So we’ve seen the two basic models of discipleship and the pros and cons of each. Ideally, there should be a way to blend the two so we keep the positive aspects of each while avoiding the negative.

Here is what Matt Chandler is doing at his church:

Celebrate Change

You must create an air that celebrates life transformation and change.

These things must be championed and celebrated from the stage in the service every single week. Use video and testimony to celebrate growth, transformation, and movement. It cannot be a sermon series once a year. You have to constantly, constantly bang the drum of progressive sanctification. And you MUST celebrate more than just the “miracle.”

Yes, put up the guy who drank and drank and drank, and then came to Christ, and hasn’t desired a drink since. But also, champion the guy who is still raw, who still struggles. You get a guy up there to say, “I’m struggling, but let me tell you where I see God.”

Create On-Ramps

Have lots of “on ramps” and “off ramps.” Make it easy for people to get involved in various ways of spiritual transformation, and make it ways for them to just rest in what they have learned.

Allow times when you just back away from everything, and not try to control things, and just let them sit, rest, and germinate.

Keep Flexible

The mission and end goal is sacred, but nothing else is. Ask yourself: What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of that affection? Almost all of us have different answers to these questions.

You must be flexible enough not to dictate to the people in your church how they are to grow spiritually. Some read Edwards. Some play the piano. Some go to the graveyard. Some go the art museum. We’ve got to figure out how to give our people freedom to press on toward the Lord.

You can lay some track for them, but you can’t punish people when they deviate off that track.

Be Relational

There needs to be a relational aspect to everything. Everything. Here are some ways to make things relational:

Home groups. You can’t just throw people in a room and have community together. We need to try to help people build community, but it is very, very difficult. If they already have community, encourage them to stay with that group. Tell the older people they have a fishing license, and you are giving them a stocked lake. Tell them to look around and invite a couple over for dinner so they can pour their lives into someone younger. If you try to assign people to relationships, it won’t work.

Recovery ministry. There are lots of “short circuits” that people need help with. Drug. Alcohol. Relationships. Porn. Anger. Eating.

Apply your Teaching. Whatever teaching you do, be heavy on application.

Use Movies. Use film to teach theology. (But get a license to show these films.)

Children and youth. Don’t teach moralism. Don’t teach a fake, external morality. Teach strong doctrine, and then engage the parents in the process. Provide the parents tools to help teach the children. For example, suggest field trips they can take their children on and questions they can ask. If we teach the children at church, and this doesn’t get reinforced at home, all we are teaching our children is to compartmentalize their Church life from the rest of their life.

Be Patient

All of this takes time. Lots of time.

Find mature leaders. Pair them with 2-3 others, and tell them to walk together for 2-3 years intentionally. Then, these people turn around, and disciple 2 or 3 more, while they are still being discipled by those over them. So eventually, everyone is discipling and being discipled.

So, that is a broad-brush overview of what they are trying to do. He said to check back in 20-30 years to see if it worked. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how we can encourage community while keeping people in the Word?

Yesterday I introduced the two basic discipleship models. Today, I review the pros and cons of each discipleship model as presented by Matt Chandler.

Pros of the Mechanical-Linear Discipleship Model

1. There is no better way to disseminate information, and get people to learn Bible and theology.
2. It has had some historical success.
3. There are TONS of resources and curriculum.
4. It’s easy to measure. How many went through all the steps?
5. It’s easy to motivate people to join and participate.
6. It lends itself to great theology.

Cons of Mechanical-Linear Discipleship Model

1. It’s hard to sustain. It starts big, and people fall off every week.
2. It can lead to coldness.
3. It lends itself primarily to the mechanical, mathematical, engineering types (which is a good thing) but most others have trouble keeping up.
4. Such programs have a tendency to become very sacred, and if you later try to stop such programs, people get angry.

Pros of the Organic-Relational Discipleship Model

1. It seems to yield the greatest results. People stick around when there are authentic communities. If they feel safe, they are much more prone to stick.
2. It tends to appeal to a broader group of personality types. Most of us are not intellects. But almost all of us are relational. We all long for and want community and relationships. It still allows the intellects to cross-pollinate.

Cons of the Organic-Relational Discipleship Model

1. We are all sinners. If we are not intentionally maturing, we won’t mature. Maturity doesn’t just happen.
2. It’s nearly impossible to measure. The only thing you have to count is numbers, and that doesn’t really tell you much.
3. It’s nearly impossible to control. You get leaders teaching very strange things in their groups.

Curiously, there is a huge schism over these two discipleship models today, and generally, this schism seems to follow along generational lines. Those who are in their 20s and 30s lean more toward the organic model while those over 40 lean heavily on the mechanical. There may be ways to blend the pros of both while avoiding the cons. We’ll look tomorrow at what Matt Chandler is doing in his church, and maybe make a few general suggestions for what other churches can do as well.