When disciple-making leaders gather
Recently, I was in a meeting with several national disciple-making leaders. Most of these men and women have given their lives to making disciples and have written extensively on the subject. Many have thriving international ministries today.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the status of disciple making in America. As the dialogue ensued, it became clear that there were differences of opinion on how disciple making should be done.
At one point, Bill Hull made the statement, “We are using the same words but speaking a different language.”
The confusion between discipleship and disciple making
I think the same is true when I talk to pastors about making disciples. We all agree we should make disciples, and in many cases we are using the same words, but behind those words are different meanings. The biggest struggle for clarity is the difference between “discipleship” and “disciple making.”
Today, when a leader uses the word discipleship, they usually mean spiritual growth that happens post-conversion. Discipleship is the next step after a person comes to faith in Christ.
What research tells us about discipleship today
Recently, this definition was underscored by a study on discipleship by the George Barna research group. In their 2015 “State of Discipleship,” commissioned by NavPress and The Navigators, the Barna Group interviewed 600 pastors and 2,000 practicing and non-practicing Christians.
Discipleship was clearly defined as “the process of growing spiritually.” Interestingly, only one-quarter of those surveyed thought the term “discipleship” was even relevant today, preferring terms such as “spiritual growth” or “spiritual journey.”
How we separated evangelism from discipleship
Discipleship today is clearly seen as how a person grows spiritually. In this way, discipleship is distinguished from evangelism. “Evangelism is leading people to Christ, discipleship is growing people in Christ,” they would say. Here, evangelism is seen as completely separate from discipleship.
Carl Wilson, in his great book on disciple making, traces this thought back to the mid-1800s and points to a man named Charles Adams. Adams, a Methodist pastor who was born in New Hampshire in 1808 and died in 1890, authored many books, but his most recognized work was entitled, “Evangelism in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century.” In his book, Adams meticulously records the status of evangelism around the world during his lifetime.
According to Wilson, Adams was one of the first men to coin the phrase “evangelism,” thus creating a seminal difference between evangelism and discipleship. What was a hairline fracture in the 1800s has now become a great chasm in the new millennium.
Why our understanding of discipleship has drifted
It is not uncommon for people and organizations to distinguish between “evangelism and discipleship” as I stated in the previous chapter. Therefore, discipleship is relegated to anything that helps people to grow.
Pastors tell me, “We do discipleship in our worship services, small groups, accountability groups, Bible studies, men’s and women’s groups, church activities, and even online individual studies.”
Just about anything that promotes spiritual growth is thrown in the bucket of discipleship. Some have even told me, “Our discipleship is just hanging out and doing life together.”
The difference Jesus modeled
Now you may be thinking, “What’s wrong with that?” The problem is that this kind of discipleship is very different from the idea of making disciples that Jesus had in mind.
First, discipleship is about a part of the process (what happens after a person is saved), where disciple making involves the whole process from leading a person to Christ to sending them out to reproduce. Disciple making begins with evangelism, includes new believers into the church, trains them to walk with God, and sends them out to reproduce their lives in others.
Second, discipleship usually doesn’t have an end in mind. Most leaders cannot articulate an end product, as we have previously discussed. Disciple making has a clear end goal in mind. You are building a disciple that looks and acts like Jesus.
Third, discipleship is usually heavily knowledge-based, where disciple making is heavily practice-based. The person is not just learning more things about Jesus in a Bible study, they are being trained to think, live, and walk like Jesus in their everyday lives.
Fourth, discipleship usually ends when the Bible study is complete. Disciple making is focused on spiritual multiplication to the third and fourth generation. Jesus didn’t just gather his men and hang out with them. He didn’t just teach them and do service projects with them. Jesus was intentionally training his men to become like him so that he could release them into the world to carry on the movement.
Returning to Jesus’ original call
I think the church would be better served jettisoning the term “discipleship” and embracing the more biblical term and philosophy of disciple making.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, Bold Moves.
