LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Writing Assignment 4 – Discipleship and a Healthy Church
Submitted to Professor Dr. Jonathan Geukgeuzian
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500
Discipleship Ministries
by
Joseph Lee
April 25, 2019
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CONTENTS
Healthy Church ...............................................................................................................................3
Grounds for Believers to Disciples.............................................................................................3
Areas of Focus ................................................................................................................................5
Where New Believers are Baptized............................................................................................5
Where Relational Groups are Multiplying New Leaders ...........................................................6
Where Leaders for the Great Commission are Being Developed ..............................................7
Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................8
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HEALTHY CHURCH
A healthy church is “where new believers baptized, where the stains are growing in
maturity (connecting them to Jesus through the disciplines), where leaders for the Great
Commission are intentionally developed, where new churches planted as a result of effective
discipleship and effective leadership development.” 1
Grounds for Believers to Disciples
A church is a place where many types of people attend: non-believers, believers, leaders,
disciples. Non-believers are people who do not believe in God or have once believed in God and
have lost their faith and path. Some reasons non-believers attend church is because they are
forced to, some come with friends, some come for the food or a children’s program. Believers
are the people who are baptized and accepted God to be their Savior at one point in their life.
They vacillate from deeper faith to shallow faith. Believers attend church out of habit, because of
their kids, because they want to get their weekly dosage of a spiritual message, and because they
don’t want to stray away from God. Leaders are believers at the church who have a responsibility
at church. Leaders lead out in song service, baptism, Sabbath school, activities, and Bible study.
They attend church to fulfill their spiritual role and to serve others. Lastly, disciples are believers
at the church that sometimes hold leadership positions. They attend church because it is a
continuation of their weekly spiritual walk.
A healthy church is a goal as a part of discipleship because it is the training ground from
where disciples come. A healthy church has many prospects who are interested in becoming a
1 Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is….: How to Live the Great Commission
with Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2013, 212-213.
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disciple (versus an unhealthy church that has little to no candidates who are interested in
becoming a disciple). Not everyone wants to become a disciple, and it will be a small fraction of
the total church population. “The sad reality is that as you move across the chart and deeper into
discipleship, fewer people will go with you. The cost is considered too high. The sacrifice is
viewed as too great.” 2 Thus, the healthier a church is, the higher the number of disciples who are
willing to go the distance there will be.
2 Ibid, 130.
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AREAS OF FOCUS
By examining my church, I identified the top three areas that my church needs to focus
on to create a healthier body of Christ. The areas of focus are coming from the perspective of a
church leader. The three areas of focus are: Where New Believers are Baptized, Where
Relational Groups are Creating New Leaders, and Where Leaders for the Great Commission are
Being Developed.3 The foundation of the church is currently weak and unfocused. Once these
areas of focus are improved and developed, there will be a sturdy foundation based upon
discipleship and disciple-making.
Where New Believers are Baptized
The first area where my church needs to focus on is baptism. Our church does lack a
quarterly or even yearly goal for baptism. As sad as it may be, the environment of the church is
that there is no urgency or pending need for baptism. I asked myself, “How did it get this way?” I
realize that when things are consistent in a certain way over some time, it becomes the norm. The
norm is something that the church has accustomed to. In this case, the standard has become no
baptisms.
The solution to this is to look for people who need baptism at the church specifically.
Whenever there are visitors or new members the question should be asked, “Are they baptized?”
If they are not then there should be a plan by the church leader(s) on how the church can get
them to baptism. There are times that these new believers are not ready or reject the idea of Bible
study towards baptism. If they refuse then that’s a ‘no’ for that moment. It’s not a ‘no’ forever.
The new believer should be approached at a later time and asked to see if they changed their
3 Ibid, 212-213.
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mind. Perhaps they should be asked by another person or in a different way, but this issue should
revisit consistently and regularly.
Where Relational Groups are Multiplying New Leaders
Secondly, our church currently has relational groups (or small groups). There are and
have been Bible studies through these relational groups for years. The problem is that the pastor
has been and is currently teaching these relational groups. No new leaders are coming out of the
groups.
The solution is to focus the group to create leaders and disciples. “The relational small
group forms the backbone for discipleship. The key is that the small group’s purpose is defined
as encouraging discipleship – not primarily fellowship or counseling or even outreach (although
these may be vital components of the process).”4 It’s a place where the focus group asks for
volunteers who want to train to become a leader. Those individuals will need extra individual
attention outside of the relational group setting to develop. The discussion will be to verbalize
the expectation that they will later be expected to lead out the group without the pastor being
there.
Where Leaders for the Great Commission are Being Developed
The third area of focus is to develop leaders for the Great Commission. “We believe that
discipleship should be the core focus of the church”.5 This area of focus is different from the
second area of focus. This area of focus is specific to leaders for the Great Commission,
4 Putman, Jim, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help
Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013, 186.
5 Ibid, 31.
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“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” (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV). This
area of focus is specifically creating disciples, baptizing, and teaching obedience. Leaders for the
Great Commission are different from other leaders because they will be going out to the world to
find, train, and send new disciples.6 The leaders for the Great Commission are external leaders.
INITIAL STEPS FOR IMPROVING SPIRITUAL HEALTH
The initial steps for improving spiritual health at my church are to return to the Bible for
direction and vision. The church is “created according to the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness and truth”.7 My church feels like it’s on an auto-pilot. The auto-pilot
is where there is a church gathering once a week, there is Sabbath school, service, fellowship and
everyone goes home. The pastor does the majority of the leadership work while others are left
watching and receiving. The goal is to baptize new believers, multiply leaders from relational
groups, and develop leaders for the Great Commission.
6 Castleman, Robbie F. "The Last Word: The Great Commission: Ecclesiology". Themelios. 32 (3): 68.
7 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4. Minneapolis: First Fortress Press, 2003, 220.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4. Minneapolis: First Fortress Press, 2003.
Castleman, Robbie F. "The Last Word: The Great Commission: Ecclesiology". Themelios. 32.
Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is….: How to Live the Great Commission
with Passion and Confidence. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2013.
Putman, Jim, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman. DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help
Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.
Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Abingdon Press, 1890.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984.
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