TAKE PRACTICAL STEPS TO MAKE DISCIPLES

 

When I equip people to disciple others, I like to ask them, “Can you read?” If they can, they can lead a discipleship group. I often make simple things way too complicated, but disciple-making doesn’t have to be complicated. God has an amazing knack for putting the cookies on the lower shelf for people like me.

 

Engaging students in the “go and make disciples” mandate from Jesus naturally leads us to the next step of their spiritual growth—discipleship. In time, making disciples leads to multiplying disciples and fulfilling Jesus’ strategic plan to reach “all nations.”

 

To make disciples you simply start a discipleship group, either with new Jesus followers or with ones who have already been participating in your youth group. You and other adult leaders you have invested in can follow these clear-cut, practical steps to begin a disciple-making group.

 

Pray

This step serves as a reminder that without God’s presence and power we don’t accomplish anything of eternal value. Invite the presence and power of God into everything you do.

 

Select

Ask the Lord, “Who do You want in this group—who is open and hungry to know You?” The ideal size is four to eight, no more than ten. Once you have some direction on this, meet with each person individually. In that meeting give them a strong challenge about this opportunity to focus on and grow in their relationship with Jesus.

 

Challenge

Some people have apprehensions about inviting others to join them in the disciple-making adventure. That’s understandable, but that kind of apprehension doesn’t come from God. You may think of many reasons why someone would not want to do this. Resist those thoughts.

 

Challenge each person to pursue God’s vision for his or her life. When you meet with each one, open your Bible to Matthew 4:19, read it, then look that person in the eyes, and say, “I see God’s potential in you. He has such a great purpose for your life. I want to help you discover how to follow Jesus and to fish for people. That’s why I want you in this group.”

 

View the group as a long-term process—hopefully you will disciple these people in some way for the rest of your life! And potentially you will work with this particular group over the next months or few years.

 

Commit

Once you challenge each person individually, meet as a group. In a relaxed environment, with some food included, discuss the following issues:

 

• The cost: “We will meet one hour every week at _____. I am asking you to pay a price, so to speak, to join this group. If you commit, you will need to attend every week and do all of the assignments each week.”

 

• The benefit: “This group will help you to become a man/woman of God. You will move toward maturity in Christ, and you will become a leader who helps others trust and follow Him.” 

 

• The commitment: Give each one the first Moving Toward Maturity book—Following Jesus. (See Resources below and take them through the process of downloading the free book). You can say: “This book will guide you and our group each week. As part of our commitment, you must come prepared. Turn to page 11 in Following Jesus so we can understand clearly our commitments to each other.” Read the commitments out loud. Then during the first two or three group meetings, reread the commitments to them each time. Ask different ones to read each point. By doing this, they grasp the seriousness of their commitment.

 

Prepare

Prior to the first group meeting, several actions need to occur for you and your group to come prepared.

 

Use the downloadable Moving Toward Maturity books with the long-term process in view. (See Resources below.) The Moving Toward Maturity series, five books of ten weeks each, will take you on a stair-step course of maturing your group in Christ. Each book builds on the previous one.

 

• Following Jesus builds a solid foundation for a life-changing relationship with Christ and for becoming a disciple of Christ. (You will want to get your own copy of Following Jesus. Go through it just like your disciples go through their books.)

 

• Spending Time Alone with God deepens each person’s relationship with Jesus by learning how to spend time with Him.

 

• Making Jesus Lord challenges each person to obey Jesus and to give Him control in day-to-day issues.

 

• Giving Away Your Faith guides each person into the wild adventure of overcoming his or her fears and taking the risk to boldly communicate Christ.

 

• Influencing Your World shows the group members that they can become influential leaders through loving people and serving the needs of the people around them.

 

Four additional free downloadable books—two for you as the leader and two for your students—will supplement the disciple-making process:

 

• Moving Toward Maturity INDEPTH Leader’s Guide, will give you very specific and detailed guidance for each chapter in the MTM books so you can lead a lively and life-changing discipleship group.

 

• Moving Toward Maturity BRIEF Leader’s Guide—Practical Steps for Disciple-Making offers a more general and overarching directional approach to leading your group.

 

• Time Alone with God Notebook gives your students the practical tools and a daily journal to start their lifetime adventure of daily spending time alone with God. I highly recommend that in your first group meeting all of you download this book.

 

• Getting Started helps new believers successfully begin their walk with Christ.

 

Going through all of these books will take two-plus years. If your group is younger teenagers and you begin while they attend middle school, they will finish in two years. Somewhere along the way they will begin to disciple a younger group of students—multiplying disciple-makers!

 

Lead

The success of the group depends not only on the curriculum, but even more on the way you lead. Build the relationships. Keep your disciples focused. Follow these guidelines to structure the group:

 

• Decide. Work with the group to determine the time, place, length of meeting, and size of the group. Again, four to eight people is ideal. Each book takes at least ten weeks to complete.

 

• Prepare. At this age, the tendency is not to prepare. You can help them come prepared by calling them a couple of days before the meeting to ask them if they have done the assignments. If they have not prepared, ask them if they need help. If they do, go over the assignments with them. If they come unprepared, meet with them personally during the week to help them prepare. Do this until they get in the habit of it.

 

• Focus. Begin each meeting by reminding them of the purpose of the group. Memorize Matthew 4:19 and say it to each other weekly.

 

• Review. For the first two weeks, go over the commitments on page 11 of Following Jesus, and the same page 11 in all of the other Moving Toward Maturity books. Again remind them to come prepared. Each week ask them to review one specific insight that God taught them the previous week and one specific way they applied that insight.

 

• Pray. After reminding them of their purpose and reviewing their insights, divide them into prayer triplets. Keep them in the same groups of three for several weeks, then switch. If the group doesn’t divide exactly in threes, pray in twos.

 

• Discuss. Spend at least thirty to forty minutes going through the material related to the book. When they raise topics outside of the focused discussion, engage them, but do not get derailed. Discuss those topics later. At the same time encourage them to talk. Resist the temptation to lecture. Let them do most of the talking. A fun “heads up” —you will have plenty of joking and laughing!

 

• Share. Save time each week to talk about the personal issues and the questions they raise. At first the conversations will be on the surface, but as the group grows closer they will openly discuss their issues. If time becomes a problem, invite them to meet outside of the group time to continue—either as a group or one on one.

 

• Involve. Once the group begins, involve them in doing ministry outside the group—take them with you when meeting a need, sharing Christ with their friends and other students, going to the inner city, doing a local missions project, and/or taking a mission trip in country or overseas.

 

• Multiply. At some point, after you have gone through the first couple of books, determine if and when they are ready to begin to have their own disciple-making group with some younger students. You can equip them to do this by following what is in this article and from you own experience.

 

As you follow these steps, the Lord will use you with your group and those they influence in ways you cannot even imagine now!

 

Your Next Steps

We encourage keeping a notebook or journal of ideas, action steps, and resources that will help you advance your youth ministry. You can use the following questions and suggestions for brainstorming and developing your goals and plans.

 

• Pray through and review this article as you take notes about your specific plans to begin a disciple-making group.

 

Resources

• Go to barrystclair.com to download free:

– All nine of the Moving Toward Maturity books suggested in this article. 

– Parent Fuel (See chapter 10 for more indepth information on discipling your own children and their friends.) 

–  An Awesome Way to Pray—Student’s Guide

–  An Awesome Way to Pray—Leader’s Guide