leadership is an extension of discipleship

If this is not already obvious by now let me say it more explicitly: the quality of the church’s leadership is directly proportional to the quality of discipleship. if we fail in the area of making disciples we should not be surprised if we fail in the area of leadership development. I think many of the problems that the church faces in trying to cultivate missional leadership for the challenges of the 21st century would be resolved if we were to focus the solution to the problem on something prior to leadership development per se, namely that of discipleship first. Discipleship is primary, leadership is always secondary. And leadership, to be genuinely Christian, must always reflect Christlikeness and therefore…discipleship.

If we wish to develop and engender a genuinely missional leadership then we have to first plant the seed of obligation to the mission of God in the world in the earlier and more elementary phases of discipleship. This seed should be cultivated into full-blown missional leadership later on. And this is not being coercive and manipulative, but simply recognizing that as disciples we are active participants in the Missio Dei. We can’t merely create missional leadership when the DNA of missional leadership was not first laid down in the seeds of discipleship. And this is exactly how Jesus does discipleship: he organizes it around mission. As soon as they are called He takes the disciples on an adventurous journey of mission, ministry, and learning. Straightaway are involved in proclaiming the Kingdom of God, serving the poor, healing, and casting out demons. And it is active and direct disciple-making in the context of mission. And all great people movements are the same. Even the newest convert is engaged in the mission from the start; even he/she can become a spiritual hero. If we accept that Jesus forms the primary pattern of disciple-making for the church, then we must say that discipleship is our core task. But if disciple-making lies at the heart of our commission then we must organize it around mission because mission is the catalyzing principle of discipleship. In Jesus they are inexorably linked.

October 2, 2007 | Filed Under discipleship, leadership, the forgotten ways |

Comments

28 Responses to “leadership is an extension of discipleship”

Isaiah on October 2nd, 2007 1:23 am

It seems obvious. Part of discipleship is discipiling and that’s leading. From a perspective of a local community we always must be engaged in missional living. Mission, discipleship and christlikeness are always linked, you can not seperate them. Yet all three start with SACRIFICE. We sacrifice our own dreams for his mission. We sacrifice our own selfish desires in leadership to become servants. We submit everything to the holy spirit. In regards to discipleship, what did Jesus say? Take up your cross.
"James Gunnison" on October 2nd, 2007 2:06 am

Alan,

Great post. Missional leadership is, for the most part, caught not taught, and this is discipleship. It has to be in the DNA from the beginning.

This is the approach we take in our work in the 10/40 Window. For example, in India we are working with a tribal group. The people group numbers roughly 8 million people and five years ago there were only a handful of believers. As the work began to develop, our primary emphasis was on making disciples who would multiply. We taught new believers to immediately teach others (believers and prebelievers) what they had been taught, and to teach those they were teaching to do the same. They were sent “on an adventurous journey of mission, ministry, and learning” and the results have been phenomenal. We have lost track of the full movement, but have been able to verify some 150,000 believers in more than 5,000 “house” churches.

Making disciples is key. Too often we focus on the desired end; leadership, unity, love and missional, just to mention a few. Instead, we need to follow what has been both modeled and commanded; the making disciples of all nations. When we make disciples, leadership, unity, love and missional simply happen.

Until ALL Have Heard,

Eric
john page on October 2nd, 2007 5:35 am

Good point. I wonder why it is, though, that most (and it’s typically megachurches) megachurches plan/baseball diamond/5 Gs/discipleship or growth path/etc., usually has mission or outreach or outward focus as the last step of the plan.
The disciples of Jesus got excited and passionate about things only once they Went Out and did what Jesus had been doing.
Missional DNA has got to come sooner, if not at the start. While we focus on getting people saved, and rightly so, as salvation is a very important thing, do we minimize other aspects?
Wes Roberts on October 2nd, 2007 7:08 am

Alan…

…thank you!

…will give you something this weekend that will be a good symbol for the post.

…eager to be with you again.
Peggy on October 2nd, 2007 7:39 am

Alan,

Great post! I agree (Eric, too) that if we are making true disciples (not just believers), the rest happens as the mDNA replicates…

John,

I think that the outward focus is at the end because that is where the organic model has the bearing of fruit. But perhaps there is a bit of confusion as to what the fruit is?

In my version of this model, the fruit is replication–another disciple which one then leads around the cycle….this is a cycle that never stops!

The mDNA is found in the Gospel seed that the Holy Spirit plants from reading and hearing the Word of God. That seed, planted in properly prepared soil, grows into a plant that produces seed-bearing fruit. But that plant also grows bigger and bears a multiplicity of fruit–if it is properly nurtured/fed/pruned–for the life of that plant!

It is the bushy plant that has no seed-bearing fruit that is the problem, in my view. And Neil Cole would say that these plants are what grow from planting seed substitutes–reading and hearing about the Word of God without doing what Eugene Peterson describes so well in his “Eat This Book.”

Disciple-making is a process…like growing plants is a process. We can’t cut corners and expect not to mar the mDNA… But as soon as we see growth…that little shoot of a plant breaking the surface…we need to recognize it and celebrate and cultivate and feed.

I think the key here is that people be equipped to embrace the discipline of making their primary spiritual diet the reading and meditating on and praying of and living out of the Word of God. And I am still resonating strongly from my recent read of Peterson’s book, here.

And, John, “getting people saved” is where I have problems…perhaps it is a semantic problem…but I’ve spent too many years trying to staff a nursery full of newly-birthed babes in Christ, only to grieve for the infant mortality rate that results when “salvation” is the point rather than “mature disciple”…

…you have to stop encouraging that ranting streak of mine
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 2nd, 2007 8:04 am

What sounds good on paper is enormously painful though to put into practice. Here we can fill events which are aimed at elderly people and which are mainly social. We can insert a little bit of the gospel message, but I don’t get the feeling they come wanting to explore a faith or have potential to be missional. But to move time and energies from the small successes the church has in this area to the high risk endeavours of reaching younger people is very challenging, and people will get disappointed along the way.

To focus resources on discipling those who will themselves go on to be missional implies in some ways at least a shutting out of those who simply come to find friends and companionship and whose loneliness is a real human need.
How do we resolve this dilemma?
Janet on October 2nd, 2007 9:54 am

“This kind can come out only by prayer.”

Eleanor… I just don’t know if anyone else can answer that question for you and for your church. I personally believe we have to see mission and ministry as the task of the WHOLE body of Christ. God also loves elderly people who… not infrequently… become far more open to God when suddenly facing illness or imminent death… so to have an avenue of relationship available for ministry in such times is a precious thing.

On the other hand… creating young disciples who can create other disciples throughout their lives will obviously have a larger impact. But I don’t think decisions can be made on statistics alone. I believe it’s primarily about calling and faithfulness. If God calls you to work with the elderly (snatching some from the metaphorical flames of judgment) then do this with confidence, trusting God knows what He’s doing.

I don’t think Henri Nouen’s work with the handicapped is work likely to create an exponential movement of disciples. But has he been faithful to God’s call? You betcha.

Our business is faithful obedience… God’s business is the results.
Janet on October 2nd, 2007 9:59 am

Oh… I don’t think I clarified that while mission and ministry is the task of the whole body of Christ, a particular local congregation may only have the resource to focus on a smaller number of areas of ministry… and being faithful in those areas is OK.

Phil McCreddan’s church (I mentioned yesterday) I think uses the rule of thumb if you can gather a group of 4 people who want to launch a new ministry, go for it. You don’t always need to take a lot of resource from other areas to start something new… if God is stirring up something with a small group, start with that group and their vision.
Janet on October 2nd, 2007 10:18 am

It’s also possible if the heart for this congregation is for the elderly people, and your own heart is for the young people, that you might not be the best fit for that congregation, and that congregation might not be the best fit for you. However, that will probably take some time to discern.

Ouch.
Peggy on October 2nd, 2007 2:45 pm

Janet, sister…you are on a roll

Eleanor, yes what is plain on paper is almost always painful to implement. So, Chesterton and his wonderful quote about Christianity being found difficult and largely left untried….

But it is important to remember, as Janet says so often, that we are not responsible for the outcomes–that is God’s job! We are responsible for being obedient to what we know God is asking us to do in our circumstance…whatever that is–big or small.

Part of the whole discipleship process is learning to discern the will of God in the midst of the Holy Spirit’s movement and direction in and through the rest of the Body of Christ–local and global. Too often we think we must figure things out on our own and we isolate ourselves needlessly.

…one of the many reasons I am so grateful to Alan and the TFW tribe–what a wealth of discernment I have experienced in these threads over the months.

Love you all!
Jonathan Brink on October 2nd, 2007 3:00 pm

About five years ago we took an active step to create one group organized around active discipleship. We went through many stages of community and I believed created communitas. We didn’t start out with leadership. We started out with the mission to restore each other’s hearts.

Back then we didn’t have the language of Missio Dei or missional discipleship. We stumbled into it. But we tried and it worked. We now have close to 50% of the adults in discipleship groups.

There’s a curve of adoption that was not fun, but when the momentum hit, we didn’t have to convince anyone. They saw it in people.
Peggy on October 2nd, 2007 3:23 pm

Bingo, Jonathan! I have experienced the same…and didn’t have any of the “lingo” either. But we all knew that what we experienced was the right thing.

I am hoping/praying this will happen again with CovenantClusters–now that we do have the words and some of the leadership…so that people will see what we’re talking about and go, “oh, I get it”

Sometimes you have to talk…sometimes you just have to do…sometimes you talk and do…always, we must be about restoring each other’s hearts!

Thanks for sharing…
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 2nd, 2007 4:35 pm

Thanks for the responses. I was asked yesterday if the new fresh expressions forum here wants to focus only on bringing in younger people and I said absolutely not, because I’ve seen thriving plants made up of elderly, and the L’Arche example is also a really important one. But if we don’t keep our eye on the ball, we will end up going for the easier life, working say just among older people with a modernity mindset who are able to relate to established church and have prior experience of it, and missing the fact that we have a chance here to give something to the future of the church - which we will not be around to see. In the UK we have generations who have never heard the gospel.

Selectively resourcing discipleship makes total missional sense, but doesn’t entirely fit the equation of lovingkindness. I’m not sure how to put the two together.

I’m only nominally a member of my elderly congregation now, by the way, and working entirely outside its context. It is just the way it has worked out. I dream of finding three others with whom to work!

Blessings
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 2nd, 2007 9:00 pm

I’d add perhaps that I’ve come to the conclusion now that locally here we do have to focus strongly on discipling those who can be missional in turn. But the implications of it is keeping me awake at night. This is in a context of a desperately declined church in rural UK, so does not necessarily translate to a well-churched USA context.
Tim Catchim on October 3rd, 2007 12:20 am

I have been struggling with what discipleship looks like in the practical arena. Is it training in the spiritual disciplines? I have been especially curious about the practical side of discipleship ever since I read Alans book Shaping of Things to Come. Would discipleship look different for the prophet than it does for the pastor? It seems like this idea of replication and multiplication would fall under the umbrella of the evengelist and apostle. Trying to get a teacher or a pastor to be involved in a multiplication task with unbeleivers would seem counter intuitive if we allow the APEPT model to inform our discipleship. Nurturing a pastor to do the task of an evangelist is what I want to get away from. So I am wondering what kind of distinctions should be made in addressing the topic of discipleship and the gifts. Or maybe the task of discipleship should be “generic” enough that all the gifts can engage it without being retrofitted into the disciplers gifting and passions. Any insight out there?
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 3rd, 2007 1:32 am

My approach - must be that also of others - is to integrate spiritual ‘information’ (ie books in so far as the disciple is able to handle books, otherwise alternative media)with practical engagement in a range of activities , and reflection in a group and with a spiritual director on the learnings from that. At the end of the two years-ish period - which can be revisited at any time after that - the disciple has a sense of where their gifting lies, and it has already begun to be gently tested and developed? So discipleship isn’t about chatting in a group, it’s about learning a whole range of things from Bible, prayer etc, through to self awareness, emotional health, communication skills to how to understand the needs of the neighbourhood and exploring their leadership potential. The process should be organic not curriculum led, but with a quiet eye kept on covering some essential basics. It doesn’t have to be complex at all - it can be led by the questions of the disciples as they grow in awareness. What do people think?
Peggy on October 3rd, 2007 2:26 am

Tim,

While I echo Eleanor’s approach, let me take a few minutes to flesh out some of the vision of CovenantClusters in the way I see spiritual formation/discipleship/apprenticeship working with the APEST model.

My growing concern of the past 30 years is that our cultural environment just is not conducive to the kind of real, dynamic apprenticeships that result in a fully-trained individual who can, in turn, fully apprentice another.

I believe that the problem lies in the mobility of society and the focus on the independence of the nuclear family rather than the embracing of an interdependent extended family. Each family group spends so much time and resources on the tasks of survival that little is left over for significant spiritual formation and mentoring. In addition, most persons who attend the same church are spread over a fairly large geographical area and so are not connected as neighbors who can impact each other’s lives and show their love for one another to their neighbors.

The model of CovenantClusters is to bring a core of 5-6 APEST leader families into a single neighborhood–ideally as immediate neighbors with some shared community space–and invite another 5-6 apprentice families to join them. We would endeavor to have all ages/stages represented and as much racial diversity as possible.

One member of each family would support them with employment (or retirement income) and connection with the larger community. Single individuals may work part-time or full-time, depending on their circumstances (unless they are retired ).

None of the APEST core and the apprentices would be “salaried”–there is shared leadership under the Lordship of Jesus and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Each of these individuals would interact with each other according to their gifts for mentoring as well as being open to learn from every member of the community. They would be engaged in life-on-life ministry with each other and leaders as well as with the other members of the families and then to the other neighbors around them.

We would expect that there would be some number of shared meals every day (depending on schedules) as well as sharing of the general activities of families: chores, maintenance of grounds/vehicles, child-care, caring for the sick, shopping, cooking, cleaning…and in the doing of these chores together, there will be time to process the lessons that are being learned in the intentionality of reading and teaching.

There would be a regularity and flow of prayer and study and meditation and work that is not possible in less than this kind of neo-monastic lifestyle.

This is, of course, why I am so thrilled to be able to attend the Missional Order Gathering, sponsored by Allelon, in two weeks!

We must make room in our too-busy lives for what we already know to be the truth to be experienced in our lives. I am well aware of how counter-cultural this is–on just about every front–but I have become fully convinced over the past 20 months that this vision is from God…and so I am doing my best to follow where the Holy Spirit is leading.

Truly, for me, having swallowed the “red pill”, there is no turning back to the attractional model of gathering “at” church for a few hours a week…regardless of where you’re gathering. It comes down to a “being” the church in all arenas, breaking down the dualistic sacred/secular divide and allowing the monothesistic reality of the interpenetrating, perichoretic community of our triune God to fully infiltrate our reality.

For me it must be a bringing of all of my life along as I climb into the wonder that is the life of God the Father-Son-Holy Spirit.

Gotta stop there…sometimes I think that God has prevented me from fully spelling this vision out before it is time to implement because it creates a longing in me and my family that is almost painful…

Be blessed…
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 3rd, 2007 3:23 am

This is a great model and similar to the way planting teams are now working among young people here in the UK.

There are problems, but I would say go for it if you can recruit people to build it up. The process fights constantly against the cultural reality of our gypsy lives, people living a few years here and few years there.
Peggy on October 3rd, 2007 3:31 am

Yes, Eleanor, there are plenty of potential problems, but if this is what God wants done, I am convinced that the Holy Spirit will lead to us those who are willing to engage with us.

I am not surprised to see it at work there…I have been almost overwhelmed during these past 8 months in the “blogosphere” to see the movement of the Spirit to implement the same basic vision all over the world. It is one of the confirmations to me that I did, in fact, hear this right!
Tim Catchim on October 3rd, 2007 3:49 am

Hello Peggy,

thanks for the feedback on this topic. It is interesting that you talked about your ideas for CovenantClusters. Our community of about 15-18 people has 3 married couples, (one couple with a 1 yr old child) who are investigating the idea of moving downtown to the city and sharing a house together to relive the expenses of living, live in community together, and focus on the neighborhood we will live in. (There are also two single guys entertaining the idea.) I would like to talk with you sometime about your ideas to approaching life this way. The three married couples wrerstled with this idea last night over some Mexican food (with some pretty loud background music I might add). Is there a way we can get in touch with you? We are trying to talk to people who are on the same journey and who are already doing what we are thinking of doing.

In Jesus,

TimC
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 3rd, 2007 4:23 am

re small intentional communities, I can’t stress enough that they normally end through conflict, and so investment in a few weeks training in conflict resolution and conflict transformation, communication etc, can really lay good strong foundations for the families concerned. Foundations are everything. I speak from experience as well as observation.
Peggy on October 3rd, 2007 5:35 am

Tim,

Followed your link and left an e-mail….

Eleanor,

Yes, I realize the history of small, intentional communities…but I am normally considered “Abi-normal”…so I figure that’s why God’s calling me to this model and yes, foundations are everything! That is why I have spent 20 months (and counting) in the preparation stage for this, rather than just jumping in!

As always…all prayers are welcome
Janet on October 3rd, 2007 8:28 am

Hey Eleanor… I had the impression you were in leadership in the church you described (which makes these deliberations complicated)… you’re travelling light so go for it, and don’t worry whether others get it or not!

This post has clarified for me this core activity of reproducible disciplemaking is something I do badly. I think because my own spiritual formation occured slowly over a lifetime in a institutional church context I’ve been deeply influenced by this… even unconsciously I see the task of disciplemaking mixed in with involvement in the institutional church first, not in mission first.
And it’s the primal stuff that ends up being our real drivers…

Well… those who feel like they are making disciples who make disciples… especially outside an institutional church context… what are they actually doing? I’ve appreciated Eleanor and Peggy’s reflections… anyone else?
Jonathan Brink on October 3rd, 2007 8:38 am

Janet, We simply focused on His mission of restoration and reconciliation. We started with our own hearts and moved out to our neighbor. We ended up creating a platform and a process to do that over a three year journey.

All of what we did was lay lead. No pastor created the first group. In fact, after one year, our pastor joined us because he didn’t have a place to be real in his own world. He needed his own discipleship. In all cases the leaders were just people who wanted restoration.

The best thing happened when we launched the second round of groups with leaders those who had already been through the process. We now had people who knew the mission of restoration and could help others find their own.
Janet on October 3rd, 2007 9:25 am

Thanks Jonathan… can you tell more more about what you do? (the platform, the process, everything?)
Jonathan Brink on October 3rd, 2007 9:30 am

Just click on my name. We created a ministry to support missional discipleship.
Peggy on October 3rd, 2007 10:29 am

Wow, Jonathan…I’m going to have to find some time to browse your website! Thanks for joining the conversation here…now, to processing
Eleanor Burne-Jones on October 3rd, 2007 2:59 pm

Looks good Jonathan, will follow up with reading your site.