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How does a church grow without development and discipleship? Today, people are naturally drifted more into building an audience rather than an army. Instead, the scripture commands us, Christians, to build an army rather than an audience (Ephesians 4:12). The 21stcentury evangelical churches are caught in a lie of building consumers mentality believe rather than disciple-making leaders.
As missiologist Alan Hirsch once said, “God can do more with 12 disciples than 12,000 religious consumers.”
We are not only called to be disciples, we are also called to make disciples. The fundamental question we, as church leadership, must ask is the same question Bill Hull asked, “Does the gospel we preach produce disciples or does it produce consumers of religious goods and services?” (The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ).
When we see the first-century church, it was leadership development left, right and center. That is what Jesus did with his disciples over the three years, the early church did, and what the apostles Paul did— city by city. Multiplication forces you into leadership development.
The response and excuses we often hear are, “We don’t know how. We don’t have the expertise. We don’t have the time. We don’t have the framework and resources to make it happen.” The framework many of us have now—even with training— is we have learned to do ministry and put people on the conveyor belt mentality of cruise control without any destination.
“Well, Jonathan I love doing rather than developing.” Well, the reason for that is no one has done that for you. Then there is the same excuse for discipleship. “Well, nobody discipled me, so I don’t know how to do it. I was just thrown in and I had to figure it out.” Whether it is insecurity or conviction, the heart of the matter is that we are not giving the ministry away to our people.
We must ask the right questions such as, “Did we build these people or did we buy these people?” if we have bought most of the staff, then we have an issue here. There is an aspect of buying staff to identify if there’s a culture that needs to be the change that the church so desires. However, if the church is healthy, they should be reproducing from within the church as that person will thrive in that context. Taking a healthy church audit brings a conviction upon our lives.
Jim Mellado said it well, “Your convictions come from trials, not successes.”
“Well, discipleship only happens in large churches.” Again, it is not a matter or an issue of size, but an issue of conviction. If the pastor is not convicted about it, then it most likely won’t happen. Are we convicted enough to do something about it? There is no doubt that we are convicted about doing something, but the question is, “Are we willing to develop and pass on this leadership to the next generation?” We will begin to notice how people see the way ministry is implemented and know immediately if people are being dumped on rather than developed as leaders.
1. Dumping = Telling and commanding
This is an old-school style of commanding people and telling them to do the task. They don’t care about the people, but just wants to check them off the list.
2. Delegating = Teaching and training.
This is a knowledge transfer through a traditional form of education.
3. Developing = Modeling and coaching.
This is when mentors are watching and interacting and showing church leadership how to be servant leaders. This type of leadership development knows how someone got to the point they are at in their leadership and spiritual growth. This functions best in a relational environment.
These leaders invest time in others not as a project, but as people.
In this process, they discover what discipleship and leadership are about. Development is not a transaction. Knowledge transfer is a transaction. Development and discipleship are an overlap of knowledge, experience and coaching.
We must first choose not to bow at the altar of excellence or tradition on Sunday morning if it means sacrificing what is biblical and effective. We must choose to say, “I’m not sacrificing the development of leaders, which is my primary job. I don’t want just to get the job done, but to truly invest.”
Then simply invest in two people. We are not talking crazy statistics like at a conference, no we are talking about just investing in two people. In three years or so, we will have 25 or more people invested with excellence. The math works out, and that’s how we got to where we are today.
It is slow, but the power of multiplication is massively more powerful than addition. In the same way, leadership development is more powerful than leadership placement.
It is a daily discipline to make the choices what to do. Discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life. It’s not for a limited time, but for our whole life. Discipleship isn’t for beginners alone; it’s for all believers for every day of their lives. Discipleship isn’t just one of the things the church does; it is what the church does.
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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 » |
This isn’t just another leadership book—it’s your invitation to discover how Christ-centered questions can transform the way you lead and live. Packed with real stories and timeless wisdom, it shows you how to grow your influence, deepen your faith, and lead with the same life-changing impact Jesus did.
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