LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Disciple-Making Plan
Submitted to Dr. Rodney Dempsey,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500-B01
Discipleship Ministries
by
Brian Creswell
March 7, 2021
Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Passages.........................................................................................................................................1
Principles........................................................................................................................................2
Philosophy......................................................................................................................................3
Practices.........................................................................................................................................5
Proof...............................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Creating disciples should be the main goal of any ministry. It is important to note that one
is not creating disciples if those “disciples” are not in turn creating more disciples. The following
document serves as to provide a personal disciple-making plan for my own personal ministry. It
will include guiding passages, core values and principles, key philosophies and perspectives,
practices concerning the “how” of disciple making, and what means of proof will be tracked that
indicate whether or not the ministry is working.
Passages
There are two key passages that stick out to me and help to guide and direct my personal
ministry. These are Proverbs 22:6 and Matthew 28:19-20. Proverbs 22:6 will provide insight as
to who my target audience is because it says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and
when he is old he will not depart from it.” My main focus is the student ministry, but more
specifically the youth ministry which is the sixth grade through the twelfth grade at my church. I
have been unofficially fulfilling the role of the youth leader for the past year and a half until I
was approached by my pastor and asked if I would consider taking on a shared role in the
children’s ministry as well. Mind you, this was soon after I had already had the conversation with
God that whatever He needed of me, I would do. This “yes” was hard for me to say as I am not a
huge fan of young children, with the exception of my own. Immediately after making this
commitment, I was added to the church staff. Proverbs 22:6 is a good indicator that if we teach
children (or students) the way that they should live as Christians, then when they are older, they
will continue to live in this manner.
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Matthew 28:19-20 is how I incorporate the strategy of the church into my ministry so that
we can maintain synergy with everyone working towards the same goal. When synergy is
implemented, the overall effectiveness of the church will be greater because the principles of one
ministry will be reinforced by the others. It is also critical that we include the family ministry in
this aspect as the parents directly have more influence over the children than the church does, if
for no other reason than the amount of physical contact hours. Matthew 28:19-20 says,
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is important to my ministry
because our focus is not just bringing students into the church and teaching them about who
Jesus is, but also equipping them to tell others about Jesus and then empowering them to do so.
Our goal is to get the students engaged enough so that once they bring their friends to Christ,
they are ready and able to even as much as baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. This is a major piece of discipleship that many Christians have lost concept of
because for years when I was growing up, the unspoken rule was that the pastor was the one who
baptized people. The Great Commission very explicitly states otherwise. It wasn’t until recently
that I was taught this concept and now believe that as Christians, it is all of our duty to perform
this role. Another important aspect of this verse is “all nations.” How often do we see churches
and hear Christians that look down on a certain region or make subtle comments about other
races? That’s not how the Great Commission says that we should conduct ourselves. This guides
my ministry in a manner that indicates that it should look like Heaven. Heaven is made up of all
races, regions, demographics, and groups so shouldn’t our ministry be like that, too?
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Principles
The core values of my ministry are to get people to love upward, inward, and outward.
This means to get them to love God by making Him first, love themselves by continuously
learning and taking care of our bodies, and love others by being missions minded. There are
three main scriptures used to solidify this focus: Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, and Matthew
28:19-20.
Deuteronomy 6:5 says that we should love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. This is basically implying that we need to focus our entire being on God, which
includes all aspects of our lives from our daily living to our major decisions and everything in
between. This is the upward love that is taught by my ministry. By making God first above all
other things, we are sending our love “up” to Him.
Matthew 22:37 is very much a replication of Deuteronomy 6:5, but is still used and very
applicable to my ministry. We give the example of a teacher in school. If you are attending a
lesson and the teacher repeats something more than one time, you had better pay attention
because that means that it is an important concept. Scripture is no different, and in fact scripture
can be confirmed with other scripture. Both of these verses are used to teach this concept, but
also to indicate that we should love inward, meaning love ourselves. By loving ourselves, we
continuously strengthen our minds by learning and growing in our faith, we take care of our
souls and emotions by expressing them in our prayer life, and taking care of our bodies. Doing
these things allow us to be better servants for Christ which enables us for the next step.
Finally, Matthew 28:19-20 gives us the command to “go.” This is the outward love where
we are to love others as we love ourselves. Love is even stated as being the greatest
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commandment. And to reemphasize, we are not creating disciples if they are not creating
disciples. The “go” portion of the Great Commission is very specific about that.
Church Assessment
My church takes on more of an organic model, however, there are still some differences
and aspects where other model characteristics are displayed. The pastor is the ultimate leader and
decision maker, but he does rely on the church staff (myself and three others) when it comes to
making a major functional decision about the church. We currently operate out of an active
movie theater. Set-up takes place around 0800 hours for a 1000 service that has to be concluded
and broken down by 1200 so that the theater can open for movie showings. The design of our
church structure is relatively simple, as it has to be due to not having a fixed and permanent
location to house a massive variety of programs and ministries. A blend of learning is used from
teaching in the pulpit to curriculum driven learning for the children’s ministry, and small groups
for various groupings. We are constantly experiencing change in part because of a missional
mindset, but also as a result of our location. Spiritual formation is addressed by providing and
encouraging people to participate in small groups and personal reading plans. This is one aspect
that takes on more of a hybrid attribute. All gifts are needed as we are still heavily reliant on
volunteers for the survival of the church. Preaching is often geared towards the believer as we
conduct “series” of sermons that target a specific aspect of a believer’s life. Not to say that the
opportunity isn’t given for the lost to become saved, but a greater emphasis is placed on training
and teaching the already saved. We like to think that our success is measured by the mission and
discipleship of the people, but in reality, it is more based off of activity and participation. The
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budget is definitely missions focused. Since our financial resources are relatively limited, it is
chosen to spend the money that we do have on things that are beneficial to the body of Christ and
the lost instead of things that we could do without. The senior pastor is multi-talented like those
in a hybrid model, and those of us on staff are minimally compensated. We are all (including the
pastor) bi-vocational. All of our people are involved to some degree no matter what their stage of
discipleship is.
There are some things that my church could do better. One of them is tithing. Coming
from our staff that handles the finances, only a small portion of the church biblically tithe with
the majority just “tipping.” We lack the eagerness to invest our finances into the Kingdom of
God. Another problem area is that the saints don’t always seem to be building each other up. As a
small church, whenever there is a problem, it doesn’t take long for most people to know about it.
That tension tends to radiate throughout the group for a while and sometimes the effects are
lasting. Finally, the majority of the body is not engaged. Many choose to come and sit through
service and then leave once it is over. This leaves the same core group doing all of the work
week after week. The solution to these problems is simple, but complex in the same manner. In
order to fix these things, we have to evaluate our discipleship process and find out where the
breakdown in communication is. Many people, as Christians, do not intentionally fall short of the
expectations that are set forth by scripture, but do so out of the ignorance of not knowing. If we
identify the areas that are lacking, such as tithing, then we can make changes to the way that we
teach people what biblical tithing is since it is apparent that the way that is currently in place is
not working.
My church does excel in some other areas, however. Through our pastor’s teachings,
most of us have come to promote and encourage a mindset of obedience to God being the most
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important thing. Also, leaders are constantly being developed. As a leader myself, I can’t count
the number of times that the pastor has taken his own personal time to sit down with me one on
one and have deep conversations that are intended to help build me up so that I can progress and
become more spiritually mature. We also do a good job of ministering to the poor and the “least
of these” because many of our congregation come from lower income households or where
resources may be very limited. The church does a good job with trying to help the people and
minister to them to show the love of Christ through their situation.
Bibliography
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.
Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Spiritual Formation Is...: How to Grow in Jesus with Passion
and Confidence. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018.
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Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth. San Francisco, CA:
HarperOne, 2018.
Platt, David. Follow Me. Tyndale, 2013.
Putman, Jim, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help
Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2013.
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