Living in a dorm while playing baseball in college was an experience that lives in my memory with a lot of stories. One of those stories was life changing for me. One morning while still asleep a knock came at the door. When I finally realized I wasn't dreaming, I rolled out of that fabulous bed and answered the door. To my surprise, a Navigator was standing there. He introduced himself and told me that he wanted to disciple me. My first thought was, I must still be asleep! The next day he gave me something called 2:7. Little did I know that God would use this resource to profoundly impact my life!

The 2:7 series offers approaches for strengthening your own life in Christ and for helping others move closer to God. The series helped me better understand the significance of Bible study, Scripture memory, ways to meditate on Scripture, group interaction, journaling, explaining the Gospel, telling my salvation experience, and many other useful tools.

The resource is based on Colossians 2:7: “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” The Message puts it this way: “You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.” God used 2:7 in my life as a young adult in ways that are still bearing fruit.

New believer/New Member Follow-up
The 2:7 series is being used significantly in hundreds of churches across the United States, assimilating new believers and new members into their local church. My friend Bill Roberson leads numerous groups of people through the series at Watermark Community Church in the greater Dallas area. He recently sent these photos and comments that I had to share with you.

This morning at Watermark Community Church, a young lady who just graduated from EquippedDisciple2 (2:7, book 2) came up to show me her new tattoo featuring the Bridge Illustration. It’s the real deal, not a temporary wash-off-able. Man, did she inspire me by her no turning back commitment to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some people hand out tracts. Lauren has powered up to the next level – wow!

School’s out! Some people hand out tracts. Lauren is one! See you downstream . . ..

For more information and free downloadable leader’s guides to go along with the series, go to www.2-7series.org. 

Back in the day when I was playing baseball, training was an integral part of daily life. I wanted to run faster, hit further, and throw harder than anyone else, so I practiced regularly.

Regardless of what sport we may follow, our favorite team also has intense training and workout regiments, from spring training to off-season team activities to training camps. Why? Because they want to win games and championships! As fans, we, too, want to see them perform at the highest level. If that doesn’t happen, we sometimes start calling for the heads of the coaches, managers, or athletic directors. Call it passion, craziness, or somewhere in between, fans want to see an environment of winning and excellence around their favorite team.

When it comes to making disciples, why don’t we have higher expectations in our churches to create environments of life-changing transformation? Many churches leave that up to the church staff and portray that as the norm and not the exception. Paul reminds us in the Colossians 1:28-29, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”

I really like the way The Message captures these two verses. Check this out: “We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.” To be mature is basic! That’s the norm, not the exception.

Pastor Jim Putman, a former wrestler and coach, led his staff at Real Life Ministries to build into his congregation of thousands a vision and biblical principle to make and equip disciples who go on to make disciples. This environment of training is a major part of what they do within their church, along with offering training opportunities to other pastors and church leaders.

Training isn't a bad word, and it is certainly not dead. Jim captured this championship strategy for doing ministry together in Real Life Discipleship and Real Life Discipleship Training Manual. Take a look at these on our web site. You will be hearing a lot more from me in days to come about training, training opportunities, locations, links, and other ways that you can connect, get out of the stands, off the sidelines, and into the game. I want to be basic!

See you downstream . . .

“Is there any way I can find an answer to my personal crises?”

“What do I do about my relationships?”

“Is God real? Can I feel Him?”

Students are asking these types of questions, but the responses they’re hearing from their leaders and churches aren’t very compelling. So these students are leaving the church in search of better answers from culture and society.

Everybody has questions about God and the Bible. But the First Book Challenge is for students who have chosen not to bow down to the prevailing trends of society or its relentless pursuit of materialism. It’s for those who instead strive to embrace God’s standard of absolute truth.

First Book Challenge is one of those projects that I am extremely proud of and honored to be identified with. Authors Dave Edwards and John Stamper have taken the profound truth of Scripture and created a simple way for students to connect, reflect, and apply it to life’s questions.

Here’s an example of a short answer to a tough question regarding the Bible:

The Bible Is Not Scientifically Accurate, Is It?

“The Bible is not a book of science. That’s the short answer. But the Bible is not against science. To know how the world works is as much a gift as Creation itself. Judging the Bible based on science misses the point of Scripture. The Bible is meant to expand our capacity to be astonished by the presence of God. Check out Psalm 19. It gives one of the greatest descriptions of what the Creation says about God. This passage uses both poetry and science to talk about the majesty of God. Neither the Bible nor science could ever box God in. We find God when we look at science or read the Bible.”

Jump in . . . see you downstream

While it is helpful to know what a mature disciple looks and acts like, don’t fall into the trap of comparing levels of spiritual maturity. Many churches in an effort to get people connected to their group system have good and intentional processes to make this happen. However, in some cases these processes do little more than move individuals through content, assessments, and placement into a role or position. Assimilating someone into a position or through a process does not mean an individual has become a disciple.

Another caution: Don’t mistake Bible knowledge, years of church attendance, physical age, or education for spiritual maturity. For the most part, physical maturity is easy to identify. Not so with a person’s spiritual maturity. Some spiritually immature people have been in church for a number of years. And some spiritually mature disciples have been Christians for only a few years.

The apostle Paul almost always used the language of family when he wrote about discipleship. He was a spiritual parent to so many, and when he wrote to them in his letters, he addressed them as his children in the faith. This is evident in 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12, 1 Timothy 1:1-2, and Philemon 1:8-11.

These verses clearly show Paul as a disciple maker, intentionally investing in people around him. Who has God brought around you? Who are those people that you might be able to encourage, mentor, and be a spiritual parent?

See you downstream . . .

I get the privilege of interacting with so many of you each week via email, phone, social media, and even face-to-face. Our dialogue continues to focus around disciple making in the local church, creating environments for disciple making to succeed, and leading change that supports this strategy. Pastor Jim Putman and his church, Real Life Ministries, in Post Falls, Idaho, near Spokane, Washington, continue to have the best day-to-day, boots-on-the-ground, disciple-making plan for a local church that I know of anywhere. This model is biblically based, reproducible, and transferable to any church anywhere. 

I’m often asked how a church starts this process and who implements the strategy, so I thought it would be good to share some insights from someone who is a practitioner on the journey of implementation.
Eddie Mosley is the pastor of group life at LifePoint Church in Smyrna, Tennessee. He’s allowed me to share a recent post from his blog that describes where they are as a church in the process. Twenty-five staff members are currently taking 125 people through Jim Putman’s Real Life Discipleship Training Manual.


To help you do the same, here are five easy steps to follow:

1. Identify: Prayerfully identify five people God is leading you to disciple (or help become more like Christ tomorrow than they are today.) You know God is also working in their lives to prepare them, so ask Him whom you are supposed to be walking with.

2. Enlist: Talk with each person individually and invite him or her to be part of your group.  Clearly explain what is expected. When I asked men to join my group, I also explained that this was a weekly meeting for an hour, daily reading from the Bible and manual, and an expectation that they would repeat this process with five other people in the next six months. A couple of them were very hesitant to respond, which led me to allow them to not participate. The five I am meeting with (two car salesmen, one police officer, one shoe salesman, and one rock star) immediately said, “Yes, count me in,” which told me they felt the need to be committed.

3. Meet: Spend the next __ weeks (you select the number) meeting, discussing, challenging, praying, learning, reading, growing, etc., together. Our group meets for one hour a week, at the same time and at the same location. However, we also allow God to continue the meeting or conversation as long and as often as He chooses.

4. Grow: Listen as your group shares what God is doing in their lives and share what He is doing in your life. Over the course of your meetings, make note of issues, prayer requests, challenges, fears, etc. Then watch (and share) what God is doing in and through these stories. Point out the growth you are witnessing as a celebration of what God is doing.

Did I mention “listen”? This is very important when helping people grow as disciples. It’s not all about bestowing knowledge to them, but about hearing how God is growing them. In The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship Dallas Willard gives a wonderful definition of a disciple: “A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice—a practitioner, even if only a beginner. … Disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but also apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth.”

5. Challenge: Each week I challenge our group to watch for God at work and to join Him. Each week I also explain how members will be asked to lead five people through this material in the next six months. We aren’t meeting/walking through this growth for ourselves, but as Luke 6 shows us, for those around us. That is what it means to be a true disciple, when we use our energy, resources, and life to make disciples.

Equipping disciples who make disciples is the goal. See you downstream . . .

A pastor said to me last week that he believed it was easier to get a group of people from his church to go abroad for a mission project than it was to get them to cross the street to do the same.

The point of the conversation wasn’t about whether one place or people group is more deserving than another; it centered on this important question: Has America successfully removed God from our culture? Have we turned away from God and the founding principles of our nation?

August 26 of this year could be a significant date in the life of your family, your church, and our nation. Harvest America is a live event from Southern California that will be seen across the entire United States. Please invest a moment of your time to watch this video. It just may be four minutes that helps change someone’s life.

Think about it. How awesome would it be for five million people coming together in churches and venues across America? One day, one church, one message . . .

 Jesus gave us the biblical imperative to go and make disciples. Paul reminded the in church in Colossae that we must teach everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. In order that none be deceived by persuasive arguments and stay strong in their faith. I believe that Jesus was saying in your everyday walking around life, as you are going . . . make disciples. Discipleship is the core mission behind everything relating to the church.
Colossians 2:7 reminds us to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Becoming a disciple making church is an intentional process. It takes intentional leadership creates alignment, relational environments, and understanding of a biblical disciple-making process.

Churches that have a focus or desire to make disciples generally fall into two categories; churches of disciples-making and church with disciple-making groups. There is a difference.
Churches of disciple-making think about corporate worship, groups, children’s ministry, and youth ministry differently. Every group is a disciple-making group. All leaders, both clergy and lay, are passionate about transformation and are in fact disciple-makers.

Churches with disciple-making groups generally have many programs… a discipleship group is one option among other options. Groups of many kinds and various opportunities are available to church attenders. There seems to be fewer people with a passion for disciple-making striving to be disciple-makers in a program driven environment.

We will certainly continue the conversation for many weeks to come. This is the subject church ministry leaders want to talk about everywhere I go. And that certainly seems appropriate given the state of the local church as it relates to disciple-making. How do we assist churches and church leaders make a transition from an attractional model or a missional model of church, to a relational disciple-making model while still leveraging the best of attractional and missional? Let’s keep talking about it. What’s your take? See you downstream. . . . .

First of all, I want to thank each of you that are reading and visiting this blog. Many of you have sent emails or called me because you’ve wanted to talk further about the great need for discipleship in the local church and a reproducible discipling process that helps bring about life transformation. Obviously, there isn’t enough space in this blog to go as deep or into as much detail as needed, but we can begin to think about those biblical principles and practices that help create an environment of life transformation and spiritual growth.

One of the books I’m reading right now is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. It targets leaders by addressing the subject of personal or organizational inspiration. Any person or organization can explain what they do; some can explain how they are different or better; but very few can clearly articulate why. Why is not about revenue, profit, or winning—those are the results. Why is the thing that inspires us and inspires those around us.

So, why do we care about discipleship? The biblical missional mandate is crystal clear: Because Jesus said that as we are going, make disciples:

Over the next few weeks, I want to address the question of what Discipleship Inside Out looks like in the local church, and I want to frame it around why, what, and how. Jesus gave us the perfect model. He illustrated why, what, and how it’s possible and practical to bring first-century discipleship to the twenty-first century church with relevance and excellence.

The need has never been greater and the opportunity is wide open. There is a generation that wants to know. Paul reminds us in Colossians again of the WHY—so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

See you downstream . . .

“What does Discipleship Inside Out look like in a believer’s life?”

I get asked this question almost every day. Discipleship Inside Out is the work of God’s indwelling spirit changing a believer into the likeness of Christ through a new identity and a relationship of love, trust, and obedience that glorifies God.

Dallas Willard in The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship gives a wonderful definition of a disciple: “A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice—a practitioner, even if only a beginner. … Disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth.”

Discipleship for the individual believer is a lifelong journey with Jesus. For the church, it is creating an environmental process for disciples to be made, who then make other disciples. This environment has to be intentional, just as Jesus was intentional as He modeled disciplemaking in one-on-one relationship and small groups.

Sadly, many churches today have compromised a biblical model to suggest that adequate disciplemaking can be done in large groups or even crowds. While that element of spiritual disciplines (corporate worship, for example) is needed, these large gatherings do not and cannot take the place of meaningful and significant relationships that are formed in small groups.

Churches are doing a pretty good job of getting people in the door and quenching some degree of a spiritual thirst, but they have done a less-than-adequate job actually nurturing and growing these folks in the faith. The dropout trend in churches today is troubling; young adults and older adults alike are leaving at an alarming rate.

I’m not a researcher by trade, but I contend that one of the biggest issues in the Christian church is that disciplemaking isn’t in a healthy place. Over the last 25 years in particular, disciplemaking church practices have changed drastically with less time and fewer resources committed to this biblical mandate. This has been particularly evident during the “worship wars” era.

I have the privilege of talking with pastors and church staffs weekly, and the issue of disciplemaking is a constant concern and need. And they have a good reason to be worried. Consider for a minute that some research shows that more evangelicals affirm the idea of there being more than one way to get to heaven than they did 15 or 20 years ago. How could that be? I believe it is the result of a lack of disciplemaking.

Churches want to discover ways to leverage the Sunday morning experience, to connect people to small groups and discipling relationships, to understand their identity in Christ, and to find their place of missional service in their communities and beyond. To address these trends, the NavPress Church Direct team is serious about providing support, training, mentoring, consulting, and teaching for leaders who are ready to change the scorecard and focus on a different set of expectations and results.

With God’s grace and discerning leadership, we can address these discipleship needs as we encourage, equip, and engage the future together. Our heritage is rich. Our vision is strong. You’ve heard me say it before: Let’s start a discipleship revolution! God is answering our prayers. It has started! I read this quote this morning: “In a revolutionary era of surprise and innovation, you need to learn to think and act like a revolutionary!”

See you downstream. . .

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine who is an entrepreneur, the owner of multiple businesses, an outdoorsman, a sports enthusiast, a husband and father, and most of all, a brother in Christ who loves Jesus and wants to make Him known to others. This man’s missional focus is an amazing encouragement to me and to those that know him. I had the opportunity to sit down and ask Rickey Minton some questions about one of his missional outposts, the men’s prison in Pikeville, TN.

Q. How do you share hope with the men of the prison ministry you are involved in?

I had an idea to take my passion of power lifting into the prison ministry that I have been involved with now for a few years. I had a thought that if the prison administration would allow me to go into the weight rooms and just workout with the prisoners, I could develop some relationships that could move them toward a Bible study or worship time I do at the prison. This opportunity was afforded to me, and God went to work.

Q. What happened next?

One evening while working out with the prisoners, a young man who was obviously a little outside the norm, even for maximum-security prisoners, approached me as I was bench pressing. He started asking questions and filling me in on the last several years of his life. He was associated with one of the many gangs that are present in our culture today and was even a high-ranking member.

He had a shaved head, tattoos from head to toe, and his eyes were almost glowing blue (I later found out that he had injected some color into his eyes to get this effect). He had a powerful physique and was generally fearsome looking. After listening to his story, I began to tell God’s story and how forgiveness and restoration was possible through a relationship with Jesus. He prayed and asked Jesus to live in his heart, asked for forgiveness for his sins, and then asked me for a Bible.

Q. Do inmates frequently ask you for a Bible?

Yes.

Q. What Bible have you found to work well in that kind of environment?

I have found The Message Bible to be a fantastic tool for this ministry. The reading level and the fact that it’s written in American English make Scripture easier to understand. So, I gave him a copy. Soon after that I was having regular conversations with him about the Bible and many of the stories he was discovering within the pages. He soon made the decision to get out of the gang. He shared with me that he had never read the Bible and understood it the way he does when he reads The Message.

Q. So do you think The Message Bible makes a significant difference when trying to get someone with little or no exposure to read God’s Word?

He said, “It makes the Scriptures more clear.” Just two weeks ago I preached a Sunday service, with about 70 or so in attendance, and this young man was present. It was a Holy Spirit-filled service and several men came forward, and prayer filled the room. After the service this young man wanted to talk with me, and these were his words: “God is my life now, and I have read the entire Message Bible that you gave me. After I read it I sent it to my wife on the outside. She read it and was saved by the grace of Jesus. I am getting out in four months and my wife and I want to go into the mission field to serve God. Can you help me with that?”

My response? “Praise Jesus, and yes, I can.”

Q. What would you say to others out there who are looking for ministry tools like The Message?

This is one of many stories that I have about The Message. I have encountered people who are resistant to any text other than the King James Version, and I understand and respect that. But I believe that God wants me to use whatever tools are at my disposal to win souls to His Kingdom. The Message has been one of those tools that have worked in my ministry.

When Jesus walked the earth, He used fish, boats, grapevines, prostitutes, thieves, tax collectors, and many other methods to win souls to the Lord, and I believe He expects us to do the same. Use the tools that God has given you. He is definitely changing lives with The Message Bible. I praise God that someone was far thinking and Spirit led to pen this text.