Where are the Disciple Makers hiding in your church?
Most pastors understand that it is impossible for them to disciple every person in their congregation or even just the people that want to grow and serve. Most churches don’t even have sufficient staff to build relationships with their prospective disciples. Leaders have to enlist the help of disciple makers (I call them Guides) from their congregation. But the question I hear most often is where do I find these disciple maker guides?
The answer I have to share with pastors and church staff members are your guides are hiding in plain sight! And, they might not be who you think!!! Let me explain…
First, let’s dispel a myth, disciple makers and guides don’t have to be super Christians or Biblical scholars. It is a common misconception in disciple making that guides are especially gifted or have specific skill sets. Obviously, there are many mature Christians that are well versed Biblically that are discipling and guiding others on their discipleship path. But you can be just as effective even if you are a new Christian that is still learning the Bible yourself.
Disciple Making Guides in the proactive strategy are relationship builders, first and foremost. That is why I so confidently stated that you don’t have to be a Biblical scholar to guide others on their spiritual journey. Guides are supportive and encouraging, committed to assisting disciples find their path and move forward on their journey.
It is important to reiterate that we are not looking for a specialized educational or skill set to qualify a person as a guide. But there are people already doing guide-like jobs in the church. These are the people that are facilitating or leading small groups, people that are part of your compassion or service ministries, and people that are proactively approaching their own discipleship journey in Bible study or Sunday School classes.
These are people who have already committed themselves to the process of making disciples, even if they haven’t done so formally. All we need to do is help them understand how to apply what they are already doing to the proactive disciple making process. But it is critical that you provide your guides ongoing support and resources so that they can effectively help their people.
And again, the key characteristic we are looking for in our guides is the ability to build relationships with others and be good at communicating. They don’t have to be the most outgoing extroverts either, some of the best guides and coaches I have worked with are introverts that love to work one-on-one with people.
The next question I hear from church leaders is inevitably, once I find the right people, how do I enlist their help? The first thing we must do when recruiting potential guides is to allay their fears of inadequacy. Barna Reseach asked Christians who are not actively helping others grow closer to Christ. What holds them back?
Not feeling qualified or equipped (37%) is the main barrier for this group. Additional Barna research shows that disinterest in disciplemaking is tied to a fear of not being good at it, of not having enough knowledge or of being the wrong person for the job. The confidence crisis is a core issue.
As we stated earlier, you don’t need special skills or powers to be a guide. But the Barna study goes on to present the most convicting evidence for the Church:
One in four says the practice of discipling others hasn’t been suggested to them (24%) or they haven’t thought about helping someone grow closer to God (22%).
Translation: “Nobody has ever asked me!” Or the idea of disciple making was never presented in a way that I could see myself doing it. But the reality is that even if those 1 in 4 had been asked, they wouldn’t have a proactive process with the proper support to be successful and they would soon have gotten frustrated and quit!
So the formula for recruiting and developing more disciple maker guides in your church is pretty simple:
Look for people that are relationship builders or want to coach//help others.
Share the vision for proactive disciple making in your church and how they can play an integral role in that vision.
And then, simply and confidently, ASK!
I know this is a lot of important information packed into a short blog post. So, if you want to discuss it in more detail or ask questions, just email me at mark@churchcmo.com. Or check out our website, ChurchCMO.com, we are trying to add more resources as fast as we can. We want to help your church thrive and grow by making more disciples. Let me know how I can help!