How can we help churches be more effective at making and releasing disciples?
Over the next eight months, Exponential will provide answers to that question in diverse ways, including 35-plus free e-Books focused on discipleship and the Exponential 2013 conference oriented around the theme DiscipleShift. “With this conversation, we want to offer biblical solutions and look at five shifts churches can make to build on their passion for seeing their people on mission for Jesus,” says Exponential Futurist Todd Wilson.
To that end, the 2013 Exponential conference theme DiscipleShift will explore in-depth what it means to be a disciple and how we can continue to grow and get better at engaging people with the mission of Jesus. Each of the five Main Sessions at Exponential 2013 will focus on one of these five shifts.
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DiscipleShift also serves as the title of the conference’s anchor book by Real Life Ministries Founding Pastor Jim Putman (with Robert Coleman and Bob Harrington). Putman has led the church he founded in 1988 to raise up seven autonomous churches from their small groups. Out of a church of almost 8,000 people (in a community of 110,000), 75 percent of Real Life attendees participate in a small group. Additionally, beginning in September, the Exponential Resource Series will offer more than 35 free e-Books (one a week) by national leaders, each contributing their insights and experience to the discipleship conversation.
Based on his experience, Putman has identified five paradigm shifts churches can make to become better at accomplishing the mission of the church. We asked him and Exponential President Dave Ferguson, who also leads NewThing and Community Christian Church, to help unpack each shift and its potential impact.
5 Crucial Disciple-Making Shifts
Shift 1: From Reaching to Making
The first paradigm shift moves churches from defining ourselves by what we do to what we actually accomplish, Putman says. “We need to shift our focus from reaching people with the Gospel in an effort to convert them to making disciples.”
The end goal is not that a person “accepts Christ” or prays a prayer or comes to church but rather that he grows spiritually, becoming more like Christ.
Making this shift requires us to agree on the definition of what a mature disciple is, a person Ferguson says is “apprenticing in the ways of Jesus.”
“As humans, we know what a mature person ends up looking like and doing. What does a mature disciple look like then?” Putman asks, adding that often, church leaders don’t define it for their people, which in turn gives each person carte blanch to come up with his or her own definition.
“This is a real problem if we are going to be a team that works together to complete the mission of Christ. We need to ask the question together as a body. If that definition doesn’t end up looking like one who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus, then we have a definition with holes in it.”
Ferguson points out that part of the reason for the confusion over the definition results because church leaders themselves aren’t clear on what the mission is. “If we’re not crystal clear on what the mission is, we’re probably not clear on what it means to be missional. If that’s the case, it’s kind of hard to apprentice in the ways of Jesus if you’re not sure what Jesus is doing.”
