Platform Discipleship- Preaching
This series of articles explores thirteen major methods that are effective for making disciples. Keep in mind that in a ubiquitous (all encompassing, everywhere present) disciple-making process, virtually each method is not only encouraged but is planned into the church ministries. Here is a list including links to articles that have been completed in the series:
- Simple Discipleship: A Comprehensive Disciple-Making Plan- The Simple Discipleship Virtual Book Tour- (updated) originally posted in 2010
- DISCIPLESHIP BEST PRACTICES: 13 Ways to Make Disciples
- Passive Discipleship: the least effective method but essential to support other methods
- Private Discipleship: the Christian and the Holy Spirit (most effective but under used)
- Presence Discipleship: In times of crisis the disciple invests time, assistance, and prayer.
- Participation or Proximity Discipleship: applies to all areas but most of all to giving
- Projected Discipleship: Actively but humbly projecting a Christian example of living Christ’s teachings.
- Platform or Presentation Discipleship: preaching in church and lecture-style Bible study
- Program Discipleship: Pre-packaged materials delivered in large or small groups.
- Personal Discipleship: One-on-one discipleship (very effective but seldom used)
- Peer Group Discipleship: Bible study and Sunday School
- Practical Discipleship: Hands on service, evangelism, and missional projects
- Proficiency Discipleship: Leadership Development
- Proclamation Discipleship: Evangelism and preaching to unchurched
- Process Discipleship: All of the above delivered in a systematic way
WHAT IS PLATFORM OR PRESENTATION DISCIPLESHIP?
When pastors lead worship each week at church, they typically stand on a platform that allows the congregation to easily see and hear them. Jesus commonly used platform discipleship in his ministry. For example, when he presented the well known Sermon on the Mount, he stood on a higher point so the large crowd could hear him (Matthew 5 through 7). In Matthew 13, Jesus used a boat as his speaking platform as he stood in a boat while the crowd stood on the bank of the Sea of Galilee along a cove. Some churches have large Bible study classes for which the teacher may stand on a platform and present a lesson. There are certain characteristics that identify platform or presentation discipleship:
- It is usually directed to a large group.
- It usually involves one presenter.
- It allows little or no dialogue between the presenter and the people.
- It is spectator oriented and allows little or no hands-on learning.
- It allows for a high degree of miscommunication.
Perhaps number five regarding “miscommunication” requires some explanation. When speaking to a large group of people there is what may be called “communication flux” which involves interference from the environmental conditions, activities of attendees, and the flawed translation between what the speaker says and what the receiver understands.
The goal of platform or presentation discipleship is to motivate as many as possible in the audience to buy-in to the communicated vision and message. In fact, it goes further by inviting and empowering members of the audience to become communicators of the vision too, thus multiplying the message exponentially—crowdsourcing. Jesus Christ is the most effective crowdsourcing leader in history, moving more people than any other from the crowd to become communicators of his vision.
Clearly the goal of a presentation is not “to make a presentation.” The goal is to move, motivate, engage, and empower the greatest number of people in the audience to DO SOMETHING!!!
Today, too many communicators (pastors and teachers) as well as their audiences (church crowd) act as if the goal of making a presentation is to “make a presentation.” The activity is checked off of the weekly activity list only to be repeated the following week. If the goal of Jesus Christ was simply to pass along good information, then the church would not exist today. The goal of every worship and teaching event should be decisions for life transformation and the more…the better.
PLATFORM DISCIPLESHIP IS PART OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
A reading of the New Testament, especially the book of Acts, clearly identifies preaching (platform discipleship) as one effective way to win souls and disciple them. Exegetical biblical preaching of various forms are essential to full ongoing discipleship. There are several forms of exegetical preaching:
- Sustenance Preaching- These are messages you heard but in retrospect do not remember from week to week and month to month. This does not indicate that you did not need to hear the messages any more than you did not need to eat meals from last week that you do not remember. These messages are spiritually nourishing and necessary. Pastors preach far more sustenance messages than we care to admit.
- Exhortational Preaching- These messages are informational and instructional challenges and often targeted to specific doctrinal teachings. Last Sunday while on vacation I attended FBC Navarre, FL where Pastor Jim Pennington preached one of the best messages about believer’s baptism I have heard. A tough military officer in his twenties received Christ and wanted to be baptized. Most people who heard the message had already been baptized but the Holy Spirit targeted Pastor Jim’s exhortational message to the one man who responded.
- Transformational Preaching- My wife, Janice, allows me the privilege of serving as her pastor and she hears my sermons week after week, month after month, year after year. As I worked on this article I asked her what message or series she remembered. As I braced myself for an ego buster she had difficulty remembering specific messages but she continued to meditate on my sermon series titled, The Stages of Spiritual Growth (available as one of three Simple Discipleship message series’). Janice classified this series and others I have done on discipleship as “transformational.”
PLATFORM DISCIPLESHIP ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH
In my book Simple Discipleship I told a story of when I asked a pastor how he was discipling the people in his church. He said, “Right now I’m preaching through the book of Romans and then…” The sad fact is that many pastors believe their preaching is so effective that it is sufficient for fully discipling Christians. Few if any pastors can genuinely make that claim. The best preaching/teaching pastors…Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindol, David Jeremiah, Johnny Hunt, Bryant Wright, John MacArthur, John Hagee, T. D. Jakes and many others would likely agree that people do not get fully discipled by hearing great preaching alone.
People cannot be fully discipled while sitting in a church pew listening to great sermons. Jesus understood the importance of the other discipleship best practices. It is likely that the modern church in the west has inverted Jesus’ model of discipleship. Jesus likely employed a model that consisted of 10% instruction and 90% practicum while the modern church does the opposite while wondering why many Christians are spiritually shallow.
Questions:
- Do you agree with the principle of PLATFORM DISCIPLESHIP?
- Write down the titles and/or Scriptures your pastor has preached in the last year and classify them as sustenance, exhortational, or transformational.
- What other forms of preaching would you add to the three I listed?
- In your opinion who are the best preaching pastors?
Make disciples!
Dr. Tom Cocklereece, The Disciplist
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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is the author of Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century which was published and released by Church Smart Resources. To learn more about Simple Discipleship and to order the book, follow the link below:
http://www.simplediscipleship.com
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Dr. Tom Cocklereece is CEO of RENOVA Coaching and Consulting, LLC
Author “Simple Discipleship,” contributing writer L2L Blogazine
He is a pastor, an author, professional coach, and leadership specialist
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