Tag Archives: making

Dec 5 2016

10 Ways Student Pastors Can Kick-Start Disciple Making in Their Student Ministry (Part 6)

discipleartMy wife, Michelle, and I have been married for right at two years now. In that two year time, we’ve had both the best and the worst vacations of our lives so far. This past spring, we went to Panama City Beach, FL for the one of the best vacations of our lives. Since we’re both from the southeast, we love the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf’s beaches, restaurants, etc. The Gulf is like home to us.

Last fall, we decided to do a cheap vacation to Myrtle Beach. It was the worst vacation of our lives yet. We had never been there before, and we had no plan once we got there. We ended up driving long distances for restaurants and shopping, we didn’t get a room on the beach, and the weather was terrible that week.

All of this to simply say: the WHERE is important. Many Student Pastors wonder, “Where is the best place to do disciple making groups?”

#6 Do Disciple Making Where the Mission is.

Everywhere

Jesus never told us specifically where to make disciples, but He did tell us “As you go, make disciples” Matthew 28:19. Jesus is reminding us that disciple making is not a part or compartment of our life, but disciple making is our lifestyle. We have to remember that disciple making is not ultimately a group, a meeting, or a session. Disciple making is how our lifestyle and conversations are consistently shaping the hearts and lives of others to follow Jesus with their heart and life. Our life itself is a mission, so we must be making disciples all the time on the mission. Take advantage of every conversation, every encounter, and see every appointment as a divine to make disciples “as you go.” Where do we make disciples then? Everywhere!

Where To Do Disciple Making Groups 

This is the question of course that we’re answering with this article. Continue reading →

Apr 26 2016

10 Ways Student Pastors Can Kick-Start Disciple Making in Their Student Ministry (Part 4)

pathway_to_mountain

I’m not sure how it happened, but I’m certain we all almost died. I remember driving one morning with three of my friends in my Extended Cab Chevy Silverado. One minute, we were all singing to the radio, the next minute one of my friends was screaming my name to wake me up. Somehow I had drifted off to sleep which caused the truck to drift off the road. When my friend’s screams woke me up, I jerked my truck back on the road. In the same way, when we are making disciples, we’ve got to keep our eyes on the road (pathway) or we will drift.

#4 Keep Your Eyes on the Pathway of Disciple Making

The Mistake Disciple Makers Make

The major mistake I see disciple makers make is when they put all their eggs into the basket of the D-Group. While Jesus called us to make disciples, His Word also calls us to worship together, meet together in groups, live our life on mission, etc. Student Ministry is never to be disciple making only, but it should be disciple making always!

The Pathway of Disciple Making

There’s no doubt that D-Groups are left out of Student Ministry today, but I believe that the Scriptures give us a very clear disciple making pathway that both puts the D-Group where it should be and keeps us focused so that we do not drift. The way we describe our Disciple Making Pathway is:  Continue reading →

Mar 10 2016

DISCIPLE: Step 3

10 Articles on 10 Ways Student Pastors Can Kick-Start Disciple Making in Their Student Ministry: https://youthgrouptruth.com/disciple-making/

A call to the Gospel includes a call for all Christians to make disciples. Jesus clearly commissioned every Christian in Matthew 28:18-20 saying, “Go make disciples of all nations.”

We need to be honest with ourselves, what Student Ministry has been doing has not been working. Researchers and statisticians tell us that 70% of our churched students will leave the church soon after graduating high school and never return to any church faithfully again. The number reason: they never owned their faith (1 John 2:19). Unfortunately the answer isn’t as easy as a better transition plan into college ministry. I firmly believe the answer is that these students never received the Gospel for salvation.

Student Ministries have never been so good at mega-services, conferences, and camps. We  have never been so strong at packing out a room, but we’ve never had weaker Christians. Its almost like there’s something we’re not doing. What we’ve been doing is not working.

If I asked you to sit on a two-legged stool, you would decline or fall over. It doesn’t matter how study the legs are or how well they are attached, two legged stools aren’t designed to stand.

Two part Student Ministries aren’t designed to make disciples. Worship services and small groups alone are two legs to the stool that need a third by the sturdy.

What if Student Ministries were capable of far more than raising up students who were faithful church attenders? What if the WIN in student ministry was to disciple our students so that they could make disciples for the rest of their life? What if God’s design was not for Christians to simply invite friends to church, but to multiply themselves by making disciples?

What if Making Disciples was so easy even a Christian can do it? As Christians, we are notorious for complicating things. What if we’ve complicated disciple making that only pastors, professors, and professionals can do it? What if Jesus meant it to be so simple that our students could be making disciples while in student ministry?

I believe the reason we’ve made discipleship so difficult is because Jesus made it so easy and we thought “Surely, this can’t be it!” I believe Jesus did expand on disciple making. He expounded on how to make disciples in Luke 24.

I believe that Luke 24 is the expansion of Jesus’ Great Commission where He expounded on how to Make Disciples:

Bible (Luke 24:44). Disciple Making starts with the Bible. While it is not a Bible study only, it always involves Bible study. The first step in making disciples is studying the Bible together so that God can speak into the conversation.

Gospel (Luke 24:45-46). Disciple Making points to the Gospel. The Bible has not accurately been studied unless it has been understood through the Person and Work and Jesus. When we study the Bible in light of the Gospel, then we are becoming disciples of Jesus. Jesus opened their minds to understand the Bible, and that revelation was Gospel-centrality.

Personal (Luke 24:47). Disciple Making gets Personal with each other. The biggest difference in making disciples and doing small groups is the ability to get personal with one another. Small Groups are usually larger and open groups while Disciple Making Groups are smaller and closed groups. Jesus said that our study of the Bible and understanding of the Gospel leads us to sharing personal needs of repentance, forgiveness, and witness (24:47). These personal discussions lead Disciple Making into Missional Living. We can’t proclaim these things until we discuss these things.

Like Jesus, I believe we should pour our lives into the 3 that God gives us for 12-18 months using Bible, Gospel, Personal.

The WIN in Disciple Making is when our disciples are making disciples. In fact, we haven’t made disciples unless our disciples are making disciples.

Step 3 in our CENTRIC Student Ministry Strategy is disciple our students to that we can send them out to make disciples for the rest of their lives!