Developing An Intentional Discipleship

Developingan IntentionalDiscipleshipSystem:A Guide forCongregationsJunius B. Dotson

Developingan IntentionalDiscipleshipSystem:A Guide forCongregationsJunius B. Dotson

Copyright 2017 Discipleship Ministries.Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the NewRevised Standard Version of the Bible, The New Interpreter’s StudyBible. Abingdon Press, 2003.Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from The Book of Discipline ofThe United Methodist Church - 2016 are copyright 2016 by The UnitedMethodist Publishing House. Used by permission.If you would like to learn more about the resources of DiscipleshipMinistries, please visit us at UMCdiscipleship.org.This resource is made possible by your generous support of The WorldService Fund of The United Methodist Church.1908 Grand AvenueNashville, TN 37212UMCdiscipleship.org877.899.2780

Table of ContentsIntroduction4Personal & Corporate Discipleship8Need for Clarity: What, How, Why12What12What & How: Two Repeated Questions13Why15Understanding & Rediscovering the ‘Why’ of Discipleship18A Deeper Why20Rediscovering Our Why21Intentional Discipleship Systems24Why Systems24Context, Language, & Ownership25What is a Disciple?25Characteristics of an Intentional Discipleship System26Tips for Creating Your Intentional Discipleship System30Our Wesleyan Way31Personal Discipleship & Leadership32Seeing & Reaching All the People34Big Front Porch34It's All About Relationships!35Intentional Discipleship Across the Connection38For Further Study52About the Author54

4Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues,and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease andevery sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, becausethey were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said toHis disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask theLord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”– MATTHEW 9:35-38IntroductionThe harvest is still plentiful, and the laborers are still few. Today, notunlike the time of Jesus, people still have deep spiritual needs andare longing for greater meaning for their lives. Some, as in Matthew’stext, are harassed and helpless. Some are searching for good news.Some need healing. Jesus still looks out over our cities and villagesand has compassion for all of the people.and so should we as hisdisciples.I remember the nursery rhyme taught to us in Sunday School whenwe were young.Here’s the church, here’s the steeple,open the doors and see all the people.Unfortunately, many churches today might rewrite the rhyme, “openthe doors, where are all the people?” Although there are a fewexamples of towns and cities where jobs and people have left entirely,an overwhelming majority of cities and towns still report growth inpopulation year after year. The problem is not a lack of people. Theproblem is our inability to see and reach them. We have forgotten whyas disciples we are called to reach out in the first place.A story is told of a philanthropist who hired a number of people duringthe depression era to build a road. Although his intentions were good,the philanthropist had hired the people for a meaningless job in which

5they built a road that went nowhere. As the workers began to realizethat their work had no end goal, their enthusiasm for the work wanedand the road project was eventually discontinued.When we talk about intentional discipleship, we mustknow the end goal, and we must know the reasonbehind our mission of making disciples. In thisresource, we will call this the “why” of discipleship.If we are going to intentionally build roads ofdiscipleship, we must know why we are building them,the path they will take, and where they will lead. Thestakes are too high and this moment is too crucial tobuild roads to nowhere."The problemis not a lackof people. Theproblem isour inabilityto see andreach them."Over the years, with the best of intentions, we havetried to make disciples by tinkering – tinkering with our worshipservices, collecting great amounts of data, tracking demographics,scrutinizing particular metrics, creating hospitality plans, andtinkering with other aspects of congregational life. While these areimportant and necessary elements to a vital congregation, they canalso distract us and lead us to believe that we can tinker or programour way back to vitality.For too long, The United Methodist Church has looked for a quickfix to help guide our discipleship efforts, and it is not working. Wehave lost our focus on intentional discipleship, we have forgotten thereasons why we said “yes” to Jesus, and we ourselves have stoppedgrowing as disciples. We have forgotten that being on a path ofdiscipleship is a life-long journey of growth and maturing. I believe arenewed focus on making disciples will be a better investment of ourtime, money and resources. Our focus must move away from “fixing”churches, toward making and growing disciples! I love the quote fromauthor/speaker Mike Breen, who says:"If you try to build the church, you will rarely getdisciples. But if you make disciples, you will alwaysget the church." 11Building a Discipleship Culture. Mike Breen. 3dm Publishing, 2014.

6It is in this spirit that we offer a call to intentional discipleship, withthe desire to help bring clarity to our mission as a church, to offerhealthy principles for intentional discipleship, and to inspire a passionfor making disciples across our denomination. My prayer is thatchurches will have a relentless focus on making disciples, and adisciple-making movement might spread across the connection onceagain. I hope you will use this booklet with the core leadership of yourchurch to guide you as you become more intentional about disciplemaking. I hope cabinets and conference staff might use this bookletto encourage churches to make our mission of making disciples forthe transformation of the world our central focus for all that we do inThe United Methodist Church.Let me officially invite you to join the movement as together we:

"Our focus mustmove awayfrom "fixing"churchestoward makingand growingdisciples!"

8Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hasmade you overseers, to care for the church of God.– ACTS 20:28Personal &CorporateDiscipleshipIt is important to preface our invitation to healthy discipleship systemswith the fundamental understanding that intentional discipleship isboth personal and corporate.Personal Discipleship (the individual):Equipping and empowering disciples for their own growth.A story is told of a teenager riding on a train with his shoe untied.A passenger on the train, in a kind gesture, pointed it out to theteenager, and the teenager nodded but did nothing. After a fewminutes passed, the passenger said again, “Your shoe is untied; Iwould not want you to trip.” The teenager said thank you, but didnothing in response. As they both got ready to depart at their stop,the passenger noticed that the teenager’s shoe was still untied. Asthe teenager stepped from the train he stepped on his shoelace andfell flat on his face. The passenger quickly helped him up and asked,“Why didn’t you tie your shoe?” To which the teenager replied, “Noone ever taught me how.”Our pulpits are filled with a lot of “ought to” preaching. Our SundaySchool classes talk about a lot of things that affect our discipleship.However, we mistakenly assume that because a person knowsthe “ought to” that they also know the “how to.” We must shift

9our teaching toward equipping and empowering. Have we beensuperficially tying the shoes of disciples when we should be teachingthem how to tie their own shoes?I believe we must always remind people that being followers of Christand maturing as his disciples is a life-long journey. This can be assimple as saying in worship each week, “Here are some next stepsyou can take to deepen your faith this week.” You might considercreating a spiritual growth plan at the beginning of each year withadministrative teams. This creates space for people to think abouttheir own intentional plan for spiritual growth. It also transforms anadministrative team into a covenant group that not only providesexcellent ministry, but also accountability to each other for maturing inthe faith.Corporate Discipleship (the church):Doing everything that we can as a church to provide opportunitiesfor disciples to grow and mature in faith.Even though our language in our intentional discipleship systemwill offer continual encouragement, equipping, and empowering ofindividuals to own their own growth as disciples, we begin the hardwork as church leaders to do everything that we possibly can in orderto create opportunities within our church for people to grow andmature in faith.If you have ever planted a garden you know there are some things youcan control and there are some things you cannot. So what do youdo? You maximize the things you can control, offering your best. Youmake sure the soil is as close to perfection for the plant as possible.You place it in the best possible location to receive the right amountof sunlight. You offer the right amount of water, factoring in thenatural occurrence of rain. You make sure the conditions are as goodas possible for the growth of the plant. This is the corporate side ofintentional discipleship.What we are recognizing in our statement that "intentional discipleshipis both personal and corporate," is that a disciple needs both in orderto see growth and maturity. Healthy, intentional discipleship neithersolely depends on the individual‘s contribution, nor solely on the

10contribution of the church system. When both are emphasized andtaken seriously, growth and maturing of disciples will occur.Take a Moment:Discuss the following questions with your leadership:1. What does the church offer that has helped me grow in my faith?2. In what ways does the church encourage me to own my owngrowth as a disciple?3. What could I do differently to take more responsibility for mygrowth?4. Is our church doing everything it can to offer opportunities fordisciples to grow and mature? Are we being intentional?

"I believe in orderto rediscoverthe power atthe heart ofMethodism, wemust rediscoverthe what, how,and why ofdiscipleship."