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A recent survey by Lifeway reveals one of the greatest needs of church leaders is in the area of discipleship.
Even if pastors understood what discipleship is, often they don’t know how to effectively disciple those in their churches.
The fundamental question we must ask is: Can every pastor be a disciple-making pastor? The answer is a resounding, YES! In fact, I believe they must understand and implement disciple-making in order for their congregation to follow suit.
Then, why don’t pastors want to make disciples? Here are a few reasons.
1. Distraction
I am convinced the most persistent obstacle in ministry is distraction.
In today’s culture, we’re either a narrow specialist at one thing or a broad generalist who does a little of everything.
Therefore, many pastors agree that disciple-making is a good idea, however, many never specifically commit to it.
As a result, discipleship is cast aside and put at the bottom of the “to-do list.”
Every person called to salvation is called to discipleship.
2. Costliness
As soon as things get difficult and the price becomes too high, the pastor often drops the idea and moves on.
Pastors need three things in order to overcome this fear:
• Vision to disciple every person in the church
• The determination to make discipleship happen
• A system to sustain the disciple-making movement
As Daniel Im, the author of No Silver Bullets, says, “Disciples are not made when they get to a destination. Disciples are formed while moving toward Christ.”[1]
This is because discipleship is about direction, not destination.
3. Confusion
Over and over again as I converse with pastors, I find that many of them struggle to develop mature, reproducing followers of Jesus.
Part of the reason is churches often overcomplicate discipleship, confusing the congregants.
It is important that we are not conflicted or confused about the mission God has entrusted to churches: “The church exists for nothing else,” says C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity,“but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.”
Tricking ourselves into engaging in discipleship by simply talking about it has forsaken the mission and purpose as a church.
As J. D. Greear said, “Without the mission, a church is not a church; it’s just a group of disobedient Christians hanging out.”
[1]Daniel Im, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2018), 33.
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 | Dr. Jonathan Hayashi earned his B.A. from Moody Bible Institute with a double concentration in Pastoral Ministry and Biblical Studies; a M.A., in Congregational Leadership from Moody Theological Seminary, and Doctorate of Educational Ministry in Biblical Counseling from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He presently serves on the Executive Committee at Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, MO) and serves on the Board of Trustees at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as Senior Pastor at Northern Hills Baptist Church Holt, Missouri from 2020-2022. Learn More » |
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