lOMoARcPSD|21126671
DB 2 - Study of lesson
Discipleship Ministries (Liberty
University)
lOMoARcPSD|21126671
When it comes to discipleship Earley describes it in a “3D” mode. He defines it in three
different stages, “declaration, development, and deployment.1 The declaration stage is where a
spiritually dead person put their faith in Jesus Christ. They have repented of their sins and turned
to Christ declaring Him as their Lord and Savior. The second stage is the development stage. In
this stage the follower of Christ is now immersing themselves in the word of God, following His
commands, and serving Him. They are learning they need to walk away from certain things in
their life in order to fully follow Jesus’ teaching. They are learning how to serve Him fully by
following the example of others who are more mature in the faith. The third stage is deployment.
This is where the believer is going out sharing their faith. When a person accepts Christ they
will offer them a chance to be trained/discipled in their new faith, with the end goal of
themselves one day going out to do the same to their own disciples, which is the model of
reproduction.
The discipleship process is something that needs to be better implemented in my church.
To do this it will be called the “3D” process of becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ.
Those in my church will be challenged weekly to understand that “discipleship is not a program.
It is not a ministry. It is a lifelong commitment to a lifestyle.”2 They will be taught that this
lifestyle will challenge them to pray daily for opportunities to share their faith. That they should
be willing to invest in those people’s lives by spending time with them. During this time they
need to be intentional in asking questions to get to know them, all along praying for an
opportunity to ask them to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. To assist in this, the church
will offer evangelist classes in how to better share their faith.
When the person accepts Christ they are now obligated to help teach them how they
should start living their new life. This is done by being a model for the new believer and
explaining why they do and do not do certain things. This is done by having a relationship with
the new believer, spending time in prayer together, asking questions which will provoke growth
in their spiritual life and connecting them into a life group. The church will offer developmental
classes teaching how to better understand the bible, prayer, witnessing, and disciplining one
another. The mentor will encourage the new believer to attend these classes. The mentor will be
encouraged to attend the classes with the new believer.
As the new believer experiences growth and develops they will be challenged to start
praying for opportunities themselves to disciple someone. As they share their new faith with
others they will be encouraged to start spending time with their new believers, teaching them to
follow the commands of their new faith. A challenging quote out of “Follow me” needs to be
spoken of often; “Men, where is your man? Women, where is your woman? Where is the one
whom you led to Christ and who is now going on with Him? How many persons do you know by
name today who were won to Christ by you and are now living for Him?”3
1 Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is--: How to Live the Great Commission with
Passion and Confidence (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Avademic, 2013), 127.
2 George Barna, Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of
Christ, Barna Reports for Highly Effective Churches (Colorado Springs, Colo.: WaterBrook Press, 2001), 19.
3 David Platt, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live (Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House
Publishers, 2013), 208-209.
