Use a New Metric of Success: Disciples
It’s easy to forget that included in Christ’s teachings are the commands to fill the earth with Christlikeness and to preach the gospel of the kingdom to every nation. While the church gathers for discipleship, it is also sent into the world to love the world like Christ loved it. We’re called to spread disciples and disciple makers to every nation.
This will require a significant change in the mindset of most pastors and congregational members because neither generally expect this much from church members. It’s a substantial upgrade from the norm to expect every member to become a disciple maker. This is about much more than simple service to the church through church programs on the church campus. Instead, this is about one’s complete life, especially when we’re not at church.
This is an excerpt from The Discipleship Gospel (available in eBook and paperback). Get a discount by using code ‘TBP’ at checkout when you order here.
This brings up that sticky question, “Why don’t churches require discipleship for membership?” The reason is because it would be impossible to enforce. Christians function largely on the honor system, kind of like how golfers keep score. Christians keep their own score and call penalties on themselves when they break a rule. Traditionally, we call it confession of sins. Catholics actually do a better job than most here, because they require confession before communion. Even this, though, is based on the honor system I would venture to say that at least a few people have lied to a priest. Raising expectations and appealing to ordinary Christians to answer in full the call of Christ should be normative for those who believe the gospel. But it must be instilled into the basic understanding of what it means to be saved today. The reason, as we have argued throughout The Discipleship Gospel, starts with theology. However, there’s also a practical side to this, as well.
Even after you’re convinced of the discipleship gospel, how do you move forward? As you make plans, it starts with a new metric for success.
The most common metrics for defining success in the church today are buildings, dollars, and seats. Clearly, we need new metrics for success. For example, we should measure success by how many activated disciples inhabit a geographic space, not by how many churches are in that same space. Taking this mindset with you as you exit the holy ground on which your church gathers each Sunday, you’ll know that every disciple is a mobilized, Spirit-filled ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:15-21).
The issue is not how many churches are in the Los Angeles area (where Bill lives), and it’s not about the number of attendees when you combine worship services. The important metric is answering the question, “How many fully activated disciples are living in Los Angeles?” When it comes to fulfilling the Great Commission, this is the metric that matters, the mandate that Jesus gave us two thousand years ago.
Some of us “active types” live, work, and play in virtually every domain of culture. What we may not understand is that while we play in one hundred places, Christ always plays in ten thousand places. In the government (city, state, national), the entertainment business, public schools, courts, universities—we are everywhere. Your plan, then, should be shaped and evaluated by how effective it is at deploying well-trained, Spirit-filled members into all domains of culture. It needs to go beyond reproduction and include multiplication. The difference is simple: reproduction is one person reproducing in another person. Multiplication is when gospel DNA is passed along to that second person, and they, along with the first person, believe that their new life in Christ continues on to be multiple reproductions—leading to several spiritual generations.
This was taken from The Discipleship Gospel by Bill Hull and Ben Sobels. Used by permission of HIM Publications. Use code TBP at checkout for a discount when you place your order here.