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Connection between
Discipleship
Discipleship Ministries (Liberty University)
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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
The Connection between Discipleship and Leadership
xxxxxxx
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500 – B03
Discipleship Ministries
by
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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
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Great Commission Leadership.....................................................................................................2
Comparison and Contrast of Earley & Dempsey and Putman.................................................3
A Healthy Church as a Goal for Disciplehsip.............................................................................5
Kingdom Leadership Principles...................................................................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Discipleship development and leadership development are often thought of as being
the same. After all, a leader develops those whovare under their charge and disciple making
would naturally lead one to believe that a leader must prepare the disciples, but are they really
they same? A leader guides, influences, or mentors a group to follow their plan, while a
Christian leader “follows God’s will for their lives…and influences others to follow God’s
plan for the their lives.”1
The connection is apparent when referring to guiding or influencing, but the two
different types of leadership change their similarities with the overall mission. The secular leader
influences according to “their” plan and the Christian leader influences based on “God’s plan.”
There are glaring differences between the two terms but in reality, you cannont have one without
the other. The two carry a strong bond as they are geared towards a common goal or mission.
As Matthew 28:19-20 commands us to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you,” we have been given a mission to raise disciples.2 If
there is not a system in place to properly train leaders we “will not have leaders for the mssion,
and if you do not have Christian leaders, you will not have reproducing discipleship.”3
While the pieces may be in place for effective discipleship and leadership, this also would
not be possible without a healthy church. Like the human body, the body of Christ will not
operate effectively without all of its pieces in working order. In examination, we will compare
1 Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is…How to Live the Great Commission with
Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013), 201.
2 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the English Standard Version
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).
3 Earley and Dempsey, 203.
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and contrast the developing of leaders and discples while focusing on how a healthy church
affects this process.
Great Commission Leadership
The Great Commission commands followers of Christ to do several things. We are to go
and make disciples. To do this, a plan needs to be in place and in order to effect this plan, we
need Christian leaders to guide us as we go and preach the Good News. Leaders of disciples “are
charged with a vision to influence disciples and to discover and utilize their God-given abilities
for the sake of Christ’s kingdom.”4
The church leader has several recurring themes that define them as leaders while they
work to make new disciples. The Christian leader is influence through solid character. This
leader “persuades or influences other people to follow either their example or follow the stated
vision by their character.”5 These leaders help develop disciples while they influence them
through character and understanding how they impact others.
This is important as the disciples are children in a sense, easily influenced and if
someone of poor character is trying to make them into disciples, their bad character traits can be
passed down to those they are raising up. When disciples are taught by leaders who attempt to
lead Christ-like lives, this increases the spiritual growth of those who are being led.6 Disciples
without strong spiritual footing, are unable to go forth and preach the Gospel as their foundations
may easily shaken.
4Dale Lemke, “A Philosophy of Disciple-Centered Leadership,” Christian Education Journal 3, vol. 14,
no. 2 (2017): 273.
5Earley and Dempsey, 195.
6Akinyemi Oluwafemi Alawode, “Paul’s Biblical Patterns of Church Planting: An Effective Method to
Achieve the Great Commission,” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 76 (January 2020): 2.
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The Christian leader needs to also act as a spiritual parent of sorts. This cycle is similar
to life, as parents have children, they raise their children to be good people, the children leave,
then have their own children and repeat the process. The Christian leader raises the disciples,
then they go out and make new disciples. They develop their “children” and create an
environment where God can work, help them explore and shape beliefs, then help them
transform and find freedom.7 These are all parts of the process to develop leaders and disciples.
The church that I was recently a part of, performed in a similar manner. Leaders and
disciples are developed along the same path and following the same guidelines, as the two cannot
operate without one another. My church did an excellent job of developing leaders and disciples
through its various outreach and training programs, but as parents sometimes fail, the church
failed in the maintenance that some new leaders and disciples require. Once they have the tools,
there was not very much follow up to see if the next generation was shining or struggling. It
became a numbers game to see how many people could be moved through the leadership and
discipleship program. The intent was there, the execution was not which led to a half-hearted
attempt at Great Commission leadership.
Comparison and Contrast of Earley & Dempsey and Putman
When encouraging Christian leaders to mentor and produce the leaders of the future and
disciples, Putman et al. had a different approach. Their thoughts moved from the idea of a
disciple “doing” to that of a “informing people to equipping them.”8 The authors of
“Discipleshift” tend to agree with Earley and Dempsey as they are geared towards the forming of
7James A. Lang, “An Evaluation of a Discipleship Process Addressing Christians’ Inner Life Issues,”
Christian Education Journal 12, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 263.
8Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington with Robert Coleman, Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help
Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids: MI: Zondervan, 2013), 98.
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the next generation by equipping them. They even state in “Disciple Making Is…”, “At the very
core of Christian leadership is the idea that I am here to help you grow and develop.”9 This
common theme can be seen as the home-growth of disciples into leaders.
The two texts even share more in common as they both address personal involvement,
having a vision, the development of those who are being led. Putman et al. write of similar
themes and even expound on them by incorporating transparency into their disciplemaking
process. The two share more in common when Earley and Dempsey feel Christian leaders should
focus on the people within their church.10 Putman et al. use Jesus as a model of leadership as the
refer to him as “the master disciple maker.”11 Jesus spent more time with his twelve disciples and
instead of focusing on the tasks of ministry, he would bring them in to look at his life and
formed relationships with them.12 He would let them take part in the decisions of their ministry.
Even though personal involvement are featured in both texts, there are instances where
they tend to differ in their approach. By influencing others, Earley and Dempsey lean towards
influence coming from a leader.13 Putman et al. change it to a degree by adding influence comes
by a focus on transparency and authenticity.14 In my opinion, they should both be put together. A
strong leader holds great influence over their people but on the same note, transparency is
necessary. It is human nature for us to question those in positions above, therefore transparency
is needed to prevent this for happening. Without transparency, rumors begin to fly and
conspiracy theories build, all while undermining the hard work that the church has performed to
make disciples.
9 Earley and Dempsey, 94.
10 Ibid, 194.
11 Putman et al., 118.
12 Ibid.
13 Earley and Dempsey, 196.
14 Putman et al., 100.
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A Healthy Church as a Goal for Discipleship
How can a healthy church be a goal for discipleship? Earley and Dempsey explain that a
healthy church acts like a healthy body and the Apostle Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 1:23
that the church is considered to be the body of Christ.15
A healthy church gives its pastors the opportunity to equip and allow those in their
ministry to go and perform the work of discipleship. When a church is unhealthy, its staff and
leadership may fall by the wayside, forcing one person in leadership to have to do everything on
their own. If this occurs, there is not growth as the person in charge or trying to run everything, is
placed on the fast track to failure. Imagine a rock that is tumbling downhill. It picks up speed but
does not get any bigger or grow, it just falls apart as pieces chip away from it.
The health of a church should not fall on the shoulders of one person or leader, it is a
team effort. A healthy church is a healthy body. The healthy church worships together and shares
the gospel, a healthy church develops its people in their walk with Christ. The healthy church
loves one another and helps each other discover and utiltize their gifts.16
Without all of these pieces coming together and working together as a healthy body, a
healthy church is not maintained and disciples cannot be made.
Kingdom Leadership Principles
From my own personal experience, I am able to address several changes that my ministry
needs to focus on from the 10 Kingdom Leadership Principles. This look into my former church
15 Earley and Dempsey, 211.
16 Bambang Budijanto, “The Correlation Between Church Growth and Discipleship: Evdience
from Indonesia,” Evangelical Review of Theology 44, vol. 3 (2020): 240.
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and the current ministry situation I am in, caused me to take a deep look into how we do things,
with a sometimes stinging result.
The fourth principle, “To represent King Jesus you must spend time with Him,” actually
hurt a little. I have always felt that I do my best to represent the Lord, but I often fall short of
spending more time with Him. The front seat is given to work, school work, personal matters, or
even watching television. I do my daily prayers, I read the Bible but nowhere near enough, and I
work on my lesson plans for my Wednesday small group meetings. I find myself falling short in
the recall of Scripture and find excuses or distractions that prevent me from spending more time
with the King. I am a work in progress and I will do better.
The area of principle 7 needs some work to as it refers to “The way up the ladder is
down.” When combining this principle and the fourth principle, it obvious that I need to work on
loving upward. Without spending more time with Christ, I cannot work my way up. I am
learning humility, so I am still a work in progress. When it comes to serving and equipping, I
feel that I am doing a decent job with this and I lead a men’s group and participate in mission
trips.
Kingdom practice 8 could definitely use more work on my part. I let my own shyness and
insecurities get the best of me when it comes to preaching the Gospel. I have multiple
opportunities throughout the day to bring people to Jesus but I often fail to do so. I need to put
my trust is God that He will not let me fail when it comes to bringing more people to him.
Conclusion
Christian leadership and discipleship co-exist in symbiosis with each other. When done
properly, Christian leadership can lead to an increase in disciples and bring more to forming a
personal relationship with our Lord. When proper Christian leadership is in place, the
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development of disciples becomes stronger.
There are varying ideas and concepts on what leads to proper leadership and discipleship.
While many may have their own opinions of what works and what does not, we must look at the
body of Christ and find ways to make leadership and discipleship work together. When a person
falls ill and they have a hard time functioning, the body of Christ of reacts the same way. When
one piece is not working, the whole body does not work.
The Bible provide us with many examples of what leadership and discipleship should
look like as we go forth and make disciples. If we take an introspective look into who we are and
how our ministry operates, we can work on our faults and make better use of the time that we are
given to spread God’s Word.
Bibliography
Alawode, Akinyemi Oluwafemi. “Paul’s Biblical Patterns of Church Planting: An Effective
Method to Achieve the Great Commission.” Hervormde Teologiese Studies 76 (January
2020): 1–5.
Budijanto, Bambang. “The Correlation Between Church Growth and Discipleship: Evidence
from Indonesia.” Evangelical Review of Theology 44, vol. 3 (2020): 234-241.
Earley, Dave and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is…How to Live the Great Commission with
Passion and Confidence. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013.
Lang, James A. “An Evaluation of a Discipleship Process Addressing Christians’ Inner Life
Issues.” Christian Education Journal 12, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 259–81.
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Lemke, Dale. “A Philosophy of Disciple-Centered Leadership.” Christian Education Journal 3
vol. 14, no. 2 (2017): 270-284.
Putman, Jim and Bobby Harrington with Robert Coleman. Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help
Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2013.
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