DSMN 500
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 4 – DISCIPLESHIP AND A HEALTHY CHURCH
SUBMITTED TO DR. R. A. GOWINS
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE COURSE DSMN 500 LUO-D06
DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
BY
FACULTY OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
APRIL 29, 2017
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Discipleship and a Healthy Church
Introduction
Becoming a true disciple of Jesus only occurs when one has discovered God’s will.
Discipleship is commitment to Christ. According to Earley & Dempsey, the word disciple
describes a protégé who learns and follows his teacher’s precepts and instructions. It speaks of a
follower who adopts the lifestyle of his master.”1 A Christian disciple is one who accepts the
good news of Jesus Christ and assists in spreading.
Earley compares a healthy church to a healthy body. Eph. 1:23, Apostle Paul makes it
clear that the church is to be considered the body of Christ. In talking about the comparison
between the human body and the church, he describes the human body as an amazingly complex
arrangement of organic systems and that when all of the parts are working properly, the body
seems to grow and develop without any effort.2
HEALTHY CHURCH
Healthy churches are vital to the advancement of the gospel and proper discipleship in the
process is the only way people are going to grow closer to the Lord in understanding their role as
disciples and the big picture role of the church. The discipleship process is crucial in helping
believers understand exactly what God is expects of them and what He is calling them to do and
one of the most important principles to teach new believers is the principle of obedience to God.
1 Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is–: How to Live the Great Commission with Passion and
Confidence. Pasadena, CA: B&H Academic, 2013, 68.
2 Ibid
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Church health is a matter of focus, a focus on Christ the founder of the church and not on
the church itself. Our focus determines whether we have a survival mentality or a service
mentality. A willingness to serve is an indicator of a Christ centered focus and is a sign that the
people have faith in God and are open to the workings of the Spirit.
When a person becomes a Christian, he doesn’t just join a local church because it’s a
good habit for growing in spiritual maturity, he joins because it’s the expression of what Christ
has made him; a member of the body of Christ. Identifying a healthy church is not a difficult
task, this is because as referenced earlier, when a body is not functioning properly, it is sick. This
is because of one or more parts of the organ not working properly. Same is for a church that is
not healthy, many things will be noticed by everyone around.
For a church that is unhealthy, the indication is their emphasis will be on maintaining the
physical structure of the church, not as much on the spiritual wellbeing of the members or
perhaps it is on getting more people into the building or are motivated by money, such is a clue
that the focus is strictly on survival and not on Christ. A focus on Christ allows us to support one
another, even in our differences as Christ helped all that he came across.
There are several indications of a healthy church, Early listed twenty of them amongst
which are:
1. It is a place where the gospel of Christ is being Proclaimed by word and deed.3 In 2
Corinthians 11:4, Paul warns about believing false doctrines “For if someone comes and
proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit
than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up
with it way too easily.” Paul knew that there will be those that will come with false
3 Ibid
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doctrines, pretending to be a church of Christ, but the way they present the gospel will be
what we will use to differentiate them from the true church. The book of Acts 20:30 also
emphasizes this point “and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking
perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”
2. It is a place Where new believers are baptized Where new believers are growing in their
ability to surrender and sacrifice for the kingdom.4 In 2 Timothy 4: 3 “For the time will
come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather
around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.” Many run from church to church
because they do not agree with what some churches preach, especially when it comes to
holiness and right living. They believe everyone is free to live their lives however they
please, allowing homosexuals in the church and that we should be preaching against their
lifestyle, seeing that it is now acceptable in the society. There are many preachers these
days that are openly courting this group and don’t preach against their lifestyle, that is an
indication of an unhealthy church because Jesus never condone their lifestyle though he
loved them and requested that they change or be in peril of eternal damnation. A healthy
church teaches the new converts not to believe or buy into the lives of the devil and
thereby compromising their faith.
3. It is where relational groups are multiplying new leaders and new groups focused more
on a small group structure.5 For some churches, the primary small group was Sunday
school; for others, it was home groups or small groups that met in diverse locations. The
churches that emphasized moving as many members as possible into a small group
assimilated those members five times better than those who attended only worship
4 Ibid
5 Ibid 189
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services. Another sign of a healthy small group structure was the involved leadership of
pastors and senior pastors. They see the critical importance of members and guests
connecting in a smaller setting.
4. It is a place where the mission of Christ is being accomplished locally, regionally,
nationally, and globally by members from within the local body.6 A healthy church is not
a church that’s perfect and without sin. It has not figured everything out. Rather, it’s a
church that continually strives to take God’s side in the battle against the ungodly desires
and deceits of the world, our flesh, and the devil. It’s a church that continually seeks to
conform itself to God’s Word. You are to preach the gospel to every creature 1 Cor. 15:1–
4; and any church not proclaiming and showing this message is not a healthy one.
A Healthy Church is the Goal for Discipleship
Bonhoeffer stated that, “since the ascension, Jesus Christ’s place on earth has been taken
by his body, the church. The church is the present Christ himself.”7 The spiritual health of a
congregation defines the success with which discipleship is implemented. The book of Acts
gives us five demonstrative facets of what a healthy church looks like: Acts 2:42-47 “They
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and
possessions to give to anyone who had a need. 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,
6 Ibid 219
7 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, ed. Gerhard Ludwig Müller and Albrecht
Schönherr. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996-2014, 218
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praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily
those who were being saved.”
According to Earley and Dempsey, “Paul points out that the body of Christ is to be built
up and that it grows strong by the proper working of each individual part.”8 They define “each
individual part” working properly as essential to the health of the church; “It is an organic system
where all the parts work together.”9 They also stressed the importance of “spiritual gifts and
“each individual part” of the congregation knowing what their gifts are and how they are being
used.10 To them, the sign of a spiritually healthy church is the extent to which effective
discipleship is occurring, and a healthy church is one in which everyone is growing while serving
in the right place .11
In talking about a healthy church, Allen mentioned that a spiritually healthy church is one
led by spiritual leaders who are healthy and has believers who are healthy, and are actively
engaged in discipleship.12 According to Dempsey, a healthy leader knows who he or she is and
they know their role in the body. The spiritual leader knows his or her role in the body and helps
other people to grow in their relationship with Christ.13
8 Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is–: How to Live the Great Commission
with Passion and Confidence. Pasadena, CA: B&H Academic, 2013, 216.
9 Ibid 215
10 Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is–: How to Live the Great Commission
with Passion and Confidence. Pasadena, CA: B&H Academic, 2013, 68.
11 Ibid 189
12 Ibid
13 Ibid
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As the leadership begins to take a more active role in equipping and empowering the
believers, the church will naturally begin to become healthier. Using the analogy of the human
body which is full of complex systems, we recognize when they are all working together, the
body matures and grows with little effort. In like manner, when all the systems and parts of a
church are working together and you do not have people or ministries trying to go against the
flow and vision of the church, the natural outcome is health, vitality, and longevity.
As disciples begin to mature and realize that Christ as the head of the church, they begin
to love others just as He did and as a result, a healthy church must have an environment where
love flows freely. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another.”
Steps to Improving Spiritual Health
To improve the health of the church, the first place to start will be with the leadership.
The pastor who is the spiritual leader, determines what happens and how the process of
discipleship works in the church. This leader needs to know his role in the body and return to the
work of developing leaders who go about preaching and teaching the true word of God.14 The
pastor must become “a spiritual leader of influence” which develops and or trains other persons
of influence who understand the importance of discipleship. The church organization must
develop a plan that involves a disciple-making process that will focus on relationships and a
clear-cut strategy to eventually birth new groups.15 The leader must also develop a process of
14 Ibid
15 Ibid
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mentoring that involves new believers to properly nurture and developed them.”16 Thus,
producing a church that becomes a place where the process of “multiplication” is a reality and
not a theoretical construct.17
Conclusion
A healthy system equals a healthy body of believers and a healthy body of believers leads
to a church that is reproducing after its kind. A healthy church demonstrates the spiritual
disciplines as a living organism. They do not develop these disciplines by themselves, as
disciples, they learn God’s will for their lives through spiritual discipleship and thus begin to see
God’s will for their church and become more engaged in that mission. By ensuring this process
takes place in a healthy environment, a healthy church full of healthy believers will be the result.
Finally, by understanding that the role of a pastor (leader) is to equip the believers and the
role of the spiritual leader is to equip and empower new believers to do the same, will produce
new believers that will follow the teachings of Jesus.
16 Ibid
17 Ibid
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Bibliography
1. Earley, Dave, and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is–: How to Live the Great
Commission with Passion and Confidence. Pasadena, CA: B&H Academic, 2013.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, ed. Gerhard Ludwig Müller and
Albrecht Schönherr. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996-2014.
3. Putnam, 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.
4. Allen England, “Creating a Healthy Church” (reading, DSMN 500-D06 LUO-week 6,
Liberty University, Spring 2017), accessed Apr 25, 2017.
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