A post from my Monday morning column at Zondervan’s ministry blog, Engaging Church. A post which covers two really important questions. Before we take a crack and answering the first one, though, how would you answer it yourself? How would you define a disciple? Is it about what a person knows? What one does? How he acts? Where she goes, or doesn’t go? And more importantly: Are you making them? (Read the full column HERE)

The reason I ask this question is because it seems like we’ve lost perspective on what it is we should focus on as church leaders, which is having massive consequences for how we do our job and the results our ministries are producing.

Prime example: Willow Creek Church.

A few years back Willow Creek revealed the results of a months-long study into their church effectiveness, called the Reveal study. The results rocked their world, which revealed that they simply wasn’t producing the people they were hoping for, mature disciples of Jesus.

Here is what Bill Hybles wrote in response: “Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.”

That’s the dream of Jim Putnam and Bobby Harrington, as well, which they outline in their new book Discipleshift: Five Steps that Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples.

They dream of a massive, radical shift within the American church that peals away outdated, ineffective ministry models in order to re-discover God’s original dream for the church.

This radical shift is explained at length in their crucial resource for every ministry leader. Not only will it help you answer our important question. It will help you produce the results for which we ministers all long: people who are following Christ, being changed by Christ, and committed to the mission of Christ.

“Often people ask me how I define what a disciples is,” Jim writes, “and I point them to Jesus’ statement in Matthew 4:19: ‘He [Jesus] said to them “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”‘ (ESV). I like to say that in this invitation to the disciples was the definition as Jesus saw it. It’s a simple verse, and everybody in our leadership knows it. But why Matthew 4:19?” (45) Good question! So why Matthew 4:19?

[…] digging into this verse as a framework and model for understanding discipleship reveals three attributes of a disciple: 1) Follow Me; 2) And I Will Make You; 3) Fishers of Men.  (46-51)

Follow Me

“The first two words of Jesus are a simple invitation. This invitation indicates our acceptance of Jesus—his authority and his truth—at the head level. Jesus said ‘Follow me.’ A disciples of Jesus must follow Jesus. It’s that simple. Jesus leads. We follow.” (46) In this first leg of our definition, then, “a disciple is someone who knows him (who he is and what he is like) and follows him.”(47)

And I Will Make You

Embedded in these five words is the reality and process of transformation. “This tells us that discipleship involves Jesus molding our hearts to become more like his.” Rather than staying at the head level—by merely educating and informing our mind—discipleship must move to the heart level—”there must be a process of transformation in which a work takes place in our heart and affections. (48) Jesus Christ Himself transforms how we see the world, what we value, what we consider important. And the Holy Spirit transforms our inner being, impacting how we live in response.

Fishers of Men

Finally, this verse indicates that action is an inherent response of a disciples. “If our acceptance of Jesus begins in the head and extends to the heart, it leads to a change in what we do with our hands. In other words, a disciple of Jesus is saved for a purpose. This means that we join Jesus on his mission to love and reach a lost and hurting world.” (49) We’re not saved and called to discipleship merely to know things or to be nice people. No, we are saved and called to discipleship in order “to join God’s mission in this world, to participate with God’s purposes in the world.” (50)

[…]

Let’s return to our questions at the beginning, What is a disciples? How does your definition match-up with this definition?

More importantly, how does your model of ministry match this definition of  ministry effectiveness? Is every fiber of your ministry centered around producing people who follow Christ, are being changed by Christ, and committed to Christ’s mission in this world? Are you and your ministry making disciples?

Given the state of the American church we need a shift, a discipleshift. A shift from merely converting people to our religious flavor to impacting people in such a way that they give their life and lifestyle to King Jesus. Won’t you consider joining Jim and Bobby and me in making that shift? In you church, in your own Christian life?