{"id":435,"date":"2013-05-16T20:26:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T18:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/?p=435"},"modified":"2014-11-25T12:37:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T10:37:12","slug":"4-main-roles-of-disciple-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/?p=435","title":{"rendered":"4 MAIN ROLES OF DISCIPLE MAKING"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lindy Lowry<\/a> \u2014\u00a0\u00a0May 16, 2013<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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by Jim Putman<\/p>\n

\"23_csi_Putman_JN1\"<\/a>How do you lead in ways that start to birth a church that carries out Jesus\u2019 commission to all who follow Him?\u00a0Real Life Ministries<\/a><\/strong> founder and leader, and <\/em>DiscipleShift author Jim Putman identifies four specifc roles of a pastor who leads a church of disciple makers: <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

1. An Authentic Disciple<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old saying: \u201cWho you are thunders so loud that it drowns out your words.\u201d To be a disciple-making pastor, you must learn to walk with God daily. This is why church leaders are people of prayer, Bible study and the inner life of the Spirit. Walking authentically with God gives legitimacy to our teaching and leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

Living out the life of an authentic disciple with our families is especially important. Too many church leaders neglect the most important mission field of all\u2013their own homes. When we walk with God together with our families, this becomes the daily testing ground that authenticates the teaching and leading we do in the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. A Discipleship-System Builder<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A church leader, especially one involved in church planting or pastoring, is not just a disciple or even just a disciple maker. A disciple is a person who follows Jesus, is transformed by Jesus, and joins Jesus on His mission. That\u2019s the job of every believer. A disciple maker makes disciples. Every Christian has that job. A pastor is more than that. They have been given the task of leading a church in which they are to create a system in which people are taught how to be disciples. In other words, they and their team are called to lead in the development of a church-wide system that will make disciples who make disciples. Leadership (administration, as it is called in Scripture) is a responsibility that is broader than just discipling others or leading a small group. Church planters, follow Timothy and Titus and build churches that serve as the \u201chousehold of God\u201d and the \u201cpillar and buttress of the truth\u201d (1 Tim. 3:14-16 ESV). Included in Paul\u2019s instructions to Timothy was the call to develop disciple-making leaders and systems. Paul writes about this in 2 Tim. 2:2: \u201cThe things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a church leader, your job is to create the community-wide system in which people can be involved in relational environments for the purpose of discipleship. You are an overseer of a disciple-making community.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You need to see yourself as a systems developer or as a coach who is coaching your players. That\u2019s why God builds teams of leaders who work together to fill in the gaps. We work together and are responsible for developing the program in which the team is trained, inspired, encouraged, challenged and fully developed. Here are some examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ineffective:<\/em> Since I\u2019m trained in the Bible and theology, I\u2019m the primary one at my church who should teach the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective<\/em>: Since I\u2019m trained in the Bible and theology, I can create support systems in my church that teach others how to teach the Bible in relational contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ineffective:<\/em> The church pays me to take care of the congregation. That means if anyone in my congregation gets sick, I need to go visit that person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective:<\/em> God calls me to take care of the congregation. That means I create small groups and raise up leaders in my congregation who can go visit people when they get sick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ineffective:<\/em> I need to be highly effective, creative and entertaining in the pulpit so I can draw a large crowd and inform people about what the Bible says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effective:<\/em> I need to be effective, creative, biblically based and yes, even entertaining, in the pulpit so I can effectively communicate the Gospel to the lost and then get people connected with other disciple makers in the church so everyone engages in the work of the ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. A Developer of Leaders<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The third main role of a church planter in a disciple-making church is that of a developer of leaders. Everyone is a disciple and should grow into an effective disciple maker, but not everyone is gifted as a leader. Identify emerging, gifted leaders and help them grow. How do you find leaders? I believe that for the most part, leaders are already there in your body; they are just underdeveloped or overlooked. God promises that He will supply all we need in terms of gifted people to complete the mission He gave us (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 12:4-8).<\/span><\/p>\n

So we really face three problems. First, most leaders are too busy trying to do the work in the church themselves, and they don\u2019t have time to see and develop the leaders God has sent them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The machine needs feeding, and you have to feed it\u2013preaching every week, planning everything, doing weddings and funerals.\u00a0Is feeding the machine keeping you from noticing the undeveloped people God has sent you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The second problem is that church leaders are looking for already-developed leaders. They don\u2019t see the potential in their midst because it\u2019s not yet visible. Third, pastors tend to look for a person who can do everything\u2013an all-star player\u2013rather than someone who can play a specific position on a great team. No one can do it all. That\u2019s why we need the whole body of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everyone can lead thousands of people, but most can lead a group of three or 10. In a good church system, you need all kinds of leaders who have different leadership capabilities. We know that God gives specific gifts to people in the church to help the church work together effectively. Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 tell us that God gives spiritual gifts to all believers. All gifts work together for the overall good of the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

When developing apprentices, we follow something like formula Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson write about in their book,\u00a0Exponential<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

I do. You watch. We talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do. You help. We talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

You do. I help. We talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

You do. I watch. We talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

You do. Someone else watches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus modeled something similar when he worked with the disciples, and a careful review of Paul\u2019s writings shows that he did something like this with Timothy and Titus . As a disciple-making leader, you need a simple but effective model like this to successfully develop leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. A Vision Caster<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You must also be able to cast the vision that creates the disciple-making culture of the church. You not only make it clear that everyone is to be involved in making disciples; you constantly point people to the method\u2013relational environments\u2013for doing this. That means sharing the vision from the pulpit and at every opportunity you have with the other leaders and they people in your church. You are continually telling them, \u201cThis is our vision, this is where we\u2019re going, this is what we\u2019re about.\u201d Every sermon is both a teaching opportunity and a vision-casing opportunity, a way of showing people what God has called the church to be and to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the vision?<\/span><\/p>\n

The vision is that the church\u2019s primary mission is to create disciples who create other disciples, just as Jesus intended us to do. It\u2019s helping people see that the church isn\u2019t a social club. It\u2019s not a hospital, it\u2019s not a university, a big show. The church is a community that is developing people who follow Jesus, are changed by Jesus, and then join Him on His mission. State that vision, then state it again and again and again. And just when you think people are getting tired of hearing the vision, repeat it some more. People forget. People drift in their thinking. They get new ideas and want to explore different directions in a church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continual vision casting is particularly necessary when you meet with other leaders in the church. Discipling others can be hard work. Leaders get tired, discouraged and beat up. Continually remind and encourage your leaders to stay the course\u2013keep making disciples who make other disciples.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is excerpted and adapted from the new book <\/em>DiscipleShift (Zondervan\/Exponential) by Jim Putman (with Bobby Harrington and Robert Coleman). To read the full chapter, click\u00a0here<\/a><\/strong> to order <\/em>DiscipleShift. Putman recently spoke in the opening session of Exponential 2013 in Orlando and will be one of 27 speakers at\u00a0Exponential West 2013<\/a><\/strong> in Orange County, Calif., this October 7-10.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0http:\/\/blog.exponential.org\/2013\/05\/4-main-roles-of-disciple-making-leaders\/#more-6095<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lindy Lowry \u2014\u00a0\u00a0May 16, 2013 by Jim Putman How do you lead in ways that start to birth a church that carries out Jesus\u2019 commission to all who follow Him?\u00a0Real Life Ministries founder and leader, and DiscipleShift author Jim Putman identifies four specifc roles of a pastor who leads a church of disciple makers: 1. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artikels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}