Don’t Just Learn It... Live It!

The Two Most Powerful (and Most Ignored) Ways to Make Disciples

In The Great Commission, Jesus tells us to,

Make Disciples… and teach them to obey everything He taught us.

That word that is translated “obey” means a bit more than simply obedience.

It means to attend to carefully, or to take care of…
It means to keep, guard, observe, and reserve.

The definition of a disciple is one who makes disciples.
A disciple teaches others to keep, obey, guard the teachings of Jesus.

Discipleship is more than a knowledge transfer.
It’s teaching people to live a certain way.
We don’t just learn it, we live it!

Disciple Making Disciples?

The sad reality is that much of what we take as “normal discipleship” in the Church today, doesn’t actually work very well.

A quick Look at the fruit of our discipleship shows us that the Church in the West has failed to make disciples who make disciples.

Whilst there has been some positive signs recently pointing to a renewed interest in faith amongst young adults, we do not see many cases of Church growth occurring through disciples making disciples.

The Church has found itself stuck using methods and systems that simply don’t work.

Retention

In the 1940’s Edgar Dale came up with the “Cone of Experience”. In it he shows the approximate retention rate for different methods of learning.

Learning Method and Approx. Retention Rate

Lecture (listening to a speaker) ~5%
Reading~10%
Audio-Visual~20%
Demonstration~30%
Group Discussion~50%
Practice by Doing~75%
Teaching Others / Immediate Use~90%

While these percentages are estimates as opposed to specifics, current research continues to make the same conclusions.

Listening only → Low retention
Adding visuals/demonstrations → Moderate retention
Discussion & practice → High retention
Teaching others → Highest retention

Retention in the Church

When we look at discipleship in the Church, there are two main spaces where this happens.

The Church Service - this is where we listen to a preacher. Going by the above research, this is the least effective way to teach.

Small Groups - Many small groups are a clone of the big Church with one person doing the majority of the teaching. If that is your style, then again, this is the least effective method. However, Small groups become far more effective once discussion is involved.

Interestingly, the two most effective methods of teaching are the two least utilised. These also happen to be the two most effective approaches that generate movements.

Practice by doing - Jesus used this method with His disciples. He would teach them as they faced certain situations. Then He would send them out to do what they had been taught. Perhaps the most famous passages are Matthew 10 and Luke 10 where Jesus sends them out to copy what He had been doing.

Teaching Others - teaching others is the best way to learn! Isn’t it interesting that Jesus tells His disciples to teach others what He has taught them? Jesus was leaning into the most effective way of learning - teaching!

Moving Forward

One of the most common comments I hear when people return from “Mission trips” is that they grew so much. The reason is that they have been mobilised:

to do what Jesus has taught them and
to teach others what Jesus has taught them

Movements that are embracing these two most effective forms of discipleship are experiencing incredible growth.

If we want to Make Disciple Makers, then we can’t just learn it, we must live it!

We must adapt our approach to discipleship to be far more action oriented.

We must create spaces for rapid mobilisation where people can put into practice their faith, and have ample opportunities to teach others what they are learning.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing practical examples of how you can incorporate this into your discipleship. But for now, take a moment to re-read the Great Commission (below) and ask yourself the following questions,

What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about humanity?
What do I have to do/believe/change?
Who do I need to share this with?

Finish by completing this sentence, “I will….”

'Then Jesus came close to them and said, “All authority of the universe has been given to me. Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 (TPT)

Without even knowing it I’ve taught you the Discovery Bible Method…
But more on that later!

Grace to you all!

James
#GoLoveMultiplyRepeat