Master List of Discussion Questions on Disciple-making

Master List of Discussion Questions on Disciple-making

By Jay Wegter

Questions to help assess your church’s commitment to the Great Commission:

• Have you embraced the transformation mandate—that every believer is called to transformation, therefore every believer is to be a disciple, and a discipler?
• Do you know why Christians choose isolation when they actually ache for community?
• Consider that a Bible study is not ‘discipleship’. It is because discipleship takes place when teaching is ‘customized’ to the individual’s needs through life-on-life soul care.
• What changes in ministry focus would move us closer to the N.T. function of the church in bringing each member to maturity through discipleship?

• Do you agree that the following areas of spiritual weakness normally accompany the absence of discipleship? The life of the body suffers. The spiritual safety of the body suffers. Assimilation of new members into the body suffers. The usefulness of the body suffers. The ability of the church to please Christ suffers. Directing the church by N.T. functions suffers. Resisting the temptation of using market forces suffers.
• Does free grace mean discipleship is optional? Are the demanding terms of discipleship laid down by Christ consistent with free grace? Is it possible to honor Christ as preeminent if we are not abiding by His terms of discipleship?

• What is involved in a disciple’s willingness to ‘sell all’? Is it possible to be a ‘Christfollower’ without a life of self-denial? Explain why it is not possible to follow Christ IF we are not practicing self-denial and cross-bearing. How is a willingness, or unwillingness to ‘sell all’ for Christ’s sake and the sake of His Kingdom a faithful indicator of where one’s actual treasure resides (Luke 14:26-35)?
• In John 21:15-17 Jesus ‘re-commissions’ Peter. What Christ is commanding in these verses is the very heart of what it means to follow Christ. Explain why is this concept of shepherding, feeding, and tending is so central in discipleship. Explain why following Christ means that we make Christ’s cause our own cause.

• Examining our own philosophy of ministry so that it might be brought into alignment with Scripture: How does God’s purpose for the church absolutely rule out a ‘spectator’ role for believers? How can we prevent sending the message that church-goers are merely ‘consumers’ of spiritual commodities attending a religious event?
• Obeying Christ in forming close relationships: How can I be more deliberate in getting together with another person for the purpose of his spiritual good? Why does the individual believer experience an impoverished spirit when he discontinues mutual purposeful edification in his relationships in the body of Christ? (HINT: we are created anew for supernatural relationships). If we don’t pursue these relationships, we rob ourselves and others of the appointed channel of Christ’s transforming love and grace.)

• Using my spiritual gift requires close relationships: Are you deliberate about pursuing discipleship relationships? Are you deliberate in seeking to be mentored as well as to spiritually mentor? What decisions would you have to make in order to put yourself under the teaching of the mature, as well as seek to help those who are less mature than you are? Is building with Christ possible without making these decisions?
• Honesty about forming close relationships: How strong is my desire to get to know the brethren? Is it strong enough to pursue close friendships in the body? Why is that desire often weak? Have I considered just how much my desire to know God parallels the desire to know my brethren?

• Courage to ‘re-speak’ the Word: What would have to happen in order for our thinking to shift from the pulpit as the sole, or major source of the Word, to our conversations with other believers being an indispensable and vital source of the Word?
• Questions about my intent: What kind of attitude is needed if we are to be willing to learn from each other that we might grow together into full maturity in Christ? What biblical truths concerning Christ and the gospel do I need to speak to my own heart so that I can view discipleship as a gift and privilege, and not a yoke or burden?

• Disciple-making moves the disciple from a hearer to a doer of the Word: One of the great benefits of disciple-making is that the hearer (the one being discipled) is continually confronted with what it means to be a doer of the Word (Jas 1:21-24). How are we to teach others to observe all that Christ has commanded without discipleship relationships? Learning that kind of obedience is next to impossible without discipleship. For, only through the soul care found in discipleship are the relational structures in place for accountability, nurture, and the actual monitoring of obedience.

• No private believers: The genuine Christian life has a remarkably public dimension. The passages about walking worthy of the Lord are fleshed out in a corporate manner (Eph 4:1-3). Your life as a Christ-follower is very public. Confessing Christ as a lifestyle is a public exercise with an extensive corporate dimension (Mt 10:32-39; Lu 14:25-35). There must be no fruitless ‘passengers’ in Christ’s body. Disciple-making helps guard against passivity in the body.
• Where are you on the path? Every true believer is somewhere on the spiritual maturity spectrum. Our job as under-shepherds is to help each one along the path of maturity so that we may ultimately ‘present every man complete in Christ’ (Col 1:28-29). We should station people along the path of maturity to help disciples at every stage of growth.

• There are ‘seven M’s’ to help us plot a path to maturity: 1) meet the disciple to form a spiritual partnership, 2) map his level of spiritual growth by the biblical metric, 3) mentor him, training him in righteousness from the Word, 4) model godliness so that he can see, as well as imitate the example of your life, 5) cultivate a missional mindset in him so that he understands his growth exists to help others grow in Christ, 6) teach him that discipleship mediates ministry, because as his mentor you are most qualified to mobilize him and unleash him to ministry opportunities uniquely fitted for him, 7) multiplication show your disciple that the growth he has experienced is intended for him to make another disciple who can make another disciple.

• It only takes ten percent of a church to be completely onboard with disciple-making in order for that mandate to become a movement. Ten percent seems to be that magic number where momentum can not only be maintained but also grow. This is great news, because as a leader don’t have to convince every single person in your church of the necessity of disciple-making. Once you reach a few key people with the discipleship vision, they in turn will become vision-casters who begin to model disciple-making for all the church to see. This represents an ‘ah ha’ or eureka moment when church members begin to understand that you cannot take discipleship out of the center of the mission of the church. Why? Because according to our Lord, disciple-making is the heartbeat, sum, and substance of ministry.

• Discipleship is identity: As a Christ-follower, a believer is identified with his Master— disciples are who we are, and disciple-making is what we do. For, our commitment to Christ and His Great Commission is inseparable from who we are, what we do, how Christ is formed in us, and how we accomplish His mission. This ‘ah ha’ moment creates a mind shift in which brightly illuminates God’s purpose for our lives (Rom 8:28-30). For, the gospel’s intent is not only to bring us to God, it is to make us like Jesus, and that can only happen in a timely manner if we have shepherds, mentors, and disciple-makers who will teach us to observe what Christ Himself has commanded (Mt 28:20).

• Comment on the following reasons why disciple-making is indispensable to healthy Christianity: 1) When Christ’s last command is our first priority, we are demonstrating allegiance to Him as our King (Mt 28:18-20). 2) Living as Christ’s disciple and making disciples is how we follow Christ (Lu 9:23-26). 3) By following Christ’s pattern in disciple-making, churches become healthy, caring communities that demonstrate His virtues (Jn 17:20-23; Eph 4:12-16). 4) Through disciple-making, believers experience the privilege of growing the next generation of true worshippers (Jn 4:23-24; Rom 12:1-2). 5) Disciple-making is how the church is equipped for ministry, and how her members are mobilized to reach a lost and dying world (Mt 28:18-20; Eph 4:12-16). 6) Disciple-making is how each member is brought to maturity and presented complete so that Christ might be preeminent among His brethren (Rom 8:28-30; Col 1:18-29).

• Discipleship is about teaming up with other people who are ‘all in’, inviting the whole body of Christ to be what God intended them to be.
• Comment on the following: Postmodernism has radically affected our lives and relationships with its implied message of: “you stay in your lane and I will stay in mine.” No, the gospel involves spiritual commitments which touch every area of life—your motives, hopes, fears, dreams, aspirations, your approach to every relationship. The gospel is to be continually proclaimed.

• ‘Christopher’ of Zambia, Africa teaches discipleship in a hands-on manner. He might start with 16 men. Maybe 10 of those 16 will immediately pass on what they have learned—the other 6 who didn’t are not invited back. Follow up and accountability are indispensable to disciple-making. Truth transmission and its accompanying obedience to the Word require monitoring in personal soul care.
• Discipleship is launched by persistent vision-casting. But vision has a ‘short shelf life’— you won’t eat it for breakfast 365 days a year. Every discipler and church leader has to commit to vision-casting every single day.

• Disciple-making is not shoving a brother into a generic mold. The call to consecrate one’s entire life as a Christ-follower is an invitation to bring whatever fire burns within you to the cause of the gospel.
• You, as a Christ-follower are in the big story of God—as it unfolds, you will be eternally glad you leaned into that story, leaning in against your fears and hesitations.
• In churches it is common to call men to help perpetuate the organization, but is rare to call men to make disciples. How did we reach a point where discipleship came to be viewed as elective for Christians? Christ so clearly and fully lays out the terms of discipleship that living the life of a disciple is how we follow Him. A true believer is a Christ-follower who seeks to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in everything—in unconditional surrender to His rightful Lordship. This is what it means to be a true believer. This begs the question, has a believer accepted certain truths, or an actual Christ?

• A disciple is both a learner and a follower. He is called to a life of self-denial. This removes all middle ground and sets forth what a commitment to Christ actually looks like. The narrow way described by Jesus is not ‘the higher spiritual life’ it is the way of life and salvation. Every true believer is a disciple and a disciple-maker who pursues relationships of closeness in order to imitate the godly and be imitated (Luke 6:40). This is what Christ meant when He said a true disciple ‘denies himself’ and ‘loses his life for His sake and for the sake of the gospel’ (Mk 8:35) (Pastor Von).

• We bring doctrine to life when we obey the Great Commission. It is the joining of faith and life. To proactively order your life you will faithfully steward your calling to be a spiritual influencer.

• Much of discipleship is informal, but all of discipleship is intentional. Here are conversation starters that can be fruitful: where are you reading in your Bible? What are you learning? May I share with you what God is working on in me—sins I am learning to overcome? Can I share with you how the gospel gives me all of the resources that I need for obedience (motivation, identity, enablement, hope—2 Cor 5:14-15)?
• Why is it true that if we lose father-led homes, we don’t have the church anymore? Lord use me to silence lies, sanctify lives, spread the words of life.

• Consider the confidence of our Savior, that in His humiliation, in going to the cross, He would lose nothing, but gain everything. The reward for His infinite sacrifice was assured Him by the Father. Are you part of His reward for what He suffered?
• Sickness of the church today: we preach a Jesus without a Kingdom. And as a consequence, people have mistaken grace for passivity—as if we are here to consume. This has generated a false assumption: you can be a Christian, and not a disciple. The church needs people committed to transformation through discipleship.

• The absence of true disciples of Christ is traceable to reigning mindset: there is no controlling INTENT to be that kind of obedient person who lives as Christ’s disciple.

Discipleship is about intention—flowing from the fact that a person has been ravished by the glory of Christ; by the message of the Kingdom. Namely, that the King who reveals the glory of the Godhead to undeserving sinners is the one who is the Great High Priest who laid His life down to redeem the ungodly. The Lord of the cosmos is the sinner’s Savior. Christ’s majesty, preeminence, vastness, and greatness beckon us to sacrifice all for Him and His cause. A disciple of Christ, abides, believes, obeys.

• This is why you cannot merely answer the problem of a lack of discipleship with church programs. only, if by a miracle of God in regeneration, in which you have you seen the glory of God in the face of Christ (beholding the infinite treasure of the King and His Kingdom), will you see that making disciples is the greatest opportunity in life.
• You have heard about the cost of disciple-making. But, have you ever heard about the cost of not making disciples? To not be involved in disciple-making is to lose out on the greatest opportunity in life.

• A disciple is a Christ-learner who is committed to be transformed. That means that he comes to church out of a desire to do God’s will in the presence of his brothers and sisters in Christ. He lives a whole-life gospel in which he is done running his own kingdom and now lives and teaches the gospel of the Kingdom—teaching his brethren to obey all that Christ has commanded (see gospel of the Kingdom in Acts 8, and 26).
• Living as Christ’s disciple means that the life of interaction with Him grows (it is knowing God, John 17:3). We are apprentices under the Master, He works through us, bearing fruit by His Spirit. This is His ‘easy yoke’, what you attempt for Him, you do not do in your own strength. Is God’s grace only for our guilt, or is His grace to transform us into the likeness of our Head through faith and obedience?