This series of articles explores foundational principles of church health as related to discipleship. At the outset there are several premises to identify. Many leaders seem to approach discipleship as one essential feature among other equal elements of a healthy church. This author has a differing perspective. Since THE purpose of the church is to “make disciples,” discipleship is the primary feature of a healthy church that determines the long-term health and vitality of a church. In fact as goes discipleship, so goes the other aspects of the church. Granted that other elements often contribute to the vitality of a church for a time, discipleship contributes to the sustainability of the church’s vitalaity.
For this series we will look at the church as a system of processes that work together. Granted that the church is an organism but for this series we will use an automobile as our mental model. A living organism is made of many complex systems and an automobile is an inorganic ordered collection of systems.
THE NEGLECTED DISCIPLESHIP ENGINE
In my book Simple Discipleship, I compare the discipleship process in the church to an engine of a car, in this case a four cylinder engine. I also called attention to the fact that discipleship is neglected in favor of many other activities…albeit good ones. Mike Breen recently observed that for every 100 tweets about missions there was only one tweet about discipleship. In his guest post for vergenetwork.org he identified discipleship as the driver for being missional and many other aspect and activities of a healthy church.
So what is the engine of the church? Discipleship. I’ve said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.
My analogy differs from that of Breen somewhat but I think we agree on the major point: Discipleship is the key to sustainable ministry and a vital church.
SEE YOUR CHURCH AS A SYSTEMOpen the hood of your car and do a white handkerchief test on the engine and usually you will get really dirty. A car chassis with an engine illustrates a church very well, as the outer body of each church is different but the essential inner workings are similar. Consider that a car symbolizes a church, the engine is discipleship, and each wheel is an essential element that appears to provide movement, however, the engine provides the energy for the wheels to move. Each wheel represents an essential element of a vital church such as evangelism, fellowship, community, and Holy Spirit guided leadership.
Many leaders focus on one part of the system all of the time or they may give attention to one system and then another. Both of these scenarios neglect the primary component or heart of the automobile…the engine. For our analogy we will use a four cylinder engine car. We could use a larger engine but I liken the four cylinder engine to the four chamber heart of a person. In Simple Discipleship each cylinder represents one primary value of a vital church: Worship- Know Christ, Word- Grow in Christ, Ministry- Serve Christ, and Missions- Share Christ. A church firing on all four of these cylinders will often transfer the energy to the other four resulting essential activities: evangelism, fellowship, community, and Holy Spirit led leadership.
FIX THE DISCIPLESHIP ENGINE
Back to our dirty engine thought that symbolizes discipleship which can be messy, tedious, time consuming, and requires specialized knowledge and tools. However, it must be done if the car/church is going to move. When it comes to my car, I am not a mechanic so I am intimidated by it. Some leaders are intimidated or do not fully understand the process of discipleship, while others are content with working on the evangelism or fellowship wheel. These efforts will not produce sustainable growth if the discipleship engine is broken. We must fix the discipleship engine by restoring Christ’s intention of the Great Commission, specifically “make disciple-making disciples.”
It is pleasing to see leaders like Mike Breen giving proper attention to discipleship. Perhaps we will see a genuine discipleship revolution soon. Simple Discipleship provides the process, materials, tools, and coaching to help leaders become the "church mechanic." Let us help you overhaul your discipleship engine.
QUESTIONS:
1. What process does your church use to make disciples?
2. Do you agree or disagree with the points made?
3. Why do evangelism and missions get primary attention while discipleship is often neglected?
SD Blessings,
Dr. Tom Cocklereece, The Disciplist
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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
Author “Simple Discipleship,” contributing writer L2L Blogazine
He is a pastor, an author, professional coach, and leadership specialist
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