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Best Practices of Disciple Making Churches

2025 National Disciple Making Forum

May 7th & 8th, 2025 • Houston, Texas

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Featured Speakers

Our lineup includes some of the most respected voices in disciple-making today

Bobby Harrington
Jim Putman
Jason Shepperd
Shodankeh Johnson
Josh Howard
Lori Arnold
Joey McLaughlin
Ed Kang

Would you like to sit at the feet of leaders from some of the top disciple making churches in the USA and beyond? Would you like to learn their best practices? In 2024 our team initiated a national search to objectively identify 100 top disciple making churches. We have found some churches that are hitting the ball out of the park when in comes to Jesus’ mission. They have stories that you will want to hear … and principles and practices you want to learn about … and emulate.

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THE FOUR MISSION CRITICAL ELEMENTS

At this year’s Forum, our four main stage sessions will be led by these leaders as they will focus on their best practices…

Joey McLaughlin — In top disciple making churches, all the leaders bleed intentional, relational disciple making as their core mission—they are personally sold out to it.

Ed Kang — These churches rigidly hold to and prioritize their unique, “simple, effective, and reproducible” disciple making model.

Jason Shepperd — These leaders expect everyone in their church—high expectations indeed—to be engaged in disciple making and in their disciple making model.

Shodankeh Johnson — These leaders focus everything in the church, down to a micro-level, on 1) missional, 2) theological, 3) philosophical, 4) organizational, and 5) relational alignment for disciple making.

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Disciple making theories practices that Actually work

Join 1,500 church leaders as we come together to learn, grow, and get equipped by the best practices of disciple making. The 2025 National Disciple Making Forum is a unique gathering designed for pastors, youth pastors, and dedicated church leaders seeking practical and impactful ways to make lasting change in their communities.

Register and save 20% now

Forum Schedule

Wednesday May 7th

  • 8:00am – 9:30am : Attendee Check-in Begins
  • 9:30am – 11:00am : Main Session 1 – Convictional Leadership
  • 11:00am – 11:15am : Break
  • 11:15am – 12:15pm : Track Session 1
  • 12:15pm – 1:45pm : Lunch
  • 1:45pm – 2:45pm : Track Session 2
  • 2:45pm – 3:30pm : Networking and Break
  • 3:30pm – 5:00pm : Main Session 2 – Contextual Model

Thursday May 8th

  • 7:30am – 8:30am : Prayer Meeting
  • 8:30am – 9:00am : Networking and Break
  • 9:00am – 10:30am : Main Session 3 – Core Expectations
  • 10:30am – 10:45am : Break
  • 10:45am – 11:45am : Track Session 3
  • 11:45am – 1:00pm : Lunch
  • 1:00pm – 2:00pm : Track Session 4
  • 2:00pm – 2:30pm : Break
  • 2:30pm – 4:00pm : Main Session 4 – Cultural Alignment


Why Attend?

In today’s world, effective disciple making can be challenging. Many church leaders feel frustrated by methods that don’t yield measurable results. If you’ve tried various church programs and found them lacking, this forum will equip you with proven strategies that work. Leave with real tools, actionable insights, and fresh inspiration from the nation’s leading voices in discipleship.

Key Benefits:

  • Learn Proven Strategies – Hear from top disciple making practitioners who are transforming lives across the country.
  • Engage with Leading Experts – Gain insights from influential speakers including Jason Shepperd, Jim Putman, Josh Howard, Bobby Harrington, and more.
  • Build Community – Network with fellow church leaders who share your passion for impactful disciple-making.
  • Immediate Application – Receive tools and techniques you can start using right away to bring measurable change to your congregation.


Check out our Mobile Site for More Event Information

CLICK HERE

8 Strategic Breakouts

We’re thrilled to announce the breakout tracks for this year’s National Disciple Making Forum—designed to equip you with practical, proven disciple making strategies from top disciple making organizations.

Here’s a sneak peek at the 8 strategic breakouts you’ll experience in 2025:

Best Practices in Disciple Making
  • Relational Discipleship Network – Small Group Discipling
  • Church Project – Micro Church Discipling
  • Discipleship.org – Best Practices of Top Disciple Making Churches
  • E3 – Disciple Making Movements (DMM)
  • Small Circle – One-on-One Discipling
Healthy Foundations for Disciple Making
  • Deeper Walk Int. – Spiritual Formation & Spiritual Warfare
  • RENEW.org – Jesus on Disciple Making
  • Lionshare – Mobilizing Marketplace Disciple Makers

These breakout sessions will give you the tools, frameworks, and inspiration to take disciple making to the next level in your church, small group, and daily life.

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Register Today

SUPER Early Bird Rate

50% OFF Rate Expires Dec 5
$279
$139
Groups (5+) $129

HOLIDAY Rate

40% OFF Rate Expires Jan 23
$279
$167
Groups (5+) $129

Early Bird Rate

28% OFF Rate Expires Mar 6
$279
$199
Groups (5+) $129

Spring
Sale

20% OFF Rate Expires Apr 10
$279
$239
Groups (5+) $129

What Attendees Say About the National Disciple-Making Forum

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“Fresh perspectives, creative resources, and seasoned, godly people to glean from, make up this one-of-a-kind gathering for leaders, pastors and their teams – all with the simple aim of obeying Jesus to multiply disciple makers.”
Dave Buehring
Founder & President of Lionshare
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“The National Disciple Making Forum helps protect a local church from theology that elevates anything above King Jesus and becoming like
Him in every way.”
Justin Gravitt
Navigators Church Ministries
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“I always come away refreshed, challenged, encouraged and grateful for new friendships and allies in our common ministries of disciple making.”  
Dr. Tony Twist
President & CEO
TCM International Institute
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“The National Disciple Making Forum is a unique event… bringing some of the best disciple-making ministries in the country together.  Deeply motivating, very inspirational, and offering world-class training… I’d highly recommend bringing your whole team to make a life-changing investment in them.”
Dr. Dann Spader
Author: 4 Chair Discipling, Disciple-making Metrics, Founder: Sonlife, Concentricglobal.org
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“The Christian mandate is to make disciples who can reproduce themselves, and the need to be equipped has never been greater than it is right now. Discipleship.org has pulled together the best disciple-making ministries in the country to help you do just that. I am blessed to be a part of it.”
Dr. Neil T. Anderson
Founder and President Emeritus of Freedom in Christ Ministries
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“Coming to the Forum not only energizes us to be disciples and make disciples of Jesus, but it also equips us to make the Great Commission a reality. The National Disciple Making Forum is head and shoulders the most valuable gathering that I know of.”
Steve McCoy
smallcircle.com
Event sponsors

Special Thanks to This Year Sponsors! We Are So Grateful for Your Support.

Connect with these sponsors at our event!

Recommended Hotels

  • Fairfield Inn & Suites Houston North/Spring
  • Holiday Inn & Suites Spring – the Woodlands Area, an IHG Hotel
  • The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center
  • The Westin at The Woodlands
  • Embassy Suites by Hilton The Woodlands at Hughes Landing
  • Hampton Inn & Suites North Houston Spring

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Bobby Harrington

Bobby is the point-leader of RENEW.org and Discipleship.org, both collaborative, disciple making organizations. He is the founding and lead pastor of Harpeth Christian Church (by the Harpeth River, just outside of Nashville, TN). He has an M.A.R. and an M.Div. from Harding School of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than 12 books on discipleship, including Discipleshift (with Jim Putman and Robert Coleman), The Disciple Maker’s Handbook (with Josh Patrick) and Becoming a Disciple Maker: The Pursuit of Level 5 Disciple Making (with Greg Weins). He lives in the greater Nashville area with his wife and near his children and grandchildren.

Jim Putman


Jim is the founder and senior pastor of Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. Prior to his role as senior pastor, he served as a youth minister in two small churches. In college, Jim won three All American titles in wrestling and went on to become a successful wrestling coach. Real Life Ministries began as a small group in 1998 and has grown to a membership of more than eight thousand. Ninety percent of its fellowship is active in small groups. Outreach Magazine continually lists Real Life Ministries among the top one hundred most influential churches in America.

Josh Howard

Josh Howard has lived in India since 2008 and has a passion to see the Kingdom of God spread throughout the world through raising up disciples who make disciples, leaders who create leaders, and churches that plant churches. In 2015, he launched a ministry called “Ignite,” which has seen over 20,000 churches started in about 8 years through movements of multiplication. Josh currently serves as the Global Mobilization Catalyst for E3 Partners and Director of Vision and Mobilization for Discipleship.org. Josh and his wife, Lashi and the three kids Jeremiah, Josiah and Zara live in the Indianapolis area.

Jason Shepperd

Jason also leads Church Project Network, and House Church Network, which are collectives of churches aligned around the commitment to be a "Church of House Churches." Jason founded and oversees "Good City," a city centrality for local ministry collaboration and support, and he speaks on "GOOD.GOD.GOSPEL.", an evangelistic tool for believers to share the gospel. He wrote the books A Church of House Churches: An Articulated and Applied Ecclesiology and Church Project: A Biblical, Simple, Relevant Pursuit of Church. Jason records a daily devotional podcast, START WITH 7, which leads thousands of people daily to start their days with prayer and Scripture.

Jason pastors, supports pastors, writes and speaks about ecclesiology, and consults churches on how to become a "Church of House Churches." He enjoys all things family, sports, competition, outdoors, travel, and trekking mountains. Jason lives in The Woodlands, TX, with his wife Brooke, and their family.

Shodankeh Johnson

Shodankeh Johnson is part of the Core Team of New Generations. He is responsible for the mobilization of intercessors across all regions and the training of Disciple Making Movement (DMM) leaders in the ‘pioneer places’ where the gospel has never been or has never flourished. In addition, Shodankeh provides DMM training for movement-minded ministries around the world.

Shodankeh is also the leader of New Harvest ministries in Sierra Leone, West Africa. New Harvest is an indigenous DMM organization that plants churches throughout the region and incorporates a wide-spectrum of ministries such as compassion, business development, leadership development, skills training and advanced education.

Joey McLaughlin

Joey McLaughlin is the Lead and founding pastor of Elevate City in Atlanta, Ga. He is the author and visionary architect of EQUIP and EQUIP X. Both are multiplicative disciple making models designed to create disciple makers who: deeply know Jesus, passionately follow Jesus and consistently lead others to do the same. Joey’s heart is to help the Church recapture the ancient art of disciple making while not neglecting the power of the Sunday gathering. As a communicator, Joey is Jesus centered, Biblically saturated and extremely passionate. His unique teaching style blends humor and authenticity with the goal of seeing the Bible jump off the pages and into people's lives. Joey studied Biblical Studies and Theology at Moody Bible in Chicago, IL.

Ed Kang

Ed Kang started out as a co-vocational college minister at UC Berkeley and subsequently developed the disciple making model champion by Acts 2 Network. The model Ed and his team have developed has seen significant fruit: countless numbers have placed their faith in Christ, these disciples are raised to becoming more and more like Christ and then they witnessing hundreds going out to plant new churches throughout the country in college towns.

Lori Arnold

Lori is the Worship Director at Real Life Ministries Texas in Tomball, TX. With more than 25 years of experience in worship ministry, she has a deep passion for cultivating authentic worship and equipping and developing others through discipleship and mentoring. Lori holds a Master of Arts in Worship Studies from Liberty University and is dedicated to fostering spiritual growth both on and off the platform. When she's not serving in ministry, Lori enjoys discovering new foods, traveling, and spending time with her husband, Kevin, and their three children.

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