LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
The Connection Between Discipleship and Leadership Assignment
Submitted to Dr. James Sulfridge,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN500 – D05
Discipleship Ministries
by
William C. King
August 3, 2025
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Great Commission Leadership........................................................................................................1
Comparison and Contrast of Various Texts.....................................................................................2
Healthy Church................................................................................................................................4
Kingdom Leadership Principle Evaluation.......................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................7
i
Introduction
Leadership is one which has many different explanations. Biblical leadership is no
different. The same can be said of discipleship. Yet, there is one facet of discipleship which
stands out more than others. This is found in the development of a disciple. Developing a
disciple should be fundamentally no different than developing a leader simply because they are
one in the same. Christian leadership is about Christian discipleship. If one creates a disciple,
they should do so with the intent of making them into leaders someday. It is here that the
connection between discipleship and leadership will be further evaluated. Discovering
leadership and discipleship through a lens of the Great Commission, discussion on various texts
of leadership, creating a goal of a healthy church, and evaluating current principles needing
attention, the reader will better understand the connection and process for creating disciples
into leaders and leaders into better disciples.
Great Commission Leadership
Foundationally, the church body is called to make disciples. Many think this stops at
conversion. This is just the bounding point. Jesus differentiates between the two and the church
would do well to mimic this. Jesus states: “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15, NKJV). Then, just twelve chapters later He
says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19, NKJV). He distinguishes the difference between going and
preaching to the world and making a disciple. The Great Commission verse runs deeper even in
its explanation. Jesus instructs to make disciples by baptizing then teaching them. Great
Commission leadership is about developing and sewing into someone with enough time and
patience that one is able to grow them into someone who is trusted enough by others to be
capable of guiding others to a deeper relationship with Christ. “Ultimately, the Christian leader
encourages, equips, empowers, and releases people to do God’s will.”1 This is the fundamental
principle of the Great Commission, to encourage (baptize) and equip (teach) believers to go into
the world and repeat the cycle.
In the church we currently attend, there is a huge issue in the discipleship development.
There literally is no program in place to develop them. There is a Sunday morning service and a
Wednesday night bible study each week. Every other week there is a Sunday night service. In
between, there are no small groups and no meeting throughout the week, unless they are
blood family members. There is just now starting to become a community outreach program in
which a youth, supported by other adults and myself, go to downtown Goldsboro and play
music and share the gospel to those passing. There is a desire to go, but the pastor is holding
the church back. Additionally, there is no local leadership development. The denomination will
develop those set forth for ministry but not the local church. There are a lot of issues noticed
that are just now starting to get resolved. As my wife and I arrived, we began to fight for
change.
Comparison and Contrast of Various Texts
There are two texts which offer views of leadership vs. discipleship. They are Disciple
Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and Confidence by Dave Earley,
& Rod Dempsey. The second is DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make
Disciples Who Make Disciples by Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. In
DiscipleShift, Putman et al focus on the church needing to follow the commission rather than
the believer’s needing personally to do so. “Leadership development is similar to discipleship,
but it is different. Some people mature to the point where they are spiritual parents, but they
are not
1 The Connection between Disciple and Leader. Performed by Rod Dempsey. Liberty University, 2014.
2
necessarily gifted or effective in church leadership positions.”2 Rod Dempsey offers a different
view. He says: “Moving people onto God’s agenda involves helping them discover and
experience God’s will for their lives.”3 This view offers a varying lens that poses the question: “Is
it the church or the individual’s responsibility to live the Great Commission.” The answer is: yes.
However, this steps to the second comparison.
“DiscipleShift” presents that a leader is to be a model which then leads others whereas
“Disciple Making is…” points out that each believer ultimately is responsible for making another
disciple. Putman et al focus on the overall relational discipleship whereas Dempsey pushes
more theology foundations over relation. This is evidenced by statements from Putman such as:
“A church leader must also be able to cast the vision that creates the disciple-making culture of
the church. He not only makes it clear that everyone is to be involved in making disciples; he
constantly points people to the method—relational environments—for doing this.”4 Yet,
Dempsey proposes: “If we equip and empower all the individuals, then the organization (body)
will be healthy.”5 The focus should be on the individual relationship as this is why it is called a
“personal relationship with Jesus.”
There are some strengths as well. Putman offers a lockstep understanding of discipleship
with Dempsey. Putman says: “The vision is that the church’s primary mission is to create
disciples who create other disciples, just as Jesus intended us to do.”6 Whereas Dempsey states:
“Before a church embarks on the process of making disciples, there must be absolute clarity on
what a disciple of Jesus looks like.”7 The resolute understanding of the church to understand
2 Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to
Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 125.
3 Rod Dempsey, “Discovering an Organizing Principle,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great
Commission with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 17.
4 Putman et al. 126–127.
5 Dempsey. Disciple Making Is . . .203.
6 Putman et al. 127.
7 Dempsey. Disciple Making Is . . .26.
discipleship is a huge strength because far too often, as mentioned earlier, the understanding is
just to make a convert rather than a disciple.
Healthy Church
Ultimately, the end result is praise and honor to God. However, there are some natural
outflows of spiritual growth. As a disciple becomes stronger in faith, he will encourage others.
Discipleship produces healthy Christians which help others to grow healthy in the spiritual
disciplines as well. As believers mature into disciples, they become more Christlike and begin to
evidence the ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ which in turn impacts others. When a church is made up of
healthy Christians, the church naturally becomes healthier. Furthermore, the first century
church would literally do life together.
“42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs
performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in
common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every
day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their
homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the
favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being
saved.” (Acts 2:42-47, NIV).
As the church grew as disciples gathered, worshipped, learned, served, and evangelized
together and not in isolation. The church is meant to be community. When people are growing
in the Spirit, they naturally have a close relationship. The outcome of discipleship is a church
that is unified, spiritually mature, doctrinally sound, and loving. This is evidenced by the Apostle
Paul in his exhortation to the Ephesian church. He said: “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph. 4:3, KJV). Reference the word community. It is made of the
words comm and unity. The community is a unified body able to keep healthy relationships. The
unity
4
of the Spirit is a comm-unity focused on God. “A healthy church is a representation of the
people of God coming together to accomplish the mission of God for the glory of God.”8 This is
all product of discipleship.
Kingdom Leadership Principle Evaluation
In the final section of this review, the exploration of Kingdom Leadership Principles will
be discussed. These principles, presented by Dr. Rod Dempsey, are some of the foundational
perspectives for creating a disciple.9 One of the perspectives presented by Dempsey that is
evidenced in many churches, to include the one we presently attend, is: “There is only one King
and you are not Him.”10 This problem lies in the fact there are many which need to understand
they are a servant of God as well as a servant of others. It is not about a title. “The Bible takes
the term for slave, both the Hebrew דֶבO ֶעO and its equivalent in the Greek language, δουλος,
and transforms it into a designation for one bestowed with the unparalleled honor of being
called “the servant of the Lord.” 11 This leads into the second principle which I believe is needing
more attention in the church.
The next principle needing attention is “None of ‘it’ is yours (church, offerings, gifts,
buildings, people, vision).” Many pastors see growth in the church as what makes a church
healthy. They will not allow people to function in their spiritual gifts or even let their leadership
team make decisions without them saying “yes.” When asked why, it is often heard “Because
8 Rod Dempsey, “Creating a Healthy Church,” in Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the Great Commission
with Passion and Confidence (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 213.
9 Rod Dempsey. "10 Principles for Kingdom Leadership." DiscipleMaking Blog. September 10, 2015.
https://disciplemakingblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/10-principles-for-kingdom-leadership/ (accessed July 29,
2025).
10 Dempsey. "10 Principles for Kingdom Leadership."
11 Don N. Howell Jr., Servants of the Servant: A Biblical Theology of Leadership (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock
Publishers, 2003), 6.
this is my church and I am responsible for it.” Rather than making it about themselves, they
should be wanting to replicate. Which leads to the final of the principles needing more
attention.
The final principle as labeled by Dempsey is: “Connect people to the Mission.”12 One of
the things which is lacking in the church global is evangelism. Many churches do a wonderful
job at building numbers in their sanctuary but lose out on the biggest thing needed. Many are
dying without a saving relationship with Jesus. A church cannot be a healthy church until it
moves out of the four walls of the building and moves to serve others. This will inevitably cause
numerical growth and expansion and ultimately lead to replication and church planting.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a healthy church is not about numerical growth, it is about spiritual
growth. If the church never grew in number, the church could still be healthy. The goal of
ministry should be to have so many churches planting from their own congregations that
churches are popping up everywhere. As they create disciples, they create leaders. As they
create leaders, the church sends them forth to replicate the process. With the above knowledge
and being armed with various texts, the evidence exists that a minister is a servant who teaches
others to be the same and then shows them how to grow others to be the same. If replication
exists of a healthy church, then the world could be increasingly impacted for the cause of Christ.
Bibliography
Dempsey, Rod. "10 Principles for Kingdom Leadership." DiscipleMaking Blog. September 10,
2015. https://disciplemakingblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/10-principles-for-
kingdomleadership/ (accessed July 29, 2025).
Dempsey, Rod. "Comprehending Spiritual Leadership." In Disciple Making Is . . .: How to Live the
Great Commission with Passion and Confidence, by Dave Earley, & Rod Dempsey, 195.
Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013.
The Connection between Disciple and Leader. Performed by Rod Dempsey. Liberty University,
2014.
12 Dempsey. "10 Principles for Kingdom Leadership."
Earley, Dave. "The Process of Being Changed to Be like Jesus." In Spiritual Formation Is... How to
Grow in Jesus with Passion and Confidence, by Dave Earley, & Rod Dempsey, 4. Nashville,
TN: B&H Academic, 2018.
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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