How Should We Go About Making Disciples?

Discipleship is a key word, a popular word, and even Biblical (crazy, huh). Jesus never called us to make converts. He started his ministry calling people to follow him and fish for men. He spent 3 years pouring into 12 men, and 11 of them did really well. His last words were to go and make disciples. I want to be the kind of man that makes disciples who makes disciples that make disciples. But how do you do that? Ask 100 godly Christians how they got to where they are, and you'll get 100 different answers. My guess is that few of those answers will involve a Church program. I find it fascinating that there are no real, clear-cut formulas about Christianity in the Bible. We aren't told steps of methods for making disciples. We aren't even told exactly what the full "Gospel" is (1 Corinthians 15 has a simple summary, but other passages show us its much bigger than that). So how do we make disciples? I so easily want to answer that question with a program based on a bunch of doctrine. Yet much of discipleship is relationally oriented. Discipleship doesn't happen enough if we just wait for it to naturally take place. On the other hand, we can't force it. So how do you balance the challenge of organic discipleship verses intentional (maybe even programmed) discipleship? What are the core parts of discipleship (what common denominators would there be in the stories of those 100 Christians you asked about how they got discipled)? What are the key roadblocks? How can we do a better job of making disciples who make disciples?