By Allen White

Effective disciple making is lacking in many churches.
If we impart knowledge, but don’t see change in attitudes and behaviors, are we making disciples?
So much of traditional Christian education is built on the knowledge component because it’s measurable. We can measure how many lessons were taught. We can measure how many verses were memorized. We can measure how many small group meetings were attended.  But, does this give us the full picture?
How do you measure changes in attitude? What are the metrics for behavioral changes? How can people know so much of the Bible, yet do so little about it? What are we missing?
Here’s the dilemma: how do we figure out new methods of disciple making while we continue to run all of our current programs? You don’t have to scrap what you’re currently doing. In fact, most churches are already doing a lot of the right things. You may just need a few tweaks here and there to see transformed lives and not just educated ones.
As pastors, it’s hard to work on something and work in it at the same time. You want to improve your ability to make disciples, yet the tyranny of the urgent, ends up taking precedent. In some cases, just the sheer numbers of people to disciple causes you to resort to large scale processes, which often prove impersonal and ineffective.
Wouldn’t you love to have dedicated time to think about ministry while you’re doing the work of the ministry? Wouldn’t you like to add a few more disciple making tools that work without wrecking the things that are already helping?
When you look at the business world, companies are constantly developing new products while they continue to produce their current products. They set aside a portion of their time, energy, and budget to R&D – Research and Development. They try new things on a smaller scale before they would add a new product or replace a current product.
I want to invite you to join me in Disciple Making R&D. This is a place where you can think about how to improve disciple makings. You can try out some new methods that will help to transform the lives of your members without upsetting the apple cart.
This isn’t the new shiny object. This isn’t the silver bullet. I would like to introduce you to things I have used and developed over the last 30 years of ministry that have proven effective in producing well-rounded disciples.
The six weekly sessions include:

1. The Problem of Modern Discipleship.

• The Limits of Traditional Christian Education.
• Disciple Marking and Small Groups.
• How to Measure Spiritual Growth.
• How to Fulfill Our Mission.

2. A Well-Rounded Approach to Disciple Making.

• What informs our spiritual growth?
• Discipling the Whole Person.
• Moving People from Student to Servant.

3. Inputs and Relationships for Disciple Making.

• The Exponential Growth Model.
• The role of groups in making disciples.
• The role of a personal trainer in making disciples.
• The role of personal disciples in making disciples.

4. Learning, Action, and Reflection

• Fulfilling the Entire Great Commission.
• The Role of curriculum in spiritual growth.
• Effective accountability.
• Relational evaluation.

5. Healthy Lives Multiply.

• Becoming Hero Makers.
• The Pathway from Disciple to Disciple Maker to Leader.

6. Transitioning.

• Identify what’s working in your current environment.
• Identify what’s not working or what has plateaued.
• Identify opportunities for change.
• How to engage disciples in groups

I would like to invite you to the pilot for Disciple Making R&D. We will meet for six weekly one hour sessions via GotoMeeting. The pilot cost is $97. When the full course is developed, it will cost $249. The group starts on Wednesday, May 9 and is limited to 25 people who are serious about making disciples. Is this you?
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER