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How can you tell if your ministry is creating disciples?
The church’s mission is clear: make disciples. Jesus’s parting words to his followers in Matthew 28:19–20 give us a blueprint to follow, but why does it often feel like we’re drifting further away from the mark? As church leaders, we have the best of intentions when we create ministry opportunities to fulfill Jesus’s command, but how can our intentions turn into results?
The church’s mission is clear: make disciples. Jesus’s parting words to his followers in Matthew 28:19–20 give us a blueprint to follow, but why does it often feel like we’re drifting further away from the mark? As church leaders, we have the best of intentions when we create ministry opportunities to fulfill Jesus’s command, but how can our intentions turn into results?
Instead of adding more to our ministry plates, creating a disciple-making movement in our churches begins by simplifying. As we strip down our understanding of what a disciple is and how a disciple learns, we’ll find that the transformative power of engaging the Bible is at the heart of discipleship.
Why this course?
In this course, Robby will share insight from his own pastoral experience and his experience consulting churches across the country on what’s necessary to lead a disciple-making movement. Born out of his personal story of transformation by interacting with God’s Word in community, Robby shares key insights and practical tools to build a culture in your church where everyone is a disciple-maker.
Assess Discipleship at Your Church
Before trying to spark a disciple-making movement, you need to identify your church’s current situation. Robby will help you evaluate what discipleship looks like in your church currently, and what practices to start or stop.
Confront Myths of Discipleship
We’re all susceptible to operating based on assumptions that may not be true. If we’re not careful, we can build entire ministry strategies on a faulty understanding of discipleship. Robby will expose five myths we’re prone to believe about making disciples and provide a path forward based on how followers of Jesus experience transformative growth.
Accelerate a Disciple-Making Movement
While God is responsible for the fruit of disciple-making, we can practice certain strategies that the Spirit often works through: engaging Scripture, building community, and unleashing God’s people on mission where they are. Robby will share elements that disciple-making movements share and how to apply those elements in your ministry.
At the end of this course, you will...
Describe what an ideal disciple looks and acts like in your church.
Define and confront ministry myths in your church’s discipleship strategy.
Implement the HEAR practice of engaging Scripture in small groups.
Understand the attitude and practices of disciple-making movements.
Included in this course:
Evaluate your church’s discipleship strategy and define what a disciple is.
Analyze discipleship trends in the American church and imagine a discipleship pathway for your church focused on interacting with the Bible.
Describe what an ideal disciple looks like beyond simply getting involved in church programs.
Change the way everyone understands their roles in ministry and match people’s service with their giftings, rather than just addressing organizational needs.
Adopt the HEAR practice of Bible engagement to cultivate disciple-making skills in your congregation and empower people to carry out ministry where they work, live, and play.
Learn what elements are necessary to spark a disciple-making movement in your church.
Understand and apply the five components of Jesus’s ministry to your own sphere of influence.
Robby Gallaty
Robby Gallaty is the senior pastor at Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He is the founder and president of Replicate Ministries, a consulting and training ministry that equips churches to create disciple-making movements. Robby has written several books, including Growing Up, The Forgotten Jesus, and Replicate.
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FAQ
This series is included in your RightNow Pastors+ subscription. Not a subscriber? Click here for more information.
You can use this series on your own or with other leaders at your church. The written curriculum is geared toward group discussion, but it can also be used individually.
In this seven-session course, pastor Robby Gallaty explores how to create a culture of disciple-making in your church.
Yes, this course is included in a RightNow Pastors+ subscription. Click here for more information.
Plan for an hour to an hour and a half to go through each session, especially if you’re going through the content in a group. The videos in this series range from ten to twenty minutes, and the discussion questions and exercises will likely take up the rest of your meeting time.
This series is seven sessions long. Feel free to cover the sessions in increments that make the most sense for you and your leadership team. For some, it might work best to go through one session a week; for others, it might be better to cover one session a month. We do not recommend doubling up on sessions.
In its 40-year history, Barna Group has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about faith and culture, leadership and vocation, and generations. Barna Group has worked with thousands of businesses, nonprofit organizations and churches across the U.S. and around the world.
Barna is an independent, privately held, nonpartisan organization based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Nashville, Tennessee; Ventura, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.
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