Leading with Jesus’ model brings purpose and reward
My passion over the past twenty-five years of ministry has been to lead our church to follow Jesus’ model. It hasn’t been easy work, but it has been incredibly rewarding. Over the years, I’ve discovered some reasons that following Jesus’ pathway is the best way to lead your church and fulfill your ministry.
This pathway refocuses your ministry on making true disciples
First, this pathway focuses your ministry on the priority of making disciples who make disciples. As I speak to church leaders across the country, most do not have a clear definition of a disciple. They are not sure if they have made any disciples, and many would be hard-pressed to point out any disciples who have reproduced. It is sad, but true. Most churches just seem to run programs and offer worship services, hoping disciples will be made. We can do better. Following this pathway allows you to be extremely intentional in setting the direction of your church and measuring the effectiveness of your ministry.
This pathway aligns your church’s programming
Second, this pathway aligns your programming. A friend once conducted a survey of hundred churches and asked them to label their programming along the disciple-making pathway. They categorized their programming based on whether it was engaging spiritual explorers, connecting believers, growing disciples, or multiplying disciple makers.
Once the data was in, the results were shocking. According to the survey, 87 percent of the churches had all their programming in the “connecting believers” stage. All of it. That means no programming had been created for engaging spiritual explorers or growing disciples or multiplying disciple makers.
All their programming was designed to connect believers. Only this kind of programming results in an anemic and stagnant church. But following the disciple-making pathway allows you to evaluate your ministry and bring health and balance. You can quickly diagnose areas that are weak in your ministry and add programming wherever needed.
This pathway strengthens your church’s foundation
Also, the pathway naturally deepens your ministry foundation. As more people move down the pathway, more people connect in community, serve, grow in their walk with God, share their faith, invest in others, and multiply the ministry. All of this deepens your church’s spiritual life and strength.
The whole attitude of the church begins to mature. A common language develops. A collective understanding of what the church’s role is forms. A unity around the mission strengthens. Ae church is less likely to get in squabbles about ministry philosophy or peripheral matters.
Every time you move a person down the pathway, it’s like driving piers down under the foundation of your home. It adds strength and stability, and a stable foundation is required if you are going to build upon it.
This reminds me of Jesus’ illustration at the end of his Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Ae rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24–25)
Granted, Jesus was speaking about obedience to the kingdom principles he had just taught, yet when you consider that this sermon was preached just after he had appointed the Twelve and before their leadership training, clearly Jesus believed his training and preparation of these men would eventually produce a solid foundation upon which to build a movement. The same is true for your church. The more you move people down the pathway, the more you build a solid foundation for your church.
This pathway leads to multiplication and movement
This leads to my last point: following Jesus’ pathway results in multiplication. Can you point to an area of your church that is currently multiplying? Is there any area of your church where leaders are reproducing leaders? Where are disciples reproducing more disciples? If you want to see
multiplication, then you must prepare people to multiply. And the best way to accomplish this is by following Jesus’ disciple-making pathway.
Part of our church code states, “We don’t maintain; we multiply.” It’s more than a catchy statement. It’s a mandate. It’s an expectation. We expect disciples to multiply by making disciples. We expect groups to multiply by launching new groups. We expect our church to multiply by planting other disciple-making churches, both in the states and around the world. Why? Because without multiplication there is no movement, and Jesus came to build a movement.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, The Disciple-Making Leader.
