Leading the Discipleship Journey
Pastors should be asking, “How can I be successful in ministry as a local church pastor?” Laypersons with leadership responsibilities can similarly ask, “How can my local church be fruitful and effective?”
Successful local churches are fruitful and effective as missionary organizations. Their mission is to reach people who are not currently followers of Jesus, help them commit to Christ and begin the discipleship journey. They will thereby transform the world. Unfortunately, too many congregations have drifted to become clubs which exist for the benefit of their members. When churches turn inward like that, they die.
Instead lay and clergy leaders should have a burning desire to connect with outsiders and help them become fully devoted followers of Jesus. We Methodists believe that God’s grace is already at work in their lives, and that God wants us to be vehicles of that grace to strengthen God’s influence upon them.
You first have to know your mission field. One description is geographical. It could be your neighborhood, your county, or the digital universe. Another way to describe your mission field is to reach a specific ethnic group or language group.
Then you have to be clear about your disciple-making system. When you engage with people, what are the goals of your activities? Speaking generically, the following steps could summarize any church’s discipleship system.
1. Learn your mission field.
If you were a missionary in a foreign country, you would study the people, their culture, their language and their hopes and dreams. A pastor or active Christian should engage in the same sort of study of their community, because many churches are in mission fields that are changing. Using Mission Insite or other demographic resources can be very helpful.
2. Connect with reachable people in your mission field
Find ways to engage in meaningful and hopefully spiritual conversations with unchurched people. They want to know you care about them. That may mean participating in school or civic organizations, or hanging out in coffee shops or doing prayer walks through neighborhoods. For digital evangelism, it means giving time and attention to social media.
3. See where God is already working in their lives
We believe in prevenient grace and so we should approach new people with the question “How is God working in this person’s life right now?” They may be unaware of it, but perhaps there is a vague desire for a deeper purpose in life or there is a crisis which needs to be addressed.
4. Offer them the next step in knowing Christ
However, the next step on the discipleship journey might be a small one. It could be reading a book or having a prayer. It might mean coming to a small group meeting or attending worship. Every local church should have multiple entry points that are easy for unchurched people to attend without being uncomfortable.
5. Help them commit to following Jesus as Lord and Savior
We believe that following Christ is the answer to all of life’s most important problems, and offering that relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior is crucial. An invitational question like, “Have you ever thought about committing your life to Christ?” might open doors for serious conversation.
6. Walk with them in the means of grace
God’s transforming grace—convincing, justifying and sanctifying—comes through spiritual practices. Committed Christians worship every week, read their Bibles regularly, pray daily, give generously, and serve the needy with their time and talents. These practices are best sustained in a small group of committed disciples who make the journey with them.
7. Help them transform the world
God’s mission is to feed the hungry, free the oppressed, clothe the naked and create a beloved community where all people are loved. Ministries of service and justice are signs of the Kingdom of God coming on earth.
Your local church is doing some of these things already. Paying attention to your discipleship system is a way of strengthening your ministry and moving toward greater success for the gospel.