Discipleship Structure for Churches

Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Discipleship should be uncomfortable. Now, if that doesn't scare you off, let me explain. Christianity, in general, is not a passive and comfortable religion. Take for instance the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is nothing comfortable about that. We could say that it is outright scandalous. That there is only one way that a person can be saved and that is through Jesus Christ. That you cannot earn your salvation, in fact there is nothing you can do but accept the free gift of faith because of God's amazing grace. That being a good person will only earn you eternal damnation. That all other religions are false and will be found guilty on judgement day. These are not comfortable things to talk to people about, but they are correct. Likewise, discipleship is something that takes great work, great effort, uses scary words, and places you into situations of vulnerability. Speaking of scary words, you must be comfortable with doctrine, theology, and accountability in order to disciple your people. You also must be will to confront and or exercise church discipline. We will explore these things, but I want to make you aware that we will be getting into some things that may not be the norm for the universal church in the last one hundred years.

I have made an observation that I believe you should consider. I have befriended and worked closely with many pastors across the country. One of the things that I commonly hear is that people do not have the desire to be discipled and it is not understood why. Yet the other thing that I hear is that there should be a drastic separation between "two dollar words" that the pastor knows and understands, and what should be expressed from behind a pulpit or in a classroom. I believe that that separation is felt and understood by the churchgoer who has also separated, in their minds, what the pastor should know and understand and what they should know and be able to practically apply to everyday life. As I study church history, I see no distinction between what pastors once taught and what they knew and understood. In fact, there are no secrets in Christianity. There should be no divider between the Master of Divinity earned by the pastor and what the pastor uses to educate his people. I know a pastor works hard for those degrees, and it is natural to want to hold things back, or dumb things down, as most seminaries advise. But then you wonder why the churchgoer has no desire to study, learn and grow. Perhaps it is because of that imaginary line that has been taught that separates pastors from what they teach the congregation. Sometimes, not always, education can create a type of snobbery that Jesus condemned the Phereses for having. I believe that the churchgoer will rise to the level of what they are taught, and when you are making a line between your knowledge and what you teach your people, by dumbing things down, it creates an expectation that was never to be made both biblically and as seen throughout history. Unless, of course, you want to compare what the Roman Catholic Church was doing to their people by not allowing them to own bible translations in their own languages. Teach your people all that you know . . . then learn some more and teach them that. Do not create a separation between what you should know and what they should know, teach them, equip them, and birth all of what you teach in the love of Jesus Christ and what He has done. Of course, you have to do that in a way that they can comprehend. That often will start out with basic fundamentals of the faith (D1) then should lead into theology and more advanced classes (D2). D3 classes should be reserved for teachers. We will get more into what that looks like on the following pages.

It is a good thing to teach your people theologically rich words and well explain their meaning. Do not be afraid of that. But most importantly, the way to get the people to have a desire to be a disciple is to teach them to love Jesus Christ. It is easy to say that you love someone, but if you don't know anything about them, those are only words. If you truly love someone, you will want to know and understand everything about them, from the smallest thing to their character, the way they think and operate, and what they expect in your relationship.