by ROBERT GALLATY with ReplicateMinistries.org
Even casual conversations with fellow pastors inevitably turn to the increasingly crucial topic of discipleship. While engaged in one of these with a fellow pastor of a larger church, he spoke about how he was indeed personally discipling a group of men in his church, but beyond that, church-wide disciple-making was non-existent. His executive pastor then added his understanding of how to go about making disciples as well: “Discipleship should be organic and not intentional. It should not be planned or prepared.” The Executive Pastor served previously at a church where the Senior Pastor adopted the concrete stance: “If you get people to church, then I will disciple them.”
“Unfortunately, Jesus never left discipleship to chance,” was my simple reply. “He was intentional and calculative from the beginning.” Moreover, Jesus’s disciple-making ministry was five things: Intentional, Size-Specific, Transparent, Accountable, and Reproducible.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be examining the life of John Wesley in order to further shed light on this undeniably crucial element of disciple-making. It’s our desire at Replicate to not just establish the need for discipleship, but to offer examples of disciple-making lifestyles and to deliver effective, practical methods…click here to read full article.