Would the “Real Disciple” Please Stand Up? By Jess Bousa, guest writer

Today I have invited my friend Jess Bousa to write a blog for Simple Discipleship. You will see that he is as passionate about discipleship as I am. He has written a new book that will be a great resource to grow disciples. If your internal fire for your own spiritual growth is burning low, then I recommend The Discipleship Dare to help rekindle the flame. Perhaps you have heard of The Love Dare that challenged many couples to improve their marriages. Jess did not write that book, but he did write The Discipleship Dare that challenges Christians to develop and flex their spiritual disciple muscles. BTW, this would be a great resource to support your startup of Simple Discipleship.

By Jess Bousa (Guest Blogger), author of The Discipleship Dare: Living Dangerously for God

The American Church is in the middle of a discipleship crisis. In Dallas Willard’s book, The Great Omission, he concludes that the Church is full of undiscipled disciples. Instead of making disciples, we have made converts and instead of baptizing them into the Trinitarian community, we have baptized them into church membership. When the discipleship process is reduced down to converts and church membership, it often takes the real challenge out of following Jesus through our everyday lives. Without the challenge to be pushed to the Biblical standard of discipleship, the world will be full of unChristian Christians, which is the general consensus of outsiders to the Christian faith the Barna Group discovered in their extensive research project reported in the book, UnChristian.

Marines are challenged to thrive not only survive at all times no matter the costs. Every year approximately 38,000 Marines receive their basic training, which is far more challenging than any other branch of the military. Most Marines testify that going through the twelve weeks of boot camp to gain entrance into the Marines is the most challenging thing they ever had to do in their lives. There is no such thing as an unMarine Marine. If the Marines were filled with such a person, they would not be known as being the most elite armed forces in the Military. Their reputation is the result of their training process. Without a training process that challenges every area of life, they would not perform the tasks necessary.

The process determines the product. What if the process of training disciples in the local church has been sidetracked as a result of mass producing discipleship for the crowds? What if discipleship starts and ends with the personal development of a few? Without a tool that builds a bridge from the preaching and teaching in the local church to the real life of a disciple through the week, “real disciples” will continue to be sidelined.

To combat the discipleship crisis in the American Church, I created an experience called: The Discipleship Dare. It is a journey that lasts for 40 days. It can be used alone or in the context of a group. I designed it to jumpstart the lifestyle of a new disciple or revive the lifestyle of a veteran disciple. It can be used as a companion guide for a sermons series, small groups or Sunday School classes. What if the biggest risk in life is not taking any risks for discipleship? I dare you to experience the 40 day Discipleship Dare challenge and dare others to do the same!

For Free Resources & To Purchase, The Discipleship Dare,

Please Visit @ www.TheDiscipleshipDare.com/ 

 

Simple Discipleship 2009

BTW, The book Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century is available for order at http://www.simplediscipleship.com on the store page. The book will be released by Church Smart Resources soon.

 

#11 The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: What is our leadership development process?

 

Simple Discipleship Coaching Model

World famous author and Christian leader John Maxwell has well said, “Everything rises or falls on leadership.” This is one reason it is so important for pastors and church leaders to actually lead instead of simply manage. The temptation for pastors is to put the church on “automatic” and focus on preaching and teaching, and this is a mistake that you and your church cannot afford. Believe me…I learned this the hard way. Pastors and leaders in smaller churches under 300 feel great pressure as the church may not be large enough to pay a staff member to focus on administrative issues. On the other hand, leaders of large churches express many of the same concerns of leaders in smaller churches—the difference is the problems are the same but larger. Have you ever cleaned or varnished a floor and found yourself in a corner? This describes the current state of the church in a number of ways but especially in regard to discipleship and leadership development. Developing future church leaders does not just happen automatically. What is your leadership development process?

 From a business perspective John McGuire and Gary Rhodes identify what I believe to be part of the problem that church leaders have copied. In their book Transforming Your Leadership Culture they suggest that the leadership model of many organizations today are based on a mid twentieth century military model that is hierarchical and called a “command and control” model. Many church leaders were educated and worked in the secular business culture using this model often before seminary training and a church career. The “command and control” model is still used in churches by pastors, administrators, deacons, elders, and boards. This model of leadership exhibits several big problems such as control instead of empowerment, innovation, and collaboration. Even in denominations that have a congregational polity, churches seemingly receive new programs from the top, i.e. national, state, or local denominational agencies instead of innovating from within the local church.

Some churches have broken away from the “command and control” model and use a more independent ’superstar” model. What I mean by this is that some churches have become dependent upon the leadership of a big name well known effective leader to carry the leadership load. The problem with the “superstar” model comes when the time does come for succession and installation of a new “superstar.”

 

There is a third model that is more consistent with Scripture and the servant leadership concept that Jesus Christ taught that I will call the “coaching collaboration empowerment” model. The focus here is not on control or independence but instead is on interdependence. This becomes a leadership development process that seeks to produce leaders who possess servant-leadership qualities of character, integrity, servanthood, and humility that is grounded in intrinsic values of the Christian faith. It is a process in which leaders mentor/coach potential leaders in a coactive relationship before the potential leader in ordained or installed. Ken Blanchard suggests such a leadership development process in his excellent book Lead Like Jesus in which he divides the leadership development model into four realms—heart, head, hands, and habits. I have further developed this model into what I call the Simple Discipleship Leadership Coaching Model where in each of the four realms the potential leader is nurtured and observed as related to his or her relationships. The four relational vitality realms are: 1) personal leadership, 2) one-on-one leadership, 3) team leadership, and 4) community leadership.

The purpose of this process is to equip, empower, and encourage new and innovative leadership that is grounded in the faith but without using a command and control model. It also reduces the problems of choosing an untrained and untested leader, and choosing leaders by popularity. The desire is to choose leaders who are “filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” New qualified leaders like this should not be elected, selected, or voted in to a church leadership role. They are developed, coached, and observed as they served effectively before they are ordained or installed. The drawback to this kind of leadership development process is time and effort. Remember that Jesus Christ spent three years of one-on-one and one-to-few hands on coactive coaching with the apostles. Look at the results!

 

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

BTW: The book Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century is available for order at http:www.simplediscipleship.com on the store page. The book will be released by ChurchSmart Resources soon.

The Top 10 SIMPLE DISCIPLESHIP Weblog Articles- 2008/09

Simple Discipleship 2009

I have been writing articles for this blog site for just over a year and I am pleased and surprised at the response. There are 224 readers of this blog on a regular basis. I know that does not sound like a huge success, but it is exciting for me. I have endeavored to offer articles that do not simply provide information about my book and process called Simple Discipleship, but I desire to write articles that are on the crest of the wave as related to leadership, coaching, discipleship, church organizational development, church management, and organizational change. I realize my next article is overdue in the series “The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church” but I have been extremely busy getting ready for the release of the book and big launch of the Simple Discipleship ministry. In the meantime I thought it might be good to offer the top 10 blog titles from this last year, as many readers came on board more recently. Here are the top 10 for the past 12 months.I will be republishing these in the next few days.

1. The ten articles consist of a variety of the subjects listed previously with one exception: the top article “Why Don’t Smart People Get Jesus?” was written by a guest blogger and was her thoughts on a sermon. Interestingly, many misunderstand the message of the article. It is not saying that Christians are not smart or that people should not use their knowledge and reasoning as related to religion. It is only an observation that sometimes we allow our own stereotypes, thinking, and intelligence get in the way of new knowledge, perspective, and perhaps enlightenment. For many who promoted and read the article, their presupposition was to begin and end with their own point of view—namely that God does not exist. They walked into the trap of their own limited view and thus confirmed Rachel’s point. The award for the most popular article in the last 12 months on this weblog goes to Rachel Fox! Here is the link to that article: http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/why-don%E2%80%99t-smart-people-get-jesus-by-guest-writer-rachel-fox/
2. The second most popular article deals with one of my passions—that of personal, executive, and life coaching. Many churches could and should start a Christian coaching ministry as a spiritual formation ministry as compared to counseling. Coaching works and it is not what many think it is. I was watching a movie on TBS recently and during the commercial breaks there was a segment of a life-coaching vignette with a shallow-minded life coach talking with her client about some pretty silly things. The coaching I have done is respectfully confrontive and constructive to significant issues. Some of this article is a part of my new book to be released in October 2009. Here is the link for the second most popular article: http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/start-a-christian-coaching-ministry/

3. The past 12 months has seen upheavals in the economy and political realms. I wrote about some of these things and offered some thoughts on their impact on the churches. My predictions have proved accurate that many churches were not ready for the Great Recession and are still suffering. Also, many churches are losing their opportunities for relevant ministry an to help hurting people in new ways. The reaction of churches has been to scale-back ministries, terminate ministers, and cut budgets. Of course when churches cut budgets, it is usually ministries that could revitalize the church—a big catch 22. http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/economic-crisis-is-the-church-ready/
4. An article that continues to get significant attention is about the decline in the Southern Baptist Convention churches. This has been hotly debated in the last few months. The response of the leadership seems to be: “There is nothing wrong. We just need more evangelism.” Read http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/baptist-church-decline-balance-both-sides-of-the-great-commission/

5. For several years I have had the opportunity to attend the Catalyst Conference sponsored by Andy Stanley’s church. There are usually over 12,000 people there soaking up the wisdom. Last year Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great spoke. I offered some insights: http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/good-to-great-insights-from-jim-collins-catalyst-2008/
6. Last year I read a business book titled Ten Commandments for Business Failure and it sparked my writer’s imagination. I decided to write a series of similar articles from the perspective of the church. It was a very successful series. Many of you read the primary or lead article, but you may find the other articles in the series interesting. http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/ten-commandments-for-church-failure/

7. At number 7 for the year was an article that built on #4 listed above and expounded on the Southern Baptist Convention resolution calling for a Great Commission Resurgence. This article is rising to the top fast since I wrote it in June 2009 and it is already up to #7 of 60. I affirm the GCR, but again, calling for more evangelism in churches that have many converts instead of disciples is like asking 3^rd graders to run for elective office in the U.S. Senate (although they might do a better job—maybe that analogy does not work—but I think you get my point).  Many Christians in the churches are not sure-footed in their faith enough to do more evangelism, and that fact is deeply troubling in light of the story of the Samaritan woman in The Gospel of John chapter four. We must overcome a major hurdle—many Christians in the pews, chairs, or bleachers think it is the pastor and staff’s job to do outreach, mission, ministry, and evangelism. Unless the churches address the problem of making disciples instead of converts, the GCR will soon be a forgotten initiative. :<( http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/the-hole-in-the-great-commission-resurgence/

8. At #8 is another coaching article and some of these concepts are in my book Simple Discipleship. The article differentiates the three concepts of mentoring, counseling, and coaching. There are also some insights into leadership coaching. http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/the-power-of-coaching/

9. At #9 there is another article calling for not just a change in how churches do discipleship, but a revolution! Considering that six of the top ten articles deal specifically with changing how churches should do discipleship suggests there may be a lot of agreement out there. Let’s get the discipleship revolution started. http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/we-need-a-discipleship-revolution/

10. Number 10 is at the heart of Simple Discipleship as it presents the key diagnostic questions again regarding effective disciple-making. Is your church using a process? Most do not—even the ones that are growing. They are sort of in the sweet spot of their life cycle. Maintaining a disciple-making process will lengthen the life-cycle and even begin a new S-curve in the life of the church. Read more: http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/the-twelve-most-important-questions-you-will-ever-ask-about-your-church-6-what-process-does-your-church-use-to-make-disciples/

I hope you enjoy reading through some of these articles that you may have missed. As soon as my book releases, I should be able to get back to providing new articles on leadership, discipleship, and coaching.

SD Blessings,

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

#10 The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: What is Our Process for Resolving Conflict?

Leadership

When I posted the introduction article to this series, I titled #10 as “What is our process for managing conflict?” I have updated this article to use the word “resolving” instead of “managing.” Virtually every organization, church or not, manages conflict in one way or another whether it is ignored, confronted, or resolved, each is a way of managing conflict. Resolving conflict is more difficult than managing it, but resolution provides a seedbed for renewed energy and creativity for an organization. The reader should note that I am painting the issue with a broad brush approach as each conflict will have its own specific issues that cannot be addressed herein.

Jesus Christ gave the Christians and the church a reconciliation process that many appear to neglect:

Matthew 18:15-17 (NKJV) ¹⁵ “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
¹⁷ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

The reconciliation process flows in the following manner:

1. The first step of resolution is to have a one-to-one meeting of the offended parties with no outside parties involved. The original problem is often compounded when one or both parties talk to others about the incident, which tends to plant further seeds of discord. When people not involved in the original incident are “brought in” to the situation, they should politely encourage the offended party to meet one-to-one with the other person involved and not discuss it further with others. Triangulation must be avoided and discouraged.
   
2. If the one-to-one meeting fails to resolve the conflict then it is time to have a group session such as an intervention, but all parties must avoid escalating the conflict. The purpose is not to “gang up” on one person, but to seek unity, counsel, and provide accountability through the reconciliation. The hope is that all relationships are restored and even made stronger in love for one another.
   
3. The third step is often called “excommunication” and appears drastic. The point is that the faith community makes an attempt to encourage all parties to reconcile. If one or both refuse reconciliation efforts then fellowship is withdrawn with the hope that the loss of the loving association with the faith community along with conviction of God and conscience, the individual will ultimately seek reconciliation with the other offended party as well as the faith community and be fully restored.
   

The process does work and many Christians and churches have used it for generations, but many churches abandoned this biblical model for reconciliation during the 20^th century. Again, it seems we have become too smart to follow the simple instructions of the Bible.

Leaders should educate their church in the biblical reconciliation process before conflict erupts. This establishes it as the process so there are no surprises. Leaders must model the process in their own lives if they expect the church to adhere to it also.

Predictable Times of Conflict

In the book Mastering Conflict and Controversy Speed Leas identifies the ten most predictable times of conflict. Some of these may be surprising to many leaders:

1. Easter- at busy and stressful time in many churches.
   
2. Stewardship or fundraising campaigns and budget time.
   
3. Addition of new staff.
   
4. Change in leadership style.
   
5. The pastor’s vacation.
   
6. Changes in the pastor’s family.
   
7. Introduction of baby boomers into the church- I think this is reflective of a transition of power from one generation to the next which always creates conflict.
   
8. The completion of a new building.
   
9. Significant loss of membership- usually a result of the “blame game.”
   
10. Significant increase in membership.
    

How People Respond to Conflict

Ken Sande in his book, The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict, has provided a useful process for conflict resolution which harnesses the biblical principles outlined above. A reading of his work will help leaders recognize how people respond to conflict. For instance, the conciliatory behavior includes 1) overlooking the offense, 2) discussion, 3) negotiation, 4) mediation, 5) arbitration, and 6) Church discipline. Peace Fakers resort to 1) denial, 2) flight, or 3) suicide. Peace Breakers resort to 1) litigation, 2) assault, or 3) murder. Sande’s model illustrates a slippery slope and how the failure of any or all parties to approach reconciliation properly can lead to drastic consequences.

Close the Side Doors

Church leaders often hear discussions about “closing the back door” of the church. It is simply a way of describing the number of people who leave the church for a variety of routine reasons. Churches may “close the backdoor” by better assimilation, connecting people to small groups, accentuating loving relationships, and directly helping people grow spiritually. However, leaders need to “close the side doors.” Theaters and churches have side doors that become emergency exits during a crisis. When a church experiences conflict many people will begin to look for the “side doors” through which they leave the church. A biblical process of reconciliation that is activated immediately will help close the side doors. Any conflict leaves walking wounded in the church and the leaders must bring healing to the masses quickly or risk leaving the side doors open.

We live in a culture that seems to thrive on conflict, and the church has begun to reflect the culture in this regard. How we handle conflict is a direct indicator of the health of a church or individual Christian.

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

#9 The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: What Is Our Legacy?

 

Leadership

I look forward to the Tour de France every summer and have enjoyed following the cycling career and life of Lance Armstrong. He is never satisfied with his past performances, but is always looking ahead to do better. He sees his main competitor as himself rather than other cyclers. He has an amazing story of how he recovered from cancer and has gone on to win the Tour several times since. I wish churches and Christians were as diligent in training and running to win the Christian race.

I also wish people in the churches would ask the question at hand, “What is our legacy?” However, I offer a suggestion. Ask people in your church’s surrounding community about the legacy of your church whether they attend there or not and whether they are Christians or not. You might be painfully surprised as some will have never heard of or seen the church even though they pass by it daily. But it will also provide an essential insight into the legacy of the church. Long-time church members may be able to recount stories of great ministry achievements of the past, but younger members and people in the community may have no recollection of such a legacy. This is why our legacy is never finished during the earthly life of a person or church, and it is why accomplishments in recent years are for more important than those of years gone by.

Many are of the mistaken believe that legacy is defined by one’s greatest accomplishments, but that is not always true. In fact, legacy is as much about sustained growing character as much as it is about historical achievements. Jesus Christ challenged us in John 13:35 to let our intense love for one another to be a legacy that would attract others. But to become a part of our legacy, our love for others must be more than a few outreach programs, or caring events for the community around the church. Our love legacy must be a sustained growing identity of the church. One way to get to the heart of your church’s legacy is this question: “If our church disappeared tomorrow, would we be missed and for what would we be missed?” Indeed, would anybody other than the attending Christians even notice?

As we run the race of the Christian life, “Run to Win!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Too many Christians seem to think they have served enough, so they will “retire” and wait for their last move—to the cemetery. Ironically, a new movement of civic agencies (Americorps and ACORN) have emerged that are moving in to the vacuum left as Christians and their churches are seemingly retreating into their sanctuaries. The new agencies are politically connected, well funded, and they are recruiting volunteers to do good works in the communities (http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/volunteerism-and-civic-engagement-in-the-post-911-world/) . Where is the church? I think this is what is meant by the church being missional.

Elder generations need to do three things well: 1) mentor the younger generations but allow them to do biblical ministry their way, 2) pass the baton–many senior adults just will not let go unless the younger people do it the way we’ve always done it. When the younger leaders make the inevitable mistakes, the senior take back over, and 3) senior adults need to keep serving the younger leaders after they pass on the baton of responsibility instead of retiring.  There is much to do before Jesus Christ returns. Be a legacy builder.
SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

The Hole in the Great Commission Resurgence

On its face, I support the Great Commission Resurgence movement by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Before I discuss the shortcoming or the “hole” in the GCR I must give proper credit and accolades to the Christian leaders who have authored the GCR and had the leadership courage to bring it to the forefront at the annual meeting in Louisville, KY. Dr. Daniel Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary may be the original author of the GCR and is among its primary spokesmen. He did a wonderful job of casting the vision for it at the SBC annual meeting, and he has sought to define the GCR in print (Axioms for a Great Commission Resurgence, Wake Forest: SBTS, 2009). In the cited booklet, Dr. Akin presents twelve axioms for the GCR listed below:

1. We must commit ourselves to the total and absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of our lives. (Col. 3:16-17; 23-24)
   
2. We must be gospel centered in all our endeavors for the glory of God. (Rom. 1:16)
   
3. We must take our stand on the firm foundation of the inerrant and infallible Word of God affirming it’s sufficiency in all matters. (Matt. 5:17-18; John 10:35; 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
   
4. We must devote ourselves to a radical pursuit of the Great Commission in the context of obeying the Great Commandments. (Matt. 28:16-20; 22:37-40)
   
5. We must affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a healthy and sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel, refusing to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract us from our Lord’s Commission. (1 Tim. 6:3-4)
   
6. We must dedicate ourselves to a passionate pursuit of the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus across our nation and to all nations answering the call to go, disciple, baptize, and teach all that the Lord commanded. (Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:5; 15:20)
   
7. We must covenant to build gospel saturated homes that see children as a gift from God and as our first and primary mission field. (Deut. 6:1-9; Psalm 127; 128; Eph. 6:4)
   
8. We must recognize the need to rethink our Convention structure and identity so that we maximize our energy and resources for the fulfilling of the Great Commission. (1 Cor. 10:31)
   
9. We must see the necessity for pastors to be faithful Bible preachers who teach us both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures. (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
   
10. We must encourage pastors to see themselves as the head of a gospel missions agency who will lead the way in calling out the called for international assignments but also equip and train all their people to see themselves as missionaries for Jesus regardless of where they live. (Eph. 4:11-16)
    
11. We must pledge ourselves to a renewed cooperation that is gospel centered and built around a biblical and theological core and not methodological consensus or agreement. (Phil. 2:1-5; 4:2-9)
    
12. We must accept our constant need to humble ourselves and repent of pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, contentions, lying, selfish ambitions, laziness, complacency, idolatries, and other sins of the flesh; pleading with our Lord to do what only He can do in us and through us and all for His glory. (Gal. 5:22-26; James 4:1-10)
    

To his credit, Dr. Akin has crafted a masterpiece call to arms for Southern Baptist Christians to get busy with the work of the Great Commission and the Great Commandments. You will notice that evangelism saturates all twelve axioms which cover one side of the Great Commission. I will also concede that the other side of the Great Commission equation of teaching or discipleship is suggested in several axioms such as 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and especially 7. However, I believe there is a hole in the Great Commission Resurgence. The hole is the very reason our churches and convention are in the present decline. MOST OF OUR CHURCHES LACK AN INTENTIONAL PROCESS FOR MAKING DISCIPLES. My experience is that most of our pastors were trained to be good preachers, are reasonably well trained in pastoral care, and know more than ever about church administration, but many if not most do not understand church ministry organizational development well enough to transform their churches into disciple-making stations. Many do not understand how to apply the principles outlined in Simple Church by Dr. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger much less my own book that will be available in the fall of 2009, Simple Discipleship.

In Southern Baptist Identity (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), Dr. Akin presented a concluding chapter that includes ten mandates for the SBC. His second mandate states: The recovery of the lost jewels of Church discipline and genuine disciple-making as essential marks of the church.” (p.285) Following the mandate, he expounds upon the need for church discipline but he never discusses genuine disciple-making as the second part of his statement. I agree with his explanation as far as it went regarding recovering church discipline, but we cannot—we must not continue to assume that disciple-making just happens, that all pastors know how to make disciples and lead their churches to do so, and that our army of spiritually immature Christians are going to be effective evangelists. Baptist Press reported a study by George Barna released in May 2009 that suggested that only 2% of pastors could identify the stages of spiritual growth with Bible references:http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/264-many-churchgoers-and-faith-leaders-struggle-to-define-spiritual-maturityHow can we make disciples if we do not understand the end product? My point is that we assume too much when it comes to disciple-making and that it cannot continue to be a value-added ministry because according to the Great Commission it is our ministry and purpose. Jesus said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (HCSB) Jesus made it clear that discipleship includes evangelism and teaching. He modeled the best methods of teaching and they did not include a buffet style of disconnected programs that were optional.

Please understand that I seek to elevate Dr. Akin’s call for a Great Commission Resurgence, but I also humbly propose a thirteenth axiom though I am certain he would word it better:

We must commit to lead and support our churches as they disciple like Jesus, which includes intentional disciple-making, one-to-one, one-to-a-few, and one-to-many opportunities and also involves hands-on experiences for mentored ministry and missional opportunities. We must lead our churches to move from the secular-inspired silo/program approach to discipleship to a process-driven approach to making disciple-making churches and disciples. Discipled warriors make better evangelists! We must lead our churches to saturate every program and ministry of the church with discipleship, connecting each with the aim to grow Christians toward having the mind of Christ.

It is my prayer and hope that this article is received by readers in the spirit intended—one of humility, concern, and passion and not one of criticism.

Simple Discipleship blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

#8 The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: What is Our Vision?

Picture in your mind a hot air balloon that is ready to launch with its gondola firmly secured to the balloon with the lines. It is an illustration of vision. The vision is actually the hot air contained within the balloon material that is made up of the primary or intrinsic values of the people. Keep in mind that vision is made up of real core values as opposed to aspired values. The lines securing the gondola to the balloon function as the core value expectations of the people going on the journey who aspire to and take ownership of the vision. With the proper mix of values and inspiration (hot air/vision) to lift the gondola and its load of people, the journey begins.

This is how vision works. Many churches have no expressed or defined vision. It is an expression of what the church will “look like” in three to five years or more—not simply the building, but the fellowship of people and the ministry context of the future. The Lord God expressed this in Exodus when he told Moses that he would lead the people of Israel to “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a surreal yet inspiring vision of the future home of the people of Israel. But vision is fickle in that to work, it must become a grassroots movement.

Allow me to illustrate it using the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that has a democratic congregational church polity. Messengers are elected by the local churches to go to the annual meeting, this year (2009) in Louisville, Kentucky. Pastors attend the meeting as messengers and have no more official authority than other messengers duly elected by their respective churches. This year Dr. Johnny Hunt (SBC President and moderator) and Dr. Danny Akin (President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) presented their vision for renewal of the ~ 20 million member SBC called a Great Commission Resurgence (GCR). Leaders at the top must remember that when in session, the 8,600 messengers this year, attending the annual meeting function much like a local church. The leaders had begun talking among themselves about the GCR several months before the meeting in Louisville. As it is with vision, there is often a difference between the actual vision cast by the leaders and that which is received by various levels of people.

In the SBC annual meeting example, the vision must get all the way from the meeting in Louisville and disseminated out to the local churches in metropolitan cities and rural areas. There was the stated and written vision cast by Drs. Hunt and Akin but there was great skepticism expressed in discussions that circulated in the restaurants, exhibits, and bookstore areas as messengers hashed out their understanding of the GCR. Some associational and state convention leaders expressed concern of a power grab by the Executive Committee of the SBC, while others were concerned that it was a ploy to limit the influence of the state conventions and associations as the local expressions of the denomination. Others were excited about the potential for renewal in the denomination and churches but were concerned that the problem of intense focus on evangelism with little concentration on discipleship might continue to exacerbate true revival.

Leaders must know that this is the normal way people process vision whether in the meeting of 8,600 people, a mega church, or a small rural church. By the end of the annual meeting, the leaders wisely appointed a task force that will further define and cast the GCR vision. The task force must now develop the vision and cast it in such a way that it reaches out to the >40,000 local congregations across the United States—the grassroots. Failing the possession of the real primary values (balloon), effective casting of the vision (the hot air), the people in the local churches accepting the vision (getting in the gondola), and their ownership of the vision (tying on the lines), the Great Commission Resurgence vision may be just another footnote in the annals of failed revivals and how not to cast vision. Time will tell whether the Great Commission Resurgence is the beginning of a new great spiritual awakening in the U.S. or just a lot of hot air that cools and fades into the annals of church history. For me, I hope it works! I hope there is no hidden agenda and that there will be as much focus on discipleship as there is evangelism and I stand ready to help with both through Simple Discipleship. What is the vision of your church?

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

#7 The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: What Do We Believe?

Leadership

We live at a time of superficiality in virtually every arena of life today from politics to economic and from philosophy to religion. At this time people seem to care less about substantive beliefs and more about shallow temporary things. Many pastors get the impression that Christians have little concern about fundamental beliefs, considering that most church conflicts erupt over superficial things rather than theological beliefs. However, the time will come in the arenas I mentioned herein that the foundational beliefs will matter to the people, and it is usually when their world is falling apart. Consider that as the current economic upheaval worsens, foundational issues that do not change with the winds will become important to people once again. Another reason core beliefs are important is that they define who we are collectively as a church in a particular location. But within that discussion there is a caveat: if our beliefs are not based on definitive core values, and we do not put those “beliefs” into action, then we do not truly believe those things. For instance, I conducted a study a couple of years ago regarding the doctrinal beliefs and surveyed two churches with an instrument I developed that had been evaluated for validity and reproducibility. In both churches a majority agreed that sharing our faith is everybody’s job, but they also agreed that sharing our faith is primarily the job of pastors. Could this be the reason for the hotly discussed decline of baptisms in Southern Baptist churches? My point always seems to go back to my coaching/discipleship model which simply postulates: 1) people do what they intrinsically value, and 2) people do not do that which they do not intrinsically value. Thus, when you ask church leaders, “What do we believe?” you may have to qualify it. In other words, at one level, “What are we supposed to believe?” and then “What do we really believe that is confirmed by our actions?” Consider that many leaders of evangelical churches will say that their people believe in evangelism as the highest priority, but their church or denominational budgets say otherwise. It is a good practice for church leaders to work through a preaching series on foundational doctrines once each year, but it is even better to couple this event with forums that allow for two-way interaction. If church leaders fear that kind of forum, set clear boundaries for the decorum of the forum in advance and then hold people accountable to them. I have let church leaders know of the instrument I developed to measure the doctrinal health of churches, but have received little interest. I suspect it is because they are content to be ignorant of the real beliefs of their people. Real discipleship requires that leaders “teach them to observe all things that Jesus commanded.” What do the actions of your church say that you believe? That is the real question behind the question (QBQ).

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: #6- What Process Does Your Church Use to Make Disciples?

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The key word for this article is “process.” Prior to the twentieth-century, churches saturated their ministries with discipleship rather than treating it as a separate entity. Worship, music, prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and so on, were recognized as being a part of discipleship. A paradigm shift occurred in the twentieth-century when many churches adopted a program approach to ministry delivery, and for a few generations it seemed to work. But the program approach to ministry delivery is dependent upon strong nuclear families, church and denominational loyalty, and a homogenous community structure that is unapologetically Christian and active in church. Neither of these conditions exist in much of the U.S. and especially in the metropolitan and urban cities. Church leaders did not see the change coming while Bible colleges and seminaries continue to educate ministers in the program ministry paradigm, and many church leaders continue to work harder at delivering ministry using the outdated approach. The program ministry approach also has a major inherent problem—it is a silo delivery system. Several years ago I went on a mission trip to Wisconsin to help build a church, and I loved the countryside. I took several photos of dairy farms that included a big house and two or three silos for grain storage. In one they may store corn and in another they may store wheat. Your home probably has several silos in the kitchen—one for sugar and another for salt, along with several others. Churches have developed silos for ministry delivery—music, worship, Sunday school, Women’s ministry, Men’s ministry, children’s ministry, sport’s ministry, oh yes, and discipleship as a separate entity. The program/silo approach tends to lead to an unhealthy and ineffective leadership structure as department (program/silo) leaders become protective of their area, which leads to even more separation of each delivery area. Over time the ministry delivery areas are separate and no longer function as a unified and connected process for disciple-making. Churches have done ministry this way for so long that if they are encouraged to return to a pre twentieth-century approach, they might say, “We’ve never done it that way before.” For a bicycle to be an effective propulsion process, each sprocket, gear, and chain must remain connected, and if the chain becomes disconnected or jammed, the movement will stop. Such is the program approach to ministry delivery. I am not suggesting that churches completely do away with the program approach to ministry delivery, as it is an effective method of providing some specialized ministries such as those directed to men and women, to name two. But disciple-making must permeate all ministries of the church since making disciples is the primary purpose of the church (Matthew 28:19). I do not believe there are five purposes of the church—worship, fellowship, ministry, missions, and discipleship—, but one: MAKING DISCIPLES. There are two sides to the making disciples balance sheet: evangelism (baptizing) and teaching (see http://drthomreece.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/baptist-church-decline-balance-both-sides-of-the-great-commission/) .

 

Simple Discipleship (SD) is an answer to the program/silo approach to ministry delivery and disciple-making. It will return your church to developing a process for making disciples. Two respected Christian leaders and teachers recently reviewed Simple Discipleship and here is what they said:

SD is a life-support system for churches. The concepts are definitive and measurable. However, there is a little known secret of success in all of life. It is this: “Nothing works.” This program will not work. You have to work it. If worked the result is a potentially renewed church comprised of confident and fulfilled Christians. It is to be commended as a method of permeating the life-style of individuals and putting the total church on task. –Dr. Nelson Price, Pastor Emeritus, Roswell St. Baptist Church, Marietta, GA

Far too many believers have never been discipled, and too few churches are prepared to address this problem. Tom Cocklereece has proposed not a program, but a process that drives discipleship into the DNA of a congregation.  Read this book, work the ideas for your church, and start making disciples! –Dr. Chuck Lawless, Dean, Billy Graham School, Vice President for Academic Programming, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

 Here are some diagnostic questions for you to ask about your discipleship ministry:

• What process does your church use to make disciples?
  
• Is it a process or a program? (Remember that a processes connect systems while programs may be independent)
  
• Is your process working?
  
• How do you know it is working?
  
• How do you measure results?
  
• What expectations are communicated to the church?
  
• Is everyone unified around the same clear expectations?
  

SD churches can answer these questions in a definitive way. I am enjoying working with about fifteen churches before the book is released, and I look forward to helping to launch a discipleship revolution in many other churches.

SD Blessings!

Dr. Tom Cocklereece

The Twelve Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Church: #5 What Is Our Plan?

Many church and ministry leaders are familiar with the usually dreaded process of developing a strategy plan. Some leaders suffered through the great effort of developing a strategy plan about every five years—organizational analysis, SWOT analysis, demographic studies, visioneering, mission development, and constructing of goals as action steps. The usual result of all of the effort was—to put the plan on the shelf for the next four years until it was time to go through the exercise again to God’s glory. There are several big problems with the described cycle:

1. Strategies of churches often are too bold, unrealistic, or mediocre and probably should end up on the shelf.
   
2. Leaders often fail to include the necessary vision-casting and communication that are required to energize a strategy plan.
   
3. Leaders often fail to incorporate alternate plans (Plan b, c, and d) to compensate for the inevitable ’strategy paradox,” which simply stated is “Any strategy plan may be neutralized by unforeseen events that may occur at any time after the plan is ratified.”
   

To their detriment, some leaders never lead their church or ministry to establish a plan. If you fail to establish goals, you will hit the target of mediocrity every time. Times have changed and three to five year plans are often outdated within six months because of number 3. Peter Drucker stated that the greatest challenge regarding planning is for leaders to agree on the organization’s goals. He was right and herein lies the problem for many churches. Attainable goals are directly connected to the church’s mission that is “make disciple-making disciples.” The phrase may be stated any number of ways, but the big problem is that many churches are doing everything except making disciples of Jesus Christ. The challenge is to develop a contextualized vision and mission to which are connected no more than five goals. Drucker also said, “If you have more than five goals, you have none.” (The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization) To understand the relationships of vision, mission, and goals it is useful to visualize a hot air balloon. The hot air (no pun intended) inside the balloon symbolizes the vision and the gondola (basket) symbolizes the mission. The vision and mission are connected by the goals or expectations that are represented by the cables.

There are five characteristics of an effective plan:

1. Abandonment- effective churches must abandon what does not work, has never worked, or what no longer works. In Simple Discipleship, we call this focus.
   
2. Concentration- concentrates energy on strengthening those things that do work. In Simple Discipleship, we call this alignment.
   
3. Innovation- is encouraged by empowering groups within the church to do ministry. Simple Discipleship encourages innovation by empowering Sunday School/Small Groups to do innovative ministry.
   
4. Risk-taking- is an essential quality of ministry that many leaders tend to avoid. Churches tend to establish a stable status quo that impedes innovation, empowerment, and risk-taking. Simple Discipleship does include some risk if missional ministry is considered risky since a degree of control is removed in favor of empowerment.
   
5. Analysis- measurements must be designed into your plan in order to evaluate effectiveness. Simple Discipleship includes a Christian-life survey and balanced scorecard to measure effectiveness of a church’s disciple-making process.
   

One more quality that your strategy plan should include is “flexibility.” It is not necessary to discard a good plan when things change. Understand that changes may be directed by the Holy Spirit, so plan for flexibility in the direction of making disciples.

SD Blessings!

Dr, Tom Cocklereece