Introduction
If we are the members of the body of Christ, then discipleship is the heart. Our ability to
function healthily, and on one accord, is due to the power of discipleship. It is the driving force
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behind our relationship with God, first, then every other relationship we develop. Every church
that claims to follow Christ should be built on the foundation of discipleship, as that is the very
act of following Jesus Christ. Christ said to his disciples in Matthew 4, “Come after me (As
disciples letting Me be your Guide), follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19,
AMPC).1 “Become my disciple” was the very appeal he made; following that, he declared that
those who agreed to follow him would disciple others, so we see that Christ knew the power of
discipleship as it pertained to his mission. As such, in order for the church to be successful, she
must follow the example of Christ and develop disciples.
Discipleship is more than a declaration-- it is a posture, an action and a lifestyle. David
Earley and Rod Dempsey wrote, in Disciple Making Is, that discipleship is “helping people find
Jesus and helping them to grow and become all they can be for Christ.”2 Discipleship pulls
believers from their former lives and introduces them to a new life in Christ, by showing great
and unsearchable things they would not have known or been able to operate in, prior to. Once
committing to the lifelong process of discipleship, believers mature into disciples. In
DiscipleShift, Jim Putman defines a disciple as “a person who is following Christ, is being
changed by Christ (spiritual formation), and is committed to the mission of Christ.”3 Discipleship
transforms a believer, in mind, body and soul, shifting his perspective and posture, and
developing him, so that he may effectively serve God’s will. This is what makes the body of
Christ strong, thereby making the church successful.
In this report, I will create the framework for a disciple-making plan, tying together
Biblical passages and scholarly insights to establish the ministry’s philosophy, practices and
1 Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced will be in Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
version.
2 David Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013), 15.
3 Jim Putman, DiscipleShift (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 51.
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indicators of success.
Passages
In order to develop a disciple-making plan, one would need to establish the vision that
will guide the ministry. And, because the plan is geared toward developing followers of Christ,
the vision should be grounded in the Word of God. Scripture would remind a leader and the
members of the focus and direction of the church and will also provide wisdom, regarding how
to align oneself with the vision of the ministry. For starters, Scripture provided clarity. In Luke,
Jesus emphasizes the costs of discipleship, which believers in the church would need to be aware
of, prior to committing to the process. Jesus said, “If any person wills to come after Me, let him
deny himself (disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give
up himself) and take up his cross daily and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me…)” (Luke 9:23).
The journey of discipleship is a costly one--one that would require a believer to fully submit
himself to Christ, especially during moments where he is tempted to follow his desires of his
flesh. A believer also needs to know that submission goes beyond obedience; it is a posture that
invokes humility and the willingness to deny himself.
Scripture would also provide encouragement/affirmation. Discipleship bears great fruit,
most of which are intended to draw people to the body of Christ. The uniqueness of disciples--
what sets them apart-- is what ultimately draws people to them. Matthew affirmed disciples,
encouraging them to embrace their light and to let it shine so much so that others will see it and
be led to glorify God: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden… Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy,
noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in
heaven” (Matt 5:14-16). Disciples need to first understand who they are in order to embrace what
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they are called to do and what the Lord requires of them. Continued affirmation would begin to
ingrain in them that they are no longer prisoners of their past and that because they have chosen
to follow Christ, they have been made new. Their new identities will enable them to do things
that benefit their own lives and the lives of those who are lost.
Finally, Scripture would remind believers of who they belong to. Psalm 100 says, “Know
(perceive, recognize and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who had made
us, not ourselves (and we are His)? We are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm
100:3). This scripture affirms disciples as God’s people, that they belong to Him and shall
continue to live for Him. The last part of the scripture, which says, “and the sheep of His
pasture”highlights the essence of community, another contributing factor to a believer’s journey
to discipleship.
As a leader, I would use the indicated scriptures to reiterate the transformative nature of
the discipleship process. The basis of my ministry is to help believers learn of who they are, who
they belong to, and, as a result, what is required of them. Discipleship essentially redefines a
believer’s identity, so my ministry would need to abide by Scripture that nurtures transformation.
With our ministry rooted in love, I seek to focus on those who are lost. Earley and
Dempsey asserted that “Disciple makers win the lost and train their disciples to do the same…”4
I understand the necessity of evangelism to discipleship. Many people need to be newly
introduced to the loving and accepting nature of Jesus Christ, in order to drop their guard. So, I
will focus on going into secular environments to win the hearts of young creatives and young
people who feel trapped by the “streets.” I believe it is every minister’s desire to touch
everyone’s hearts, but I have a burden for young people, men and women, between the ages of
18 and 35 years old. I would also aim to draw in those who are currently in the first stage of
4 David Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013), 143.
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discipleship: “spiritually dead.” Putman describes those people as “(those) who may reject God,
may be seeking God or call themselves Christian….but do not have the Holy Spirit living in
them.”5 “Spiritually dead” people are the ones who will need to start from scratch, and they are
usually cast aside or neglected because ministries tend to see them as too much of a challenge or
chore. But, my ministry will seek to cater to the overlooked, so we will construct a disciple-
making plan that will be tailored to meet the needs of the lost.
Principles
A ministry’s ability to stand firmly is attributable to the ministry’s faithfulness to its core
values. With my ministry’s mission being to rescue the lost and redefine their identity, my core
values would align with the lost’s need for community, a spirit of humility before God and His
people, and the posture of a worshipper.
Covenant community is the vessel, in which discipleship takes places and is considered a
means of measurement that indicates what progress a believer has made. The Lord is intentional
in providing a community for a new believer to feel safe in and be provided with guidance and
support during such an intense journey. Paul Pettit wrote, in Foundations of Spiritual Formation,
that “no Christian is an island. God does not bring us into fellowship with Him and make us a
part of His people to function in isolation.”6 Ultimately, a new believer will be in need of the
presence of like-minded people, those who have been in their shoes. That kind of familiarity may
ease the fear or intimidation that the new believer is experiencing, at the start of an unfamiliar
journey. Another aspect of community is its role in refining a new believer. Proverbs 27 says,
“Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Prov. 27:17). Community
will remind a new believer of the standards of his new identity in Christ. As a disciple, there are
5 Jim Putman, DiscipleShift (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 61.
6 Paul Pettit, Foundations of Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008), 103.
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certain practices that will not serve his identity or the will of God for his life; fortunately, in a
godly community, the new believers would be surrounded by godliness and godly wisdom.
Again, community is one of my ministry’s core values. New believers would know that covenant
community undergirds disciples.
When the lost enter the will of God, they are faced with the reality that they no longer
live for themselves. Receiving this truth is not easy, considering that they had just lived a life
under their own dominance. So, upon joining a new church and embarking on the journey to
discipleship, the new believer would need to take on the heart of a servant. In Strategic Disciple
Making, Aubrey Malphurs notes that to follow Christ means to serve: “What is the essence of
such following? The answer is service or servanthood. The Savior connects following him with
serving him in John 12:26… and in Matthew 20:26, adds that we are to serve one another as
well.”7 The only way to grow as a servant of Christ is to serve, while understanding that service
is a love language. It also indicates that the new believer’s focus is shifting from he desires to
what is best for the body of Christ and will of God. This is what God desires: for His people to
seek lower themselves on the behalf of others. In Spiritual Formation Is, Rod Dempsey and
Dave Earley wrote, “God’s love as seen in Jesus is an others-oriented, need meeting type of love.
God wants this type of love to characterize his followers. It is a love that sacrifices for others.”8
New believers will be encouraged to serve, first, in small group settings to give them a chance to
mature as servants. All who join the ministry will also be admonished to take heed to John 3:30
as one of the ministry’s principles. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
A disciple is a true worshipper. He not only rejoices in being able to worship God, during
a service with his fellow believers, but he also lives his life as a worshipper. The Word of God
7 Aubrey Malphurs, Strategic Disciple Making (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009), 51.
8 Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Spiritual Formation Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 100.
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calls for all to worship God in spirit and in truth, which means that as we are
internally/spiritually devoted to God, we should also be naturally devoted to Him. As such, the
final core value acknowledges and affirms Jesus Christ as the head of the church and the center
of the will of God: Worship goes beyond the four walls of the church. The world should be able
to see God, through a disciple’s words, actions and lifestyle. Putman writes, “...in what we do,
we do not simply work for other people; we work for the Lord. In this sense, our work affects
God’s reputation. We work and live in a way that meets our physical needs, certainly, but at the
same time we work in such a way that we serve as missionaries to a lost and dying world.”9In
accordance with this, when new believers join my ministry, they will be assigned to a pastoral
counselor. With a counselor, the new believer will address any trauma he may have experienced
and assess how the trauma affected him, and then develop strategies to help him walk out of any
dysfunction that governed his life. The counseling sessions will also include heavy intercession
regarding purifying the new believer and submitting every unsubmitted area in his life to Christ.
Full submission to life in Christ requires a shedding process that frees a new believer of anything
that had control over him so that he will not have to struggle in choosing who/what to follow.
The objective is to transform him into a worshipper, in all that he does.
Philosophy
Establishing and upholding the philosophy of a ministry is crucial to the vision of
developing disciples. A part of upholding that philosophy is accurately defining key terms that
guide the ministry. Defining key terms clarifies the roles of the key terms in the mission of Christ
and declares what should be expected of them. From church to church, the definitions differ as
leaders place an emphasis on certain aspects of the terms/roles more than others. Essentially, the
9 Jim Putman, DiscipleShift (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 88.
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definitions of my ministry would be founded on Scripture, for I desire to align with the Lord’s
intentions for those who will walk in those roles.
One of the terms we define is “church.” To the world, the church is merely a building that
houses a religion. It would be unwise and unproductive to neglect that the church is actually
alive and represents Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, some leaders place a strong emphasis on the
features/qualities of the building itself. However, I define the church as the body of Christ, being
led by Jesus as the head. Furthermore, it is comprised of individual members who all serve the
mission of Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote, “ For just as the body is a unity and yet has many
parts, and all the parts, though many, form [only] one body, so it is with Christ (the Messiah, the
Anointed One)... For the body does not consist of one limb or organ but of many” (1 Cor. 12:12-
14). There are various scriptural examples that further the portrayal of the church as the body of
Christ, led by Christ, and operated by like-minded believers devoted to the will of God.
Another term we define is “evangelism.” Some Christians believe that the act of
evangelizing is strictly designated for men and women who have been ordained as evangelists. I
strongly believe that this idea hinders the mission of the church to draw in the lost, as it limits the
responsibility to only that of an evangelist. In my ministry, we would define evangelism as the
act of drawing in the lost by meeting their needs. Mark Teasdale wrote, in Evangelism is for
Non-Evangelists…” that all Christians should evangelize., for Jesus commanded that we all go
into the world to make disciples. In even simpler terms, Teasdale describes evangelism as, “the
practice of sharing the good news.”10 In the world, the lot are subject to so many interpretations
of how they should live life, who they should follow, and what they should believe. With so
many ideas surrounding them, they desperately need to hear the truth. Teasdale wrote,
“Evangelism wards off the increasing danger of seductive and dangerous ideologies seeking to
10 Mark R. Teasdale, Evangelism for Non-Evangelists (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016). 17.
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claim converts.”11 Evangelism saves the lost and initiates the relationship between the ones in
need and the One who meets the need.
Correctly and explicitly defining key terms that guide a ministry demonstrates the
mission of the ministry, especially when those who operate in those roles remain on one accord.
In my ministry, it would be embedded in the minds of those who serve that Christ is and always
will be our focus. So each person’s motive will need to be aligned with pushing Christ’s gospel
to the forefront through how we serve.
Practices
Earley and Dempsey highlighted four church models that leaders use to make up the
structure of the church, one of which I would utilize as a blueprint in the disciple-making
process: the Organic structure. Aubrey Malphurs wrote, in Advanced Strategic Planning, that the
church is extremely essential in the transformation of a believer, which is the key to any
discipleship process. Malphurs wrote, “Not only does the Christian have a role in his or her
transformation-maturation process, but the church plays a big role as well. The Christian’s role is
personal and individual. The church’s role, however, is public and corporate.”12 So, it would be
pertinent to implement the strategies of a church that deals with a believer, internally. The
Organic church appeals to and caters to the spiritual development of a believer. According to
Earley and Dempsey, within the Organic structure, “The role of leadership is viewed as
equipping, empowering, and releasing God’s children to discover and use their spiritual gift in
the body (to create health). The goal is healthy disciples who develop into healthy leaders who
develop new healthy churches to reach new people.”13 Leaders who abide by this structure, seek
11 Ibid., 112.
12 Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 1999), 199.
13 David Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2013),
233.
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to transform the lives of new believers by bringing them into communities that guide and support
them, as well as through discipleship. According to the WITH OF IS Chart, leaders of an Organic
church believe in “doing life together in the community with believers” and that “transformed
lives result in a transformed society.”14
The Organic church also values small groups, which is an effective way to ensure that a
new believer always feels that he belongs. Within my ministry, new believers would be
encouraged to join a small group--one that is age and gender specific, as well as interest specific.
If the new believer is a creative or is interested in Math or Science, he would join a group that
houses people who either work in or study those fields. Sharing similar interests, I believe, is a
gateway to developing a strong rapport with one another and eventually building trust within the
small group.
As previously stated, upon joining our ministry, a new believer would be paired with a
counselor to explore the soul of the believer and create a plan to address and overcome certain
issues. Simultaneously, he will be placed in a small group, where he will build relationships and
learn how to serve. To assess his progress, the believer will participate in weekly bi-weekly
check-ins with his counselor; also, the counselor will discuss the believer’s progress with his
small group leader. In this way, the believer will be covered and held accountable, in multiple
areas.
As the believer matures, he will join a class that focuses on walking in purpose. The class
will be divided in 4 parts: Life in Christ, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Gifts and Mandates, and
Activations. There, he will learn of his role in fulfilling the Great Commission; he will also be
led in discovering his gifts/ what he is called to do, and he will participate in training and
activations so that he can mature in his gifts. The curriculum in that class and from his small
14 With, Of, Is Chart (Liberty University, 2021).
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group will build up his scriptural knowledge and devotional life so that he will always be rooted
in the Word of God.
Proof
The process of discipleship is a costly one, but it is also a fruitful one. As a church that
values and upholds discipleship as the heart of the church, we believe it is necessary to track the
progress of those who submit to the process, which would demonstrate to us how “successful”
our ministry is.
In order to track the progress, we must first communicate some of our major goals. The
first goal is related to community. Since our ministry values small group relationships, we will
track how many believers have a small group through monthly reports from our small group
leaders. From there, we will then observe how joining the small groups have impacted the
believers’ lives, by monthly check-ins with counselors. We want to ensure that the believers are
not only growing from the small group connections, but that they are also enjoying the
connections. We will also encourage members of each small group to fellowship with one
another outside of the church, as well, so that they can nurture the relationships.
Another goal is for new believers to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit. As
previously stated, new believers will be required to complete a class on walking in purpose. The
second stage of that class is “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” At this stage, believers will first be
baptized in water, which class facilitators will document. Afterward, they will be invited to a
worship service that will include the opportunity to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Facilitators
will speak to each believer to hear of his experience and document it. Then, at the start of each
class session, believers will set the atmosphere of the classroom through worship and building
themselves up with their “heavenly language.” When the believers advance to the next stage,
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facilitators will share their numbers with the leader at the monthly check-in.
One other goal is for believers to be equipped and sent out to minister. The Apostle Paul
wrote, “His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of saints (His consecrated
people), (that they should do) the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the
church)” (Ephesians 4:12). Equipping and sending out saints builds them up as leaders and
enables them to multiply. It is a multifaceted aspect of our church, where ministry and
evangelism go hand in hand. Upon completing their class, believers will be invited to join
evangelism teams, where they will operate in their gifts to minister to people in need. Team
leaders will document the number of believers who join a team and the number of people who
give their life to Christ following a ministry gathering. Because our ministry seeks to transform
new believers into disciples who fully operate in God’s purpose for their lives, we value starting
from the inside out. So every new believer who walks into our church and gives his life to Christ
will undergo the exact same process, regardless of what stage of discipleship he is already at.
Conclusion
Michael Horton wrote, in The Gospel Commission, “The Great Commission is God’s
blueprint for lifelong learners, who have pastors and teachers who care enough to bring them to
ever greater maturity in Christ.”15 Discipleship prepares believers so that they work together to
fulfill the Great Commission. This is why the goal of any church should be to guide a believer
into spiritual maturity. The fruit of that should not just manifest inside of the church--the fruit
should expand to outside of the four walls, as well, working to impact the lost so that they can be
led to the body of Christ. Therefore, my ministry’s discipleship plan, as outlined, will intend to
spiritually transform all new believers and equip/send them out so that they can draw in and
15 Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 123.
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disciple others.
Bibliography
Dempsey, Rod and Dave Earley. Spiritual Formation Is (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018.
Earley, David and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group,
2013.
Horton, Michael. The Gospel Commission. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011.
Malphurs, Aubrey. Advanced Strategic Planning. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 1999.
Malphurs, Aubrey. Strategic Disciple Making. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2009.
Pettit, Paul. Foundations of Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008.
Putman, Jim. DiscipleShift. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013.
Teasdale, Mark. Evangelism for Non-Evangelists. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016.
With, Of, Is Chart. Liberty University, 2021.
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