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/