have good fellowship, study, and sharing, but all of these things exist in the group to help disciples become fully trained disciples.
The Mission
The mission of a discipleship group should be personal and spiritual transformation. It is the same mission Jesus had for His group two thousand years ago. Jesus took unschooled, ordinary men and led them to become fully trained disciples. A fully trained disciple will partly be identified by the transformation that has occurred in his or her life as a result of being discipled. Jesus always knew exactly what the mission was and He led with the mission in mind.
The mission for Jesus was not to develop a group of theologians. Jesus was not just trying to develop a close-knit group of people who could experience life-long fellowship. Jesus was raising up a group of disciples He knew would change the world through carrying out His mission with great passion. Jesus’ mission was to make disciples who looked and lived like Him. His disciples knew exactly what His mission was and they pursued it.
Imagine being on a NFL team for a moment. The goal is for everyone in the organization to work toward the same mission. From the owner to the ball boy, everyone needs to know the mission is to win the championship. If the owner, general manager, and head coach are the only ones who know the mission, the team will be in trouble. There is little chance of winning a championship unless everyone is aiming in the same direction.
One of the greatest problems in the Church today is getting everyone on board understanding and pursuing the same mission. When leaders do not see and pursue the same mission, it weakens the organization as a whole. Team members actually end up working against each other rather than with each other when they do not know the mission.
A great Disciple Making Leader knows the mission of the Church. That leader is not suffering from mission drift or distracted by peripheral matters. That leader is focused on the mission and is committed to executing it. If local churches can develop a team of leaders like I just described – look out! A movement of multiplying disciples will break out and the mission of Jesus will be accomplished.
We can help you develop a strategy for creating Disciple Making Leaders in your ministry.
By Ken Adams
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