Deliberate Disciple-Making in the Church

We are part of a small church plant. Although we are not big, our congregation is involved in discipleship ministry. That ministry is mainly happening outside of the church as each of the individuals in our church has better understood the role of the congregation being equipped to do the work of the ministry themselves in their day to day lives. I was encouraged by the list of things that had to be addressed in the above article. Below I left the headings from the article but showed how we have addressed each of these issues. BTW it is still a work in progress.
"Identifying the Issues"

Primary focus of the pastoral team. In our church we stress that the job of the pastor is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. It is not the pastor's job to do all the ministry in the church. Each person should be ministering to someone else. Ephesians 4:11... As a pastor I try to model how I reach out to those in the community as I build relationships with them and speak the truth of God's word to them. We have a time of praise and prayer request at each service. This gives each of us a time to let the rest of the congregation know what we have been doing in ministry throughout the week.

Priorities of the leadership team. Our congregation needs to know that we (the leaders) are building relationships and making disciples outside of the church.

Perspective of teachers. We have challenged the mindset that teachers have to be in a structured Sunday School class inside the church building on Sunday morning. We are encouraging our people to become teachers to their friends, neighbors, coworkers, family, and whoever else they can get to know. We encourage them to come to church to continue to learn so they are better equipped to teach, but to realize that it is okay if they do not have all the answers. Their job is to start conversations and to sow seeds of the gospel and encouragement from God's word. It is their job to share what they know about Jesus even if it is just the basics.

Perception of volunteers. Jesus told us to take on his yoke for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. As we minister, we must be concerned with being faithful and with being godly. We also must realize that we are simply servants who bring a message and that the main transformation that takes place in people's lives will be because God has worked in their lives. We need to be walking close to God ourselves and we must be in prayer as we minister. We also must realize that many of the people we minister to will reject the message and will not walk with God. That does not mean we are failures. Jesus faithfully ministered here on earth, and many rejected him and his message. He was not a failure.

Perception of the congregation. The qualifications for pastor and deacon found in scripture have nothing to do with the sort of credentials that the world looks to today. Although degrees, seminary education, and academic training are valuable tools, God looks on things differently than man does. We need to encourage our congregation that they can start discipleship without having been to Bible college etc. The qualifications found in Titus and I Timothy should be the goal of all godly people. The letters to the Thessalonians are a good place to focus on showing an example of a congregation that really got involved in doing the work of the ministry. They were telling others so that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy did not even have to do the work of outreach in that area. But as the letter was written to them, they were also reminded to focus on living godly lives and to avoid immorality. If our congregation is to be effective at doing the work of the ministry, then they need to act like a Christian should act and not like a hypocrite. That is why it is so important that we learn to graciously hold one another accountable within the congregation. Often pastors will be the last person in the congregation to notice where someone else in the congregation needs to grow. We need to teach all the members of the congregation how to graciously address the truth about sin with each other and to encourage each other in righteousness.

For too long the church has tried to just have a list of programs within their walls to make people feel like they are involved in ministry, but too often those activities have kept Christians away from the people outside of the church who need the truth the most. We need to focus on equipping fellow believers and sending them out throughout the week and then having them report back on Sunday about what they have been doing.