I have been thinking more about intentional discipleship. There are the classic questions of scope and sequence to consider. And the end results: if we are seeking to make disciples of Jesus—in this youth ministry, in this church, in this denomination—what does a disciple look like? What does a disciple know, do, and feel? What are the identity and characteristics of one?

Then there are programmatic questions to answer. How do we walk into the future where these disciples exist? How do we get there? In other words, what is the “discipleship pathway” of our ministry/church/denomination? What is the process we hope people will engage in to grow as disciples of Jesus? Here’s one church’s answer.

Thinking through a pathway for the congregation I pastor, I got excited because I came up with (or thought I came up with) a possible sequence that all starts with the same letter: Gather, Grow, Give, Go.

Turns out, lots of churches are already on that!

Once a framework is in place, the real fun begins. What opportunities do we provide to just gather? Worship services, parties, meals, etc. And what settings do we create where we invite people to grow? Membership class, life groups, and so on.

I starting thinking about a discipleship pathway again, because I’m reading a book called 8 Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches. The authors Matt Miofsky and Jason Byassee make a case for the importance of having a specific, articulated discipleship process. Although the Holy Spirit can do anything, anywhere, any-how, discipleship tends not to just randomly happen:

“One thing rapidly growing churches (RGCs) do is they have a clear and effective discipleship process. Some call it connections, some assimilation, others new members orientation—but the purpose is the same—to help a new guest become a deeply committed follower of Christ. They make this discipleship process transparent for what they want people to do. User friendly, accessible, clear. They don’t shower listeners with a thousand options for nice things they might do. They focus: do this, not that. They keep it simple, often linear. Start with this class. Next join a small group. Finally serve here. Think of the difference between sitting down and eating at the Cheesecake Factory, which famously boasts over 250 different menu options made from scratch, or eating at a cozy French bistro with a prix fixe menu. One offers a dizzying amount of choice; the other leads you through one carefully curated, skillfully crafted, and masterfully presented meal. RGCs act more like the prix fixe restaurant. They work on a simple, effective, and clear process that helps new people become disciples of Jesus. Everything and anything that takes away from that focus is cut. As Matt often puts it, rapidly growing churches are like ducks. They look placid on the water. But underneath they’re paddling like crazy! The work is not so much in getting people in the door. It’s in laying out for those people the next obvious steps to take in being a disciple.”

I realized, too, that a tool I used to use in consulting—the Logic Model—can be powerful here. More on that in a future post.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear in the comments how your ministry, church, denomination, and especially how you think your own life might be following some kind of discernible discipleship “pathway”?

Complicating the process is that I’d imagine most of us look back down the road and see lots of zigs and zags… not quite sure how you “program” for that reality!