The intention of this content is to create a transferable, reproducible model for discipleship that will go to the 4th generation and beyond.
“The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
2nd Timothy 2:2 (NASB)
What that means simply is that if Paul disciples Timothy, Timothy disciples another leader, and that leader disciples someone else. The fourth person in the discipleship chain is the 4th generation.
If you currently are discipling others, first off, let us say, praise God! Keep up the great work for our King. If you aren’t discipling anyone else for Jesus, don’t beat yourself up. Our relationships with Jesus is a lifetime journey and no matter what you’ve “accomplished” for Him, He views you as pure and righteous before God because of your faith in Him. Your standing is Christ is set, praise the Lord!
If you are still reading, and you still have breath in your lungs, we are convinced that Jesus wants every one of His disciples on Earth to become a disciple maker in the lives of others for Him.
We’ve found that a great way to evaluate the discipleship process you have in place is to ask yourself this question, “How confident am I that the 3rd generation disciple could effectively disciple the 4th generation to become a mature disciple maker for Jesus?” If you aren’t confident that your discipleship process is reproducible without you involved, it may be time to simplify your approach.
A major barrier to multiplication for many spiritually mature believers is that they infuse their education, experience, and intuition into everything they say. While the person they are discipling may enjoy the experience of learning from them, the problem is that when it comes time to reproduce and disciple others, the disciple will often sheepishly think, “I don’t know what you know, I haven’t done what you’ve done, and I don’t think how you think.” This leads to the unintended result of the new disciple thinking, “I can’t do what you do.”
As difficult as it is for a mature believer to do, try to think through everything you say and do and answer this question, “For a new disciple that has a willing heart, is this process reproducible for them to lead others?”
For this reason, during our disciple making process, we ask our disciples to read each line of the content together in a group setting.
As painful as it may be for some, aim to bite your tongue, and not interject with personal stories or antidotes that are outside the scope of what each disciple holds in their hands. The reason for this is that your disciple will gain great confidence in seeing that they possess the very same words and tools that you’ve led them through. The hope is that even if you ceased to be in their life, they could lead another new disciple through the same process to build up their faith in Jesus.
The process is more important than the content.
That doesn’t mean the content is unimportant. Also, when we say content, we don’t mean Scripture. God’s Word and Truth are timeless for every generation. When we say content, we mean discipleship materials. For 2,000 years, Jesus’ church has pursued different philosophies and strategies to obey the Great Commission and make disciples for Him. There are many great discipleship resources out there that will help build people into mature disciples for Christ.
Our point is that the process of giving disciples of Christ opportunities to live out an active, obedient faith is more important than any solid discipleship materials that you could choose from.