WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
What is discipleship coaching? Perhaps we should look at each term separately. The term discipleship comes from the word “disciple” and means “follower, student, or devotee.” The origin of the English word is from the word “pupil” or “discipul” which is Old English from Latin discipulus meaning pupil, and from from discere which means “to learn.” It denotes a specialized pupil—a disciple. For our use of the term, a disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ, yet because even this meaning is vague to many Christians today, we must be more specific. In Luke 6:46 Jesus gave us a good definition of “disciple.”
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? Luke 6:46 (NKJV)
So, if we are going to call ourselves Christians (lit. to be like Christ), if we are going to follow Christ then we must do what he says, and of course we learn that from the Bible, genuine Christian family and friends, our church experience, our daily worship time, and perhaps a disciple coach. His final command before he ascended to heaven was, and I am being consistent with his intent rather than what we have made it, “Go make disciple-making disciples.”
WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?
The term “discipleship” is the combination of two words: “disciple” and “ship.” The suffix “-ship” derives from the Old English suffix “-scipe” and means “to shape” or “to guide.” Thus, it can be said that discipleship is the shaping or guiding of a person to not only follow Christ but to be like Christ. We could easily morph the word discipleship into the term “disciple-guide” or even “disciple-coach.” The present discussion is important because there appears to be great confusion over the definition of disciple and discipleship.
Thus, it can be said that discipleship is the shaping or guiding of a person to not only follow Christ but to be like Christ. We could easily morph the word “discipleship” into the term “disciple-guide” or even “disciple-coach.” Both terms are more easily understood.
Following our logic, discipleship is the process of shaping and guiding a follower of Christ. The work of a sculptor fits the description quite well as the artist begins with a large piece of rock and begins purposefully chipping away, while all the time the artist has the ultimate final shape in his mind as he works. Be assured that God in the person of the Holy Spirit is the actual sculptor of disciples, but he does use others as instruments of the sculpting. With God directing the process, the disciple-coach sees the imperfections in the medium, he ultimately sees Christ within the growing disciple. The disciple-coach guides the process with the co-active participation of the disciple, as it is the only way the process of discipleship works—active participation of the disciple. At this point we have defined the word “coach” as one who comes along side the disciple to encourage, guide, and ask questions that motivate self-awareness and a spiritual growth response.
If staff has been serving a church for 3-5 years & can’t describe their church as a “disciple making” church, what have they been doing?
NEGLECTED DISCIPLESHIP
It is unhealthy to ignore the “elephant” in the room and I think biblical discipleship is the neglected elephant in many churches. Pushing hard for un-discipled church members to be evangelists simply ignores the elephant in the church…namely, un-discipled Christians, casual Christians, carnal Christians, and non-Christians don’t evangelize. Out of the 13 methods of making disciples, many churches intentionally employ only three or four on an ongoing basis and even then it often is not delivered in a process. Remember that a process is measurable as with the Simple Discipleship balanced scorecard and spiritual vitality graph.
Pushing hard for un-discipled church members to be evangelists simply ignores the elephant in the church…namely, un-discipled Christians, casual Christians, carnal Christians, and non-Christians don’t evangelize.
GET RID OF THE ELEPHANTS
Simple Discipleship is a ubiquitous simple church discipleship process. Okay, “ubiquitous” means everywhere present which means that disciple-making should be an intentional part of everything the church does. This supports my contention that the church has one purpose, make disciple-making disciples. The activities of worship, prayer, fellowship, ministry, and missions support the mandate of the church, make disciple-making disciples. A message from many great leadership books is “Keep the main thing the main thing.” When churches make disciple-making disciples the elephants of apathy, theological liberalism, and busyness to accomplish busyness all float away.
When churches make disciple-making disciples the elephants of apathy, theological liberalism, and busyness to accomplish busyness all float away.
Disciple-Maker
TRAIN AND ENGAGE DISCIPLESHIP COACHES
To the point, church leaders can launch a real Great Commission Resurgence at the “grass roots” level by doing several things:
- Disciple-making will not be the main thing unless PASTORS make it the main thing!
- Implement a simple church discipleship process.
- Establish Christian Coaching Ministries in the church and task them with disciple-making and assisting with maintaining a disciple-making culture in everything the church does. A Christian Coaching Ministry could be the engine that sparks congregational prayer, evangelism, missions, outreach, and new growth. In these challenging economic times, a new ministry like this could breathe new life into many churches of all sizes.
- Equip Discipleship Coaches: When churches act upon the first three points in this section, I recommend that they train and engage at least four (4) discipleship coaches. The present point needs more explanation:
SD Discipleship Coaches
Each coach should be in charge of only one Simple Discipleship domain (Worship, Word, Ministry, or Missions). Each coach has several responsibilities:
- Provide opportunities for people as related to the respective domain for which each discipleship coach is responsible. For instance, the Missions Discipleship Coach should coordinate missional and missions opportunities.
- Connect people to discipleship growth opportunities in their particular domain.
- Collaborate with other Discipleship Coaches to ensure a working process.
- The four Discipleship Coach positions should be divided between both men and women. The reason for this is defined in the next point.
- Each Discipleship Coach should focus on personal discipleship and peer group discipleship, providing discipleship coaching for new Christians and any others who desire to grow. New Christians and others should be paired with Discipleship Coaches of the same gender for obvious reasons. The length and frequency of sessions may be determined by each church however, Simple Discipleship encourages a minimum of one hour session for six weeks using New Christian Life Coaching that focuses on discipling individuals so they may begin spiritually feeding themselves.
Finally, another elephant in the churches, specifically in staff meetings, is that traditional Christian church education ministries are not making disciples. There are exceptions but pastors should ask the hard question directed to staff members whether they are ministers of education, counselors, administrators, youth leaders, teachers, and custodians, “How many disciples are you making?” Every staff leader should be actively working with individuals and groups on a regular basis to make disciple-making disciple makers. THE BIGGER QUESTION IS…”DO CHRISTIAN CHURCH LEADERS KNOW HOW TO MAKE DISCIPLES RATHER THAN CONVERTS?”
Simple Discipleship can provide certified Christian coach training for your leaders. We can also help you develop your Christian Coaching Ministry that can launch a revival from the inside out. Go to the “Coach Training” tab at the top of this page for information.
Go Make Disciple-Makers!
Tom Cocklereece, DMin, CLBC
——————–
QUESTIONS:
- Do you agree with the premise that “discipleship” derives from Old English words that may be boiled down to “disciple-coaching?”
- Do you believe traditional church ministry approaches are effective at discipleship? Why r why not?
- Do you agree that the “elephant” in many churches is that they are not focusing on the main thing, making disciple-makers?
- Does your church have a Christian Coaching Ministry that is separate from the counseling ministry?
——————–
Dr. Tom Cocklereece is the author of Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century which was published and released by Church Smart Resources in November 2009. He is also the author of a new resource just released (2011) titledThe Disciple-Maker’s Toolkit the first publication of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting LLC.
http://www.simplediscipleship.com
——————–
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, discipleship and leadership specialist
Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Web | Blog | Book | Coaching Site
