This is the final post in the five-part series from Justin Gravitt, author of The Foundation of a Disciplemaking Culture. In the last post, we looked at the motivations needed to start a disciplemaking culture. In this post, you’ll be prompted to discover your motivation.
Christian leaders who make disciples are committed to building up the body of Christ by bringing the faithful to maturity and by bringing skeptics to Christ. Such commitment to living like Jesus is costly. Disciplemaking leaders, especially pastors, are often attacked by their own. For example, Ryan, a pastor friend of mine, was told by his leadership team that he needed to stop spending time discipling individuals. Although Ryan had decades of experience pastoring, he was new to the church and quickly learned how they viewed disciplemaking. They boldly asked him to champion disciplemaking but to avoid spending time doing it. Instead, according to Ryan, they wanted him to focus on “preaching and the business of the church.”
It’s not that the leadership team was disinterested in disciplemaking; their motivation was split, however, between attraction and survival. The church wanted Ryan to preach amazing sermons and to run more programs with the hope that others would be attracted to the church. For them, church progress was measured more by masses than multipliers, by observers of the mission more than doers of the mission.
Many churches unknowingly pit their picture of ministry against disciplemaking. For Jesus there was no division in the mission. Jesus’ care for every individual led Him to act. He was moved to act by healing Bartimaeus on the road to Jericho, (read Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-42) driving out the demons from the demoniac in the region of Gerasenes, (read Mark 5:1-20) and healing the paralytic in Capernaum. (Read Luke 5:18-26) Jesus didn’t see just see masses, He also saw faces. It was that sight that drove him to tears as He looked at the crowds in each town, village, and synagogue. (read Matthew 9:35-36) Matthew 9 tells us that Jesus’ tears were because people were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” The solution to this problem wasn’t preaching or programmed care ministry, the solution was more workers. His strategy was twofold: prayer and making disciples who become disciplemakers.
Jesus-style disciplemaking is not opposed to preaching or to the “business of the church” (as though making disciples were something other than the church’s business). Quite the contrary, Jesus invested significant time preaching and caring for the crowds—sometimes for days at a time. He did those things out of His deep care for them, not out of obligation. (read Matthew 9:36) He met their physical needs while also developing more shepherds and shepherd-makers who could fully meet their ongoing spiritual needs.
Christian leaders who care for the masses like Jesus did will engage disciplemaking as the long-term strategy to reach the masses. Preaching and pastoral care was never the main focus of Jesus’ ministry, but they complement His main mission of making disciples. (read Mark 1:17; Luke 19:10; John 2:23-25; 6:25-71; 17:6-10)
Pastor Ryan’s leadership team asked him to do something that contradicted the example of Jesus. Rather than compromise on disciplemaking, Ryan left. As a disciplemaker his priority is to make disciples. Disciplemakers make disciples. It’s more than a priority; it’s the priority. No. Matter. What.
What’s your motivation for building a disciplemaking culture? If you’ve already started building one, how has your motivation impacted your actions? If your pastor or ministry leader isn’t a disciplemaker, please don’t expect him to lay a disciplemaking foundation. If he’s trying to lead disciplemaking before he’s lived it, consider what might be motivating him and what lean might result. Regardless, don’t expect him to lay the foundation before he’s made a disciple. Only a disciplemaker can lay a disciplemaking foundation. And only a disciplemaker can effectively lead a disciplemaking culture. For some leaders, that’s a sobering reality. I’ve met many who have faithfully led churches for decades, but have never made a reproducing disciple. Frequently, it’s not their fault. They have done what they were trained to do. They know the purpose
of the church is to make disciples, but they have never been taught how to do it. Most graduated from seminary without a single class on how to make a disciple. Instead, they were trained in guarding sound doctrine, faithfully preaching the Word, and shepherding people through the journey of life. These are good, biblical things, but they aren’t sufficient—in and of themselves—to make healthy disciplemakers. If you are a disciplemaker—even a young one—you are ready to learn how to create a disciplemaking culture, not just make individual disciples. Every disciplemaking movement starts with disciplemakers. Are you willing for God to use you to start the movement at your church? Though movements begin with one person, you can’t do it alone. A vision can only be fulfilled by partnering with others. Partnership is vital, and developing a CORE team is the foundation that will support generations of disciplemakers.
JUSTIN G. GRAVITT
Justin G. Gravitt has been on staff with The Navigators since 2000, where he has planted or grown disciplemaking ministries on multiple college campuses, overseas, and most recently has helped churches across the United States grow intentional disciplemaking cultures. He and his family live in Dayton, OH.