Simple Discipleship On Mission

Kalos Books Virtual Book Tour - Book #4

There are few books on discipleship better than Simple Discipleship. Author and pastor, Tom Cocklereece, has created a simple discipleship process unlike anything else. Below Tom constructively critiques the state of discipleship in the American Church and offers a solution. The Discipleship Dare & Simple Discipleship paired together are great books to raise the bar of discipleship in any church. - Jess Bousa, author of The Discipleship Dare

Simple Discipleship On Mission: A Case Study

Christians and churches in the United States generously provide money for missions to reach people for Christ in third world countries. Increasingly, church members are volunteering to go on short-term mission trips to help build church buildings, directly share the message of Christ, and equip church leaders there. While all of these are altruistic and expected missions activities which should be encouraged and increased, western churches may be exporting some of our own problems and replicating them in churches in other nations. Specifically, while American churches are wealthy by third world standards and should help them, doing so may create an attitude of dependence. However, more troubling is the fact that third world church leaders are copying American church methods, structures, and models some of which are not effective.

I have been providing leadership and discipleship coaching for a church leader in Uganda. The leader pastors a church of about 100 members and convinced me to teach him Simple Discipleship principles. I initially resisted coaching my pastor friend from Africa primarily because of cultural and contextual differences as compared to American churches. The pastor’s persistence won the day, and he convinced me to train him in the Simple Discipleship concepts.

Since Simple Discipleship was published, I have further developed and refined the process and have begun to use the survey and balanced scorecard as an initial church spiritual vitality analysis. The reader of this article should know that Simple Discipleship uses four primary values of Worship (red), Word (blue), Ministry (yelow), and Missions (green) which are measurements of what I call Dynamic Necessary Attributes (DNA) needed for healthy church growth. In preparation for working with the pastor in Uganda, I asked him to provide numbers for the average resident attendance, worship, Bible study, ministry participants, and missional involvement. Ministry is defined as activity that is directed to support the church fellowship internally. Missions is defined as activity that is directed toward the community or world outside the church and usually centered off campus toward unchurched.

Set Free Christian Church is located in Lugazi, Uganda of east Africa and is a city of 32,700. The church ministers to a total of about 150 people weekly (average resident attendance) in some way, and 85 of that number attend worship, while 35 attend Bible study, 17 people serve in a ministry activity, and 20 people assist in missional outreach. Respectively, the percentages of 150 would be 57, 23, 11, and 13. Simple Discipleship uses horizontal measurements or what is called balanced discipleship. This means that if Set Free Christian Church were the perfect church, 100% of the 150 people would be active in each of the four areas measured. Of course, there is no perfect church this side of heaven, but the pie graph illustrates the real numbers and a lack of balanced discipleship. Balanced discipleship could be illustrated by a pie graph with four parts that are close to equal in size. As you can see, the graph illustrates four unequal parts. In this case, a large percentage of the people connect in worship, and fewer develop in Bible study, engage in ministry, and deploy in missions.

Here is what the numbers from Set Free Christian Church look like:

• Average Residence Attendance - 150...100%
• Worship Attendance - 85 of 150...57%
• Word Attendance - 35 of 150...23%
• Ministry Participation - 17 of 150...11%
• Missions Participation - 20 out of 150...13%

A total of 65 or 43% of the people are not active in any of the four dimensions of the church’s life.

This is an example of horizontal measurement...counting people only once in each dimension across the four primary spiritual growth areas. Of course, the numbers have been placed in a pie graph format to show balance or the lack thereof. Like American churches, many of the 150 people reflected in the average resident attendance are missing from any participation. Furthermore, over 50% of those who attend worship are not active in the other three vital areas of church and Christian life.

The point is that though the contexts and cultures are different, Set Free Christian Church reflects some of the same problems as American churches, i.e. silo methodology, compartmentalized ministries, and a focus on evangelism without equal attention to teaching, hands-on ministry, and missional involvement by every Christian. Set Free Christian Church is but one example, but it is likely that other international church leaders have replicated some of the structures of churches in the western developed world and in so doing they have probably also imported our silo and program approach to discipleship in which evangelism is the primary focus. Making disciples includes BOTH evangelism and a process of teaching to move Christians from one level of spiritual growth to the next providing fellowship and support that encourages them to grow and avoid regression (carnal Christianity).

Simple Discipleship is a new paradigm for discipleship or at least its application restores biblical values-based discipleship. I look forward to seeing Simple Discipleship principles applied in churches in all nations that desire balanced discipleship and to empower total missional involvement that will activate Christians to be better evangelists as well.

To purchase your copy of Simple Discipleship, go to:

http://www.simplediscipleship.com/

Praise for "The Discipleship Dare"

Check out the 8 book reviews of The Discipleship Dare on Amazon!

Check out 1 not on Amazon @

"Jess Bousa makes becoming like Jesus in 40 days notable, palatable and applicable. So read the Discipleship Dare, take your time and get it right. Disciple your friends, unbelievers, and other Christians. We need this! You need this! I double dare you." - Marie Sacco (Administrative Assistant of Garden City Church)

Teen Challenge Director Reviews "The Discipleship Dare"

With one word Jesus can change a life, and for 12 Jewish men in 1st century Judea the word “Come” would forever change their lives. These men were not well known and perhaps had never even traveled outside of their own towns. Twelve young men who had not only been told about the coming Messiah, but men who had seen first hand the Power of the Roman Empire, men who longed for the day that God would send the promised Messiah to free them once and for all. They did not know that God would be handling this one Himself.

Today God is still calling men and women to follow Him. But after hearing the call then what? This is where “The Discipleship Dare” comes in. Pastor Jess’ book teaches us to live out our faith within the parameters of our community. Disciples are called to make a commitment to not just KNOWING what the teacher knows; instead they are to BECOME what their teachers are. Disciples in the 1st century lived with their teachers, ate with their teachers, and shared their hurts and victories with their teachers. Are you spending time with the Teacher? This 40-day journey will strengthen you faith and stir your heart as you begin to see Jesus for who He really is, Lord and Savior. I personally recommend this book for those who are new in the faith as well as a refresher for more mature believers. Make a commitment to become a true disciple today, COME ON I DARE YOU!

Christopher B. Gadow
Teen Challenge of Southside Hampton Roads

Changing the World With Your Marriage

Kalos Books Virtual Book Tour - Book #3

The Friesen’s have developed a remedy for the common problem in marriage—underdeveloped spiritual lives. Drs. Paul & Virginia Friesen believe that one of the secrets to a long, healthy marriage is a couples spiritual life. Research suggests that if a couple prays together daily, they have less than a 1% chance of divorce. Even with this statistic in mind, the thought of a developing a devotional life as a couple is often intimidating for both men and women. If you don’t know where to start, look no further than In Our Image. The Friesen’s have kept it simple. They have developed an experience couples can share together that takes 10 minutes. In Our Image is a great tool to jump start a newly weds spiritual journey as well as revive a veteran couples. If you want to enhance the quality of your marriage and almost eliminate the possibility of divorce in your's and other people's marriages, pick up a case and share them with all your friends, family and even foes!

--Jess Bousa, the author The Discipleship Dare @ http://www.thediscipleshipdare.com/

Please visit Home Improvement's website, the family ministry Paul & Virginia co-founded that's committed to changing the world by strengthening marriages and families @ http://himweb.org. Below is a brief synopsis of In Our Image written by Paul & Virginia Friesen, their bio and a couple endorsements.

In Our Image: Marriage as a Reflection of the Godhead

Designed for those who are living busy lives, this daily study is for couples and small groups. It is an eight-week series that leads you through a brief 10-minute time together as a couple each day and prepares you for a weekly small group study if you wish. Each day is divided into Scripture, Sharing, Support, and Supplication, followed by a weekly message of hope and encouragement.

About the Authors

Drs. Paul and Virginia Friesen were married in 1976 and are the parents of three young women, the eldest of which was married in February 2007. They have been involved in Family Ministries for over 30 years through family camps, church staff positions, speaking, consulting, and writing.

As the founders and directors of Home Improvement Ministries, the Friesens regularly speak at marriage, men’s, and women’s conferences in the US and internationally as well as local family and parenting seminars, and have an ongoing ministry with several professional athletic teams. Paul and Virginia both have Doctorates in Marriage and Family Therapy from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The Friesens are (with four others) co-authors of the book Restoring the Fallen published by InterVarsity Press. Home Improvement Ministries has published their books. Along with In Our Image they have written Letters to My Daughters (Paul), So You Want to Marry My Daughter? (Paul), and most recently, Raising a Trailblazer: Rite-of-Passage Trail Markers for Your Set- Apart Teens (Virginia).

Paul and Virginia’s greatest joy in life is knowing that their children are walking in the Truth.

Endorsement

We have found Paul and Virginia Friesen's In Our Image to be just what we needed to kick-start our routine of a couple's devotion and prayer time. Quite frankly, we were struggling to find something to use as a guideline and this has been the perfect solution. The format is easy to follow, and the content is amazing. It has really helped us focus on how we can support and care for each other, and how we can better pray for each other on a daily basis. We are so grateful for this study guide! Thank you!

—A couple from Massachusetts

I purchased the In Our Image book for my husband and me. I have stacks of devotion books that we could never really commit to. This one has been great. It is simple yet has caused us to talk about things we have never discussed in nearly 22 years of marriage! It lets us share, talk about God in our relationship, and be specific to the day on what we will do for each other – and seal it with prayer! It has become our morning routine – along with the oatmeal and coffee!

—Krista Hayes, Massachusetts

Published by Home Improvement Ministries, Bedford, MA

Other Books by the Friesen’s @ www.HimWeb.org

• Letters to My Daughters
• So You Want to Marry My Daughter?
• Raising a Trailblazer

Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century (Dr. Tom Cocklereece)

Kalos Books Virtual Book Tour - Book #2

Tom Cocklereece knows how to keep it simple! In his recently released book, Simple Discipleship, Tom provides "a framework for building your ministry process to effectively make disciples" (9). This book is everything Simple Church is not. Tom gives a play-by-play game plan to move your church from complex to simple. The bridge of effectiveness from the old way of "making disciples" to the simple discipleship way is spiritual life coaching. Tom's simple process of discipleship "does not replace teaching materials per se, but instead provides a framework umbrella, matrix, and method that will help ministry leaders do simple church and discipleship" (22).

A wise person once said, "It takes a good tool to do a good job." Simple Discipleship is a good tool that will raise the bar of discipleship in your church. My highest recommendation for Simple Discipleship. Below Tom elaborates on the the simple discipleship process that moves beyond a program-driven approach to a disciple-making approach. - Jess Bousa (author of The Discipleship Dare)

What Process Does Your Church Use to Make Disciples?

The key word is "process." Prior to the twentieth-century, churches saturated their ministries with discipleship rather than treating it as a separate entity. Worship, music, prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and so on, were recognized as being a part of discipleship. A paradigm shift occurred in the twentieth-century when many churches adopted a program approach to ministry delivery, and for a few generations it seemed to work. But the program approach to ministry delivery is dependent upon strong nuclear families, church and denominational loyalty, and a homogenous community structure that is unapologetically Christian and active in church. Neither condition exists in much of the U.S. and especially in the metropolitan and urban cities. Church leaders did not see the change coming while Bible colleges and seminaries continue to educate ministers in the program ministry paradigm, and many church leaders continue to work harder at delivering ministry using the outdated approach.

The program ministry approach also has a major inherent problem—it is a silo delivery system. Several years ago I went on a mission trip to Wisconsin to help build a church, and I loved the countryside. I took several photos of dairy farms that included a big house and two or three silos for grain storage. In one they may store corn and in another they may store wheat. Your home probably has several silos in the kitchen—one for sugar and another for salt, along with several others. Churches have developed silos for ministry delivery—music, worship, Sunday school, Women's ministry, Men's ministry, children's ministry, sport's ministry, oh yes, and discipleship as a separate entity. The program/silo approach tends to lead to an unhealthy and ineffective leadership structure as department (program/silo) leaders become protective of their area, which leads to even more separation of each ministry. Over time the ministry delivery areas are separate and no longer function as a unified and connected process for disciple-making. Churches have done ministry this way for so long that if they are encouraged to return to a pre twentieth-century approach, they might say, "We've never done it that way before." For a bicycle to be an effective propulsion process, each sprocket, gear, and chain must remain connected, and if the chain becomes disconnected or jammed, the movement will stop. Such is the program approach to ministry delivery.

I am not suggesting that churches completely do away with the program approach to ministry delivery, as it is an effective method of providing some specialized ministries such as those directed to men and women, to name two. But disciple-making must permeate all ministries of the church since making disciples is the primary purpose of the church (Matthew 28:19). I do not believe there are five purposes of the church—worship, fellowship, ministry, missions, and discipleship—, but one: MAKING DISCIPLES. There are two sides to the making disciples balance sheet: evangelism (baptizing) and teaching (see http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/baptist-church-decline-balance-both-sides-of-the-great-commission/) .

Simple Discipleship (SD) is an answer to the program/silo approach to ministry delivery and disciple-making. It will return your church to developing a process for making disciples. Two respected Christian leaders and teachers recently reviewed Simple Discipleship and here is what they said:

–Dr. Nelson Price, Pastor Emeritus, Roswell St. Baptist Church, Marietta, GA
SD is a life-support system for churches. The concepts are definitive and measurable. However, there is a little known secret of success in all of life. It is this: "Nothing works." This program will not work. You have to work it. If worked the result is a potentially renewed church comprised of confident and fulfilled Christians. It is to be commended as a method of permeating the life-style of individuals and putting the total church on task.

–Dr. Chuck Lawless, Dean, Billy Graham School, Vice President for Academic Programming, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Far too many believers have never been discipled, and too few churches are prepared to address this problem. Tom Cocklereece has proposed not a program, but a process that drives discipleship into the DNA of a congregation. Read this book, work the ideas for your church, and start making disciples!

Here are some diagnostic questions for you to ask about your discipleship ministry:

• What process does your church use to make disciples?
• Is it a process or a program? (Remember that a processes connect systems while programs may be independent)
• Is your process working?
• How do you know it is working?
• How do you measure results?
• What expectations are communicated to the church?
• Is everyone unified around the same clear expectations?
  
  

Leaders of Simple Discipleship churches can answer these questions in a definitive way. I look forward to helping to launch a discipleship revolution in many churches. To purchase your copy of Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 20^th Century, go to: http://www.simplediscipleship.com/Store.html or for more info, go to: http://www.simplediscipleship.com/index.html.

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

Stay Tuned for Book #3 in the "Kalos Books" Virtual Book Tour!

Would the "Real Disciple" Please Stand Up?

Kalos Books Virtual Book Tour - Book #1

By Jess Bousa (Author of The Discipleship Dare)

The American Church is in the middle of a discipleship crisis. In Dallas Willard’s book, The Great Omission, he concludes that the Church is full of undiscipled disciples. Instead of making disciples, we have made converts and instead of baptizing them into the Trinitarian community, we have baptized them into church membership. When the discipleship process is reduced down to converts and church membership, it often takes the real challenge out of following Jesus through our everyday lives. Without the challenge to be pushed to the Biblical standard of discipleship, the world will continue to be full of unChristian Christians, which is the general consensus of outsiders to the Christian faith the Barna Group discovered in their extensive research project reported in the book, UnChristian.

Marines are challenged to thrive not only survive at all times no matter the costs. Every year approximately 38,000 Marines receive their basic training, which is far more challenging than any other branch of the military. Most Marines testify that going through the twelve weeks of boot camp to gain entrance into the Marines is the most challenging thing they ever had to do in their lives. There is no such thing as an unMarine Marine. If the Marines were filled with such a person, they would not be known as being the most elite armed forces in the Military. Their reputation is the result of their training process. Without a training process that challenges every area of life, they would not perform the tasks necessary.

The process determines the product. What if the process of training disciples in the local church has been sidetracked as a result of mass producing discipleship for the crowds? What if discipleship starts and ends with the personal development of a few? Without a tool that builds a bridge from the preaching and teaching in the local church to the real life of a disciple through the week, “real disciples” will continue to be sidelined.

To combat the discipleship crisis in the American Church, I created an experience called: The Discipleship Dare. It is a 40 day journey to raise the bar of discipleship in both the individual life of a disciple and the collective life of a church. This devotional is unlike anything else on the market. Like the 40-day devotional book, The Love Dare, from the best selling movie “Fireproof,” each day builds on the previous day. Every day is action packed with a relevant quote, passage of scripture, illustrated explanation, daily dare and S.O.A.P study (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). It takes no more than 15 minutes to complete each day.

What people are saying about The Discipleship Dare:

Dr. George O. Wood

The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God | The General Council of the Assemblies of God | Springfield, Missouri

"The Discipleship Dare: Living Dangerously for God" is a challenging, worthwhile 40 day journey through the risks of discipling. Each day the reader has opportunity to analyze his or herself, apply the truths learned, and pray a prayer of intentionality.

Dr. Don Meyer

President of Valley Forge Christian College | Valley Forge Christian College | Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Christian leaders are always looking for tools which can be used for their own personal journey but also which can be given to those whom they are mentoring in the faith. Jess Bousa’s The Discipleship Dare book is such a resources. Here you will find an extremely practicable, easily readable, well laid out and presented guide for growing in the faith. I will want many of them within reach for use in my own ministry. I commend this to you with highest recommendations.

Rev. Joseph S. Batluck, Sr. D.Min, CH (COL) USA-Ret.

President/Executive Director of Teen Challenge Training Center | Teen Challenge Training Center, Inc | Rehrersburg, Pennsylvania

Dietrich Bonhoffer in The Cost of Discipleship said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." The paradox of life springing from death is captured by Rev Bousa. Jess beckons all believers - cautious, careful, crazy - to dare to be God's person through a life of passionate, Christ-centered discipline. The reader will live in a new way as he dies again.

The Discipleship Dare can be used alone or in the context of a group. I designed it to jumpstart the lifestyle of a new disciple or revive the lifestyle of a veteran disciple. It works best as a companion guide for a sermons series, in small groups or Sunday School classes. What if the biggest risk in life is not taking any risks for discipleship? I dare you to stand up for discipleship and dare others to do the same!

For FREE resources & to purchase the book, please visit: http://www.thediscipleshipdare.com/

Stay Tuned for Book #2 in the "Kalos Books" Virtual Book Tour!