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Disciple Making in the Local Church

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Written Assignment 3: Disciple Making in the Local Church

Submitted to Dr. Rodney Dempsey, in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the completion of the course

DSMN 500 – D01

Discipleship Ministries

Robert Ortiz Jr.

Submitted: August 11, 2014

The Importance of Making Disciples

I am a seminary student. As I begin to write this paper I confess my heart is heavy. I have

this deeply). The main cause of all this heartache is because I see things according to God’s

Word, whereas the men I have dealt with see things according to their own understanding, their

own view of how the church should operate. This previous church of mine was visionless. It was

led by men that did not care to disciple its congregation. Men that did not care to evangelize the

community. Men that did not care to grow the men of the church, and men that did not focus

whatsoever on outreach of any kind. “Churches that do not focus on these ministries will die in

just a few generations.”[1] I doubt it will see a second generation. The main concern of the

leadership was submission to them and renovating the church building (something that has

been the focus of church leadership for more than twenty years).

At the time of my departure there were less than twenty members in the church; weekly

attendance was around forty or so. This is in a building that housed 172 occupants in the main

senior pastor and the associate pastor.

People have left the church because they have felt voiceless. People have moved on to

other churches because they were starving, not even milk was being served. “Pastors generally

think their sheep are getting a good meal; however, their listeners disagree…”[2] My goal is not

to bash my previous church, I pray for them and the leadership, my goal is to illustrate the

importance of the local church in developing believers to be disciples and to make disciples. I

currently am not a member of a church. I am visiting a fairly large church but I am taking it real

slow, to slow maybe. Can I blame the church and its leaders for leaving me and so many others

to the wayside? Yes, but I do not; it is nonetheless still very hard to navigate through such hurt.

Imagine then a new believer; without the proper guidance, how will he navigate this incredibly

The Local Church

disciples. The role of the local church, the called out ones, is to first establish how it is

positioned and then determine how to facilitate disciples and disciple makers from that starting

point. Greg Ogden writes, “If we are to devise a successful strategy of disciple making in our

churches, we must first assess the gap between where we are and where we are called to

go.”[4] If the church identifies itself as a relatively small church then collectively it can work on

the basis of a small group. If it is a larger church then it needs to position itself as such to

establish leaders that can lead small groups. Whether it is the pastor of a small, hopefully

growing church, or the leader of a small group, “regular interaction with caring, biblically

trained [discipled] leaders prompts spiritual growth.”[5]

Local Community

Individuals make up the church – the body of Christ. In establishing his church Jesus set

forth to disciple twelve men, one of which, Peter, would be the rock on which he would build it.

They all would receive the best of the best when it came to being discipled, no greater mentor

can a person have then Jesus the Christ himself. Nonetheless, Bonhoeffer writes,

For the first disciples bodily community with Jesus did not mean anything different or anything

more than what we have today. Indeed, for us this community is even more definite, more

today are in an even better position than the disciples who walked with, ate with, cried with,

laughed with, did ministry with, and saw the miracles of Jesus the Christ. If this is case, then

should not the church be in the very best position to win, grow, and send disciples? We are able

to do exceedingly more because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the helper Jesus promised us –

with him all things are possible, this gives credence to the better position we have than the

disciples. The people of God are in the top three most important aspects of true and effective

discipleship, the Word of God and the Spirit of God being the other two. Jesus said that

everything in the Law and the Prophets can be simplified, he means we as his creation are to

love God and love people. “This means that we cannot separate relationships from the disciple-

making process. Our interactions with other people are one of the means God uses to teach us

truth.”[7] In other words an extremely high priority needs to be placed on the importance of

raising saints to be what God has created them to be.

Pastors are called to train and prepare congregants to go forth and make disciples. Whilst

they are doing this they are commissioned to feed and protect the saints. They are the ones

little accountability through relationships to support life change.”[10] The lure of big time

televangelist or mega-church pastorship has taken the place of honest caring for the sheep of

Christ. Seems Jesus was just talking to Peter. More so, and I think this is the prevalent truth,

Pastors just do not know how to make disciples, they base their calling on a specific gifting

without consideration to the vast responsibility of leading a flock. I believe, if every church

leader, especially its core pastoral team to include the senior pastor, followed the “four main

roles of a disciple making pastor” as outlined by Putman et al, we would see a vast and

profound change in the influence of the church on the world. These four roles are a pastor

(leader) needs to first be an authentic disciple, he should be a discipleship system builder, he

should develop leaders, and finally he should be a vision caster (many miss this one if not all of

them).[11]

Saints and Spiritual Gifts

At the end of the day however it is all about the people. People are who Christ came to

save and disciple to be world changers. The people of God play a vital role in continuing the

work Christ established through the first disciples and so forth. And the driving force behind it

and out to practice their gifting, then the whole body suffers. And it is important to keep in

mind that every single person, just as every single part of the body is, vital to the overall well

being and effectiveness of the church.

community spirit and accomplished a great deal because they worked together, ate together,

systematic plan to reach people, and teach people. And as leaders, our goal is to help the

church fulfill her role in the plan and will of God.

[2] Julia Duin, Quitting Church: Why the faithful are Leaving, (Grand Rapids: Bondfire Books,

2013), 68.

[3] Dave Earley and Rod Dempsey, Disciple Making Is…: How to Live the Great Commission with

Passion and Confidence, (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2013), 39.

[4] Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time, (Westmont, IL:

InterVarsity Press, 2010), 21.

[5] Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, and Robert E. Coleman, Discipleshift: Five Steps that Help

Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 134.

[6] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey, eds. And Barbara

Green and Reinhard Krauss, trans., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001), 213.

[7] Putman, et al., 140.

[8] Dempsey, 41.

[11] Putman et al., 119-126.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship. Geffrey B. Kelly and John D. Godsey, eds. and Barbara

Duin, Julia. Quitting Church: Why the faithful are Leaving. Grand Rapids: Bondfire Books,

2013.