Developing Ministry Leaders Through Discipleship
- Matt Dascenzo
- Jun 2
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 9
By Matt Dascenzo
(9 minute read)
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
Today, we are part of the largest global population in history and a fast-paced, busy culture. Days move quickly and weeks fly by in the blink of an eye. Sometimes, through the busyness we have moments where we contemplate the larger things in life. We look outward at the world filled with 8 billion people and wonder “Can my life have a purposeful role in God’s work of reaching the earth?” Or we look inward and consider “How do I know that what I am doing during the week truly matters into eternity?” As we seek to find answers to these challenging questions, our search may get cut short due to a distracting phone notification or an enticing, easy escape through entertainment.
Even with an estimation that 31% of the world identifying as Christians (1), that means there are 5.4 billion people around the world that don’t know Jesus personally. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (2) . Now is the time to find the truth to those questions.
Jesus’ Intentions
Jesus had eternity in mind. He didn’t come to earth only to be an example of a perfect person, a good leader, role model, or wise teacher, but he came to save sinful, fallen humanity (3). He did this through death on the cross (4) as our substitutionary sacrifice (5). This is not only the good news (gospel), it is the best news, because it gives us eternal life with God (6). This is a free gift that can be ours through believing and receiving these truths (7).
Jesus came down to earth, but he knew he wasn’t going to stay on earth forever (8). Jesus felt compassion for us and wants us to know him personally. So, what would Jesus do to ensure that people would know about him after he ascended back into heaven? He invested years into twelve normal men, the disciples. This blog post is a quick summary, not an exhaustive list, of some aspects of how Jesus developed his disciples into ministry leaders to carry on this gospel work. I’ll be quoting a few books that I will have in a list at the end, and I highly recommend a deep dive into this topic.
Jesus’ Methods
The focus of Jesus’ discipleship was teaching the truth of God and equipping the disciples to live it out. This was a multi-faceted, deeply committed relationship between Jesus and the twelve. Some aspects of Jesus’ discipleship include him being:
Selective- Jesus called specific people to follow him. He even had closer relationships with 3 of them (Peter, James, and John).
Intentional- Jesus had specific goals in mind of instilling deep heavenly truths and equipping his disciples. They weren’t just hanging out and passing the time, but he had specific events and conversations with the disciples individually and collectively.
Consistent- They did life together daily over the 3 years of public ministry. It wasn’t a pop-in or sporadic ministry.
Relational- He invited them to be a part of his life and work. Jesus and the disciples knew each other deeply. They saw each other throughout the day in many different life situations. Their learning took place through relationships, not superficially nor in a solely academic classroom setting.
Missional- Jesus focused on the disciples but his larger narrative and mindset was on heaven and the world coming to know God.
“In Mark 3:14 we read that ‘he ordained the twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach’. This verse contains three steps in the process of building multipliers: selecting them, training them, and sending them forth." Multiplying Disciples by Waylon Moore pg 68
The concept of selection in Mark 3:14 is a topic I’ve heard questions about. How do we be selective with who to disciple? Some key qualities to look for in a potential disciple are teachability, faithfulness, and spiritual hunger.
The concept of training and sending out is complex. One helpful framework that John Maxwell describes his five-step process for equipping (training) people.
I do it: The leader demonstrates the skill or process.
I do it, you watch: The leader performs the task while others observe.
We do it together: The leader and the individual work together to complete the task, receiving feedback and guidance.
You do it, I watch: The individual performs the task while the leader monitors and provides feedback.
You do it, and somebody is with you: The individual completes the task independently, potentially with support from another trained person or a mentee of their own.
Jesus led the disciples through steps 2-4 to develop them as ministry leaders for step 5. The disciples saw him heal people, exorcise demons, preach the Sermon on the Mount, teach about faith, love, and life through parables, raise people from the dead, and challenge the Pharisee’s with truth.
Jesus delegated, empowered, and mobilized his disciples to take active roles in the ministry even while he was on earth. The main events are the sending of the 70 and 12 and the feeding of the 5,000. In these instances, Jesus gave instructions, let them fulfill the duty, and then gave feedback afterwards.
With the disciples having this structured equipping and delegation in steps 2-4, they were more prepared to carry on the work through the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended (step 5).
Challenges Today
We must be weary of shortsighted thinking. “Are you committed to church growth
or gospel growth? Do you want more numbers in the pew now, or more laborers for the harvest over the next 50 years?” Trellis and the Vine by Marshall and Payne pg 149. “The costly principles of leadership development and reproduction seem to have been submerged beneath the easier strategy of mass recruitment. The nearsighted objective of popular recognition generally took precedence over the long-range goal of reaching the world, and the methods of evangelism employed by the church collectively and individually have reflected this same momentary outlook” Coleman states in Master Plan of Evangelism pg 96.
We need to see through the façade of the masses. Today, most of what we call “successful” is based on larger numbers- sales, followers on social media, money, congregants, etc. In those terms, Jesus didn’t have a “successful” following at the end of his life. It wasn’t the masses that supported Him in His trial, it was the masses that put Him to death. Billy Graham, in an interview, states “Christ, I think, set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn’t spend it with a great crowd. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren’t too many results. The great results, it seems to me, came in this personal interview and in the time he spent with his twelve.” Master Plan of Evangelism by Coleman pg 103.
We must challenge our own false beliefs.
Common belief #1: “This is optional, this isn’t a call for me.” The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all the nations” isn’t just for the paid ministers and missionaries. This is a call to all Christ followers. The ease of sitting in the back of a Sunday service and consuming a great message is not the end-all be-all of biblical Christian community and ministry, it’s very the beginning. “There are many in the church who are faithful in attendance and helping at special functions, but do not pass on what they have learned and heard” Multiplying Disciples by Waylon Moore pg 53.
Common Belief #2: “I don’t need to do it, there isn't a need for me” “There are many spiritual babes in our churches, but there are few spiritual parents assuming responsibility for them.” Multiplying Disciples by Waylon Moore pg 75. There will always be someone younger than you in their life or in faith, and you can play a vital role. “At first, an infant is fed by others; he then advances to feeding himself as a child and finally moves on to feeding others as an adult. One of the disciplemaker’s primary goals is to teach a disciple how to feed himself so he can eventually feed others also” pg 79.
Necessity of Replication
Our discipleship needs to be focused on replication. A Barna study shows 89% of all church leaders define discipleship as “being transformed to become more like Jesus.” Unfortunately, in the same survey, it was found that “making disciples, or ‘winning new believers to become followers of Jesus Christ’ is the least-commonly chosen goal of discipleship” State of Discipleship by Barna Pg. 9. If we seek to follow Jesus with our lives, we should follow his method of discipleship in reaching the lost world. His method wasn’t based on a new system, having the biggest crowds, or exclusive to his personal capacity and autonomy, but on developing his twelve disciples into ministry leaders. It begs the question, what would the church today look like if Jesus didn’t disciple the twelve?
I met one of my closest friends, Cecil, when he was working at United Dairy Farmers in 2018. After inviting him to an event my friends were hosting, I invited him to church. Cecil quickly came to faith in Jesus and wanted to live his life for Him. He and I started meeting weekly for discipleship as he journeyed in this newfound relationship with Christ and new life associated. He has since led multiple of his family members to faith in Jesus and been a light of Christ in the workplace. Cecil ended up volunteering in the ministry I work for, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), and started discipling his younger brother, Ibrahim, who was a Student Leader at Linden McKinley. Ibrahim graduated and became an intern with FCA, leading multiple students to Christ. Ibrahim, Cecil, and I all seek to share the love and truth of Jesus with the world (9).
➡️ CDN Note: To see more on this inspiring story, check out this video!
It humbles me to know that this work is way larger than myself and it encourages me to know that I can leave a lasting impact through discipleship. Not only is the work more effective with all of us working together, but I know that if I suddenly died tomorrow, the work would still go on through Cecil and Ibrahim. The work of God in and through my life wouldn’t just end with myself, it would continue. Discipleship is the way to reach the next generation by passing the baton of the gospel in an intentional and impactful way.
Would you rather have 1 penny doubled once a year for 30 years, or $1 million dollars every decade for 30 years? It’s easy to want to pick the $3 million dollars because of how much larger it seems up front. If you doubled a penny 30 times, the total would end up being $10,737,418.24, more than three times the amount of the $3 million dollar offer. It’s easy to have this same “addition” mentality with the growth of the church. In 30 years, if your church grew by 1,000 people every decade, you’d see that as a huge win. But, it would be smaller than if your church started at 1 and doubled every other year for the same amount of time. If everyone in the church replicated every other year, there’d be over 32,000 people in that community.
“What really counts in the ultimate perpetuation of our work is the faithfulness with which our converts go and make leaders out of their converts, not simply more followers” Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman pg 94. Paul’s approach to Timothy was future-oriented and leadership focused. It wasn’t just for Timothy to be a holier individual, but to “entrust [the gospel] to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (10). Paul, to Timothy, to reliable people, then, to others.
Developing ministry leaders through discipleship fuels a deeper relationship with Jesus and an eternally impactful life in the Christian, a thriving, growing, and mobilized community in the church, and a strong movement of the spirit and witness of Christ to the non-Christian world, leading to more people receiving reconciliation from their Heavenly Father through Jesus.
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Footnotes:
(2) “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”-Matthew 9:37
(3) “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” 1 Timothy 1:15
(4) “He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and
live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”1 Peter 2:24
(5) “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of
the whole world.” 1 John 2:2
(6) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
(7) “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God—” John 1:12
(8) “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going
back to the Father.” -John 16:28
(10) “entrust [the gospel] to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” -2
Timothy 2:2
Books:
Multiplying Disciples by Waylon Moore
State of Discipleship study by Barna
Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman
Trellis and The Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
Organic Discipleship by Dennis McCallum
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