Jesus didn’t say, ‘Go and have great church services, thrilling events, or endless community outreaches (though all of these have their place)’. He actually said, ‘Go and make disciples’.
Post pandemic, every second pastor with whom I speak is aspiring to be a greater disciple-maker, and yet, much more is being said than effectively practiced.
No one would argue that our broken world needs an awakening, a revival of the Church to do what she was always designed to do.
Let’s not abdicate our primary responsibility, making Jesus’ last command our first priority.
As lead pastors, we understand the ‘why’ of His mission, and even the ‘what’ of disciple making. But what about the ‘how’?
I routinely ask lead pastors this question: Where is discipleship happening in your church that is intentional and scalable?
Though the answers vary, I often hear about one of their church members (let’s call him Reg) who ‘has a bunch of guys over to their home on a regular basis to study the Word. That Reg, you know, is a great discipler.’ When I hear a pastor say this, I too want to give Reg a huge shoutout. This is so admirable, but hardly intentional and definitely not scaleable.
With all the daily and weekly demands of ministry (Sunday comes around so quickly!) I do understand the challenge of ‘getting out of the drain and into the drone’ and building a seamless disciple making process – from captivating guests, from planting people into groups and then thoroughly training your group leaders as discipleship weapons.
One of the underlying challenges, I believe, is the dangerous dichotomy that has developed in some quarters between the spiritual and the strategic. Obviously, our majestic God is sovereign, but the philosophy of ‘it’s all God’ is heresy.
The whole purpose of Jesus announcing the Holy Spirit is that he would partner with us to be a witness and to make disciples.
God is eminently a God of patterns and processes. He gave Moses the intricate patterns for the tabernacle, whilst Moses was engulfed on Mt Sinai in the presence of God and He gave David plans for the temple by the Spirit of God. His whole plan from creation to salvation is intricately ordered and patterned. He is the great designer! So, if God can give the ‘how’ to Moses and the same to David, then how much more can God give the intentional plans and strategies for new covenant church leaders about how to build His Kingdom and His Church today?
When I say to the amazing pastors with whom we have the privilege of partnering that it is God’s will for them to see intentional growth in their church, I’m often confronted with varying degrees of disbelief.
Not only do I believe it is possible to be intentional about growth I’m convicted that it is God’s specific plan for you. Our story, for which I am eternally grateful, starts with two broken people in Michael and Valery Murphy who had encounters with Jesus. For each of us, possibly like your own story, that changed everything. He led us down a path where not only His prophetic presence became so tangible in our lives and in our church but also the plans and processes to get intentional about engaging guests, multiplying small groups, and making genuine disciples became part of the fabric of our church.
Our interactions with lead pastors over the last couple of decades have taught us that in our disciple making quest, we are not alone. When we spend our best efforts and resources on our Sunday expression, we almost by definition expend less energy and resources on our disciple making pathways.
It’s out of this burden that I wrote ‘XLR8, a Prophetic and Practical Guide to Double Your Church‘. It argues for a shift in excellence. We will help take you from production to process, from moments to movement and from one-off encounters to ongoing discipleship engagement. As an example of sheer precision and momentum, I have used a Formula 1 racing theme throughout. Far from a dry instructional manual, it is a fun, self-deprecating and sometimes raw journey, depicting many of my crazy car adventures. From near misses to near deaths and everything in between…just like church leadership.
The engine room of momentum is the XLR8 Track. This gives pastors a Momentum Map that puts handles on the ‘how to’ of consistent and predictable discipleship. It puts your hands, along with those of the Holy Spirit, firmly on the wheel and gives clear ‘how to’ instructions to pastors to radically engage every guest and explode the Growth Track (in a good way) in the process. Imagine at least forty to fifty percent of your congregation actively inviting and bringing guests and sharing their own “God story” on a regular basis. Yes, this is more than a pipe dream, this can be your reality.
