How to Create a Disciplemaking plan

As you look ahead to the coming semester, how are you thinking about the development of the students in your ministry?

You’re probably planning out your meetings and your small group content. But what are you doing for the individual development of your disciples?

Do you have a plan?  

I’ve learned over the years ministers typically lean a little too far one way or the other in their methodology. Typically, when it comes to discipleship, they lean towards one of two approaches:

1. The Pipeline

In the pipeline approach, everything in the ministry is a system. You plug a student into the discipleship machine their freshman year, they get all the materials and resources in your ministry, and they pop out a mature disciple on the other side—that’s the idea.

This approach is efficient and looks AMAZING on paper, but rarely works. No two people start in the same place or with the same needs. Students can feel when they are a part of a system and often complain about not feeling loved.

Disciples must be developed, not mass-produced.

Disciples must be developed, not mass-produced. Click To Tweet

The Pipeline style ministries typically create great content, but they often fail because the Disciplemaking practitioner does not buy into the content. They didn’t help create it!

It creates dependent, instead of independent disciplemakers. Instead of going to God’s Word to lead their disciple, they go straight to the resource box to find something to print. This is discipleship by proxy.

I have nothing against good resources, but there is a difference when a discipler is relying on materials to disciple instead of using the materials to point students to God’s Word.

2. The Need of the Hour

The “need of the hour” is the second approach and is the over-correction from the Pipeline. This discipler has no system. They rely on whatever feels right in the moment or whatever they learned in their personal devotional time that morning.

Whatever this approach may gain in customization, it loses in effectiveness. In this approach, disciples aren’t intentionally developed; they are simply maintained.

How do you avoid these two extremes?

Planned and Flexible

When my daughter was halfway through kindergarten the school sent home a progress report with a checklist of core curriculum for her to complete by the end of the year. It included a chart of checkpoints related to reading, writing and math.

They had an intentional planned system for her development. But this report was also specific to my daughter. They had checked off content she completed so far. It was tailored to her specific progress.

If a school takes time to develop a holistic plan for their student and individually assess where they are, shouldn’t we, as disciplemakers, take the development of our disciples even more seriously!?

There is a better approach. It’s called Objective-based Disciplemaking.

Why Objective-based Disciplemaking is important in your ministry

In this method, come up with a list of discipleship objectives that will characterize the disciples in your ministry. These are characteristics, skills, convictions and beliefs that come from the Scriptures that you want to be true of all of your disciples.

It combines the efficiencies and intentionality of the Pipeline but also gives you the flexibility and customization to hit the needs of individual disciples.  

Because it is objective-based, it isn’t content simply covering a topic and moving on. You, as the discipler, help them until they reach the objective.

How do you come up with your discipleship objectives?

Paul tells Timothy,

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

1 Timothy 4:12

There are core areas to develop in every disciple. Our discipleship needs a combination of training within Biblical Truth, Christlike character, Ministry Skills and Disciple-making convictions.

An elementary school that just focused on one or two subjects wouldn’t develop balanced students that could read, write, and count.

A diet that didn’t have the right combination of protein, carbs, fats would lead to unhealth.

In the same way, unplanned discipleship produces unbalanced disciples.

Unplanned discipleship produces unbalanced disciples. Click To Tweet

These four categories help encompass all kinds of crucial needs for a disciple to develop.

1. Biblical truth includes things like doctrine, systematic theology, heresy, overview of the Bible with an emphasis on applying these truths to life.
2. Christlike character would have objectives built around holiness, purity, love, etc.
3. Ministry skills would be specific objectives like how to lead a Bible study, how to share their faith, how to follow up a new believer, etc.
4. Disciplemaking convictions creates objectives related to a Great Commission mentality, spiritual multiplication, and world missions.

If you just focused on skills you could have a well-equipped disciple that doesn’t have the character and walk with God to sustain themselves under the weight of ministry.

However, if you just spent time working on godliness & character, you could have a disciple that avoids sin but never reaches out and initiates.

Without theology, you’d produce zealous disciplemakers who aren’t grounded in God’s Word and biblical truth. 

Lastly, because vision leaks, it’s important to always be filling your disciples with convictions for the Great Commission, multiplying disciples, and world missions.

These 4 categories will help you think through how to prepare and equip your disciples for a lifetime of laboring and multiplying.

Examples of Objective-based Disciplemaking

Let’s say I have a disciple I am meeting with this spring. He’s incredibly mature as leader, a senior, has shared his faith multiple times and led a Bible study. He’s about to graduate and move to a new city and still struggles with lingering purity issues.

To start the semester I’m going to think through 5 objectives for him I want to address and cover to help him develop.

I start with the 4 categories to discern which ones he needs the most. Sometimes I’ll pick one from each. Other times I recognize there is a deficiency and he may need a couple from one category. The point is, I’m addressing needs and thinking through them intentionally.

Here are the first 5 objectives I will cover this spring:

• Christlike Character – he understands the importance of quick, consistent confession and has a rhythm for practicing it in his daily time with the Lord.
• Christlike Character – he has read Finally Free and is processing through what his next steps are for holiness and purity.
• Disciplemaking Convictions – he has a plan for plugging into a local church after graduation and moving to a new city and is committed to talking to the pastor about a disciplemaking group.
• Biblical truth – he has completed a study on the seriousness of sin and its potential impact on a believer’s life.
• Ministry Skills – We go together to share the gospel with someone off campus to practice boldness and building relationships in a non-school environment to prepare him for the future.

For each of these objectives, I will go to the Scriptures, books, or articles and prepare a discipleship lesson for my disciple. I always want the truth to come from God’s Word and let it drive the application.

When writing an objective, there should be an emphasis on knowing and doing. I want my disciple to know, learn, believe, embrace…some truth or conviction. And I want him to apply, engage, act, build, commit, etc. to some application.

Resources for Objective-based Disciplemaking

There is an endless number of objectives you could create for someone. It Is helpful to have some overall categories.

Steve Shadrach has come up with an incredible list of objectives built around the same topics of knowledge, skills, character and vision. This would be a helpful tool to reference as you come up with your own.

The objective-based disciplemaking method is not new. For years, ministries such as Cru, StuMo, CO & the Navigators have been using this approach for years.

A couple of helpful resources are:

***NOTE: These links take you to Amazon. If you make a purchase I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you! It helps me keep this site going. Thank you!

These books will help point you towards some of the common and core objectives that show up in the Scriptures.

Put it into Practice:

Now, don’t rely only on pre-prepped content. One of the biggest benefits to this approach is simply studying the Bible and building your conviction for disciplemaking on your own. That process alone will make you a more effective disciplemaker.

Study the Gospels, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 & 2 Timothy to make observations about how some of the early disciples were led and trained.  

It’s time to get started!

1. Make a list of your disciples on a spreadsheet.
2. Pick the first 5 discipleship objectives that you want to cover with each of your disciples this spring within the 4 categories.
3. Study the Bible and consult with the resources above to come up with a list of discipleship objectives.
4. Keep track! Use a discipleship log (D-log) on your phone or computer. Here is a sample of a D-log I’ll use to keep up with guys I’m leading. This will help you see what objectives you’ve covered and help you select what to focus on next.

The semester is about to kick off! Don’t rely on canned resources others have made for you. And don’t let the prevailing winds of the hour dictate how you lead your disciples.

Study the Scriptures. Observe biblical characteristics of a disciple. Come up with a list of objectives for your disciples and begin leading them intentionally!

Discuss:

1. Do you lean more towards relying on a pipeline or just going with whatever feels right in the need of the hour?
2. Who are key disciples in your ministry you need to plan for this spring?
3. Come up with your first 5 objectives you will cover with them.
4. Have a discussion with your team to get ideas and feedback on your objectives.