On this episode we’re talking all about the state of discipleship with Pastor Rob Dyer. These post-pandemic times are creating fresh opportunities for a shift in church culture, and we believe that’s a good thing.

FULL SHOW NOTES:

• Often, we over-complicate discipleship even with the phrases and terminology churches use around it.
• One challenge we’re facing is the tendency to define discipleship by how people participate in programs like people attending worship services or giving money at church. Jesus wasn’t looking for us to pump people through relationships and count it as a win but instead move toward relationships.
  • BOOK: Future Church – Will Mancini
  • This is a fundamental shift every church needs to work towards.
  • Participation is not discipleship!
• Our culture has made a major turn recently where people are a little more jaded towards a program. Programs are not as attractive as they used to be. What will the church do when that time comes? What is the alternative? Are we prepared for it?
• Some of the problem is that those who work in the church feel pressure to justify their salaries through building programs and creating measurements and goals to try and achieve. Relationships are hard to measure and track and count!
• We have to change the scoreboard in church. Instead of attendance and giving and so on, we must establish a scoreboard that reflects where we want to take the church. Not JUST attendance. What about adult baptisms? Numbers of discipleship leaders? Numbers of small groups launched? There are many options to change the measures. We need goals and things to aim for, but they must be the right things.
  • It’s also important to make sure the goals serve us rather than us serving the goals.
  • Pick goals that will force you to do the things that are healthy and will build the kinds of relationships you’re aiming for.
• One key issue is when we view discipleship as a thing we do or turn on and off rather than a relationship. Sharing the path you’ve taken with someone else so they can walk a similar path.
• One key piece of discipleship is to take time and put frameworks around the ways you think about and navigate life. What are the key paradigms? How do you see the world?
  • Complete these two sentences: The world is _________. My life is _______.
  • How you complete those two sentences says a lot about how you engage the world and scripture and people around you.
  • Give on-ramps and handles for the things you’re talking about.
  • We don’t want to be talking about our faith with academic language or dense theological terms.
• The things that people fall in love with the people, programs, place, or the personality of the speakers or leaders. Long-term, those are not the things that the church can build its future. The next stage is to fully embrace the larger purpose of the Kingdom, rather than emphasizing our specific church or group of people or approach to ministry.
  • We lost the habitual attendees, but we’re seeing a pivot that can help us better align with where we always should have been.
  • People are hungry for authentic, real, vulnerable relationships, not a pastor who seems to have it all together.
• Sustainable Discipleship Co-Lab: kicking off during the month of May.
  • Group of pastors who would like to see their time going to disciple building instead of all the other things that can monopolize our time and attention.
  • Helping each other figure out, “What would it look like to get back some of your time to pour into discipling someone else?”
• Key questions to ask in a discipleship conversation:
  • “What has God been teaching you lately?”
  • “How’s your soul doing?”
  • “When were you closest to Jesus this past week?”
• Email Renee: renee.wilson@ministryarchitects.com
• Contact Brandon: brandoncollins.org – brandon.collins@ministryarchitects.com
• Email Rob: rob.dyer@ministryarchitects.com