What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey?

By -

 What are the critical elements for a success disciple making journey? 



As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” What does it take to complete a successful journey? As pictured above, the success journey is to grow a movement of “disciples who make disciples?” A movement implies that a culture has formed in your church or ministry where there is momentum and energy because the value of making reproducing disciples has become a way of life. I am not talking theory, I have witnessed it firsthand. 


There are three critical elements for a successful journey:


1. Vehicle (Relational Environment): To travel you need a vehicle, which is the relational environment. We keep the groups small (3s &4s) because the most important element in the relational environment is transparency and openness built upon radical trust. Transformation through the power of God’s word occurs when we lay our lives out before God and each other and apply truth to our growing edge. Without applied truth you have information without transformation.


2. Driver (Intentional Leader): Every vehicle needs someone behind the wheel. The intentional leader is the point person who has two primary initial responsibilities: A. They prayerfully seek the Lord’s discernment as to who God is calling to be in this group. Just as Jesus prayed all night then chose 12 apostles from a larger group of disciples, so these groups are based upon invitation or call. (Luke 6:12-13) B. The leader gathers the group around a mutual covenant and helps them own shared commitments in the presence of each other. This raises the level of seriousness about the disciple making process.


3. GPS or Map (Reproducible Process): To complete a journey you need a way to get to your destination (the successful journey). The GPS is the biblically-based disciple making curriculum that lays the foundation for a maturing Jesus follower and also provides a transferable tool so that the growing disciple has a means of discipling others. 


As groups multiply a movement slowly forms until a tipping point occurs. After 3 to 5 years you realize that growing reproducing disciples via micro groups has become a way of life. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What qualities come together in a micro group to create an ideal transformative environment?

By -
  What qualities come together in a micro group to create an ideal transformative environment? At GDI, we like to say that micro groups are “hot houses of the Holy Spirit”. What does that mean? In other words, just like a “greenhouse”, the environmental conditions are just right for accelerated growth into Christlikeness and multiplication of disciples. What are those environmental conditions? 1. Relational Transparency: A major reason the groups are kept to 3 or 4 (triads/quads) is to develop an atmosphere of self-revealing trust. Here is the principle: The extent to which we are willing to reveal to others the areas of our life that need God’s transforming touch is the extent to which we are inviting the Holy Spirit to make us new. The seed of God’s word can only take root in tilled soil. The tilled soil (our openness) creates cracks and crevices in our hearts. It is these cracks and crevices that reveal our areas of needed transformation. As we articulate the awareness of our b
Read more

How Do You Undermine A Disciple Making Movement?

By -
If you are a pastor reading this blog post, you would love to have reproducing, disciple makers in your congregation. Even better, you would love to see a culture where the expectation and practice is that a maturing Christian is one who makes disciples as a lifestyle and you are experiencing the momentum of disciple makers reproducing to the fourth generation. If this were the case the forward movement would be off the charts. I know, I have seen it and felt it. People now leading disciple making groups after being participants move to a new different level of ownership and passion. It takes time and sustained focus to get this place. But most churches never get here because of two fatal errors: You try to move too fast: By far the number one reason disciple making movements don’t even get off the ground is attempting to move too fast. I can’t count how many times I watched pastors catch the transformative power of a micro groups only to shoot themselves in the foot by tryi
Read more

Reflections on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero, Part 1

By -
Image
  Reflections on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero Part 1 Chapter 6: “Discover the Treasures Buried in Grief and Loss”  Peter Scazzero has for some time been pointing out a massive gap in what it means to become whole or mature in Christ. He says that we have been denying our emotions to our detriment.  In some circles this denial has been conscious and intentional. You might recall a train illustration with three cars: fact, faith, feeling.  It was taught that the important thing was to put your cognitive trust in the truths of Scripture and then let feeling be a by-product (the caboose). Yet, this formula often came with an asterisk. The reason feelings are last is that you can’t trust them. They will lead you astray. All kinds of heresies and distortions have been formulated because we let feelings rule. As the critique goes, subjective Christianity creates the seedbed for false teaching and prophets. They rely on impressions and ecstasies.  Now, of course, there i
Read more