Hello everyone! I want to share my heart with you about discipleship.

Some people may wonder, why am I so passionate about disciple-making? The main reason is because Jesus commanded the disciples to “Go and make disciples” in Matthew 28… and that same command is for us. So, I believe if we are a follower of Christ, we are called to be a disciple-maker.

The second reason is because I believe that discipleship and evangelism go hand and hand. Did you know that there are over 14 million people in Pennsylvania and South Jersey who do not have a relationship with Jesus? When I hear that, I am burdened with the reality that we all need to be disciple-makers, and we need to be training every believer to become a disciple-maker.

One of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that not everyone knows how to make disciples. Not everyone was discipled when they became a Christian and so they’re not sure how to teach someone else to be a disciple-maker. Because of the burden that God has placed on my heart to reach the lost and make disciples… this has become my mission.

As I work with churches, I hear pastors often say they feel stuck. They get visitors in their church and when someone gives their life to Christ, they don’t feel like they have a process to help those new believers develop in their faith.

We want to help your church have a simple, biblical and reproducible process to make disciples who will make disciples. If a church is going to get to the place where it can birth new ministries, new leaders, and possibly start new churches, a critical component to that is disciple-making.

But let me be clear, you don’t need a discipleship program or a class. What you need is a process to help your church develop a culture of disciples who make disciples and live a disciple-making lifestyle.

The first command Jesus gave to His followers is found in Matthew 4:19. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus called together an ordinary group of men to be the first disciples. They were not highly educated or greatly gifted. He chose common people to be His disciples to show us that anyone can be equipped for a life of disciple-making.

We can also see from the model of Jesus, that disciple-making works best in a caring, relational environment. That’s why we are starting a small discipleship group or “D-Groups” process to train churches across our network. Participants will get first-hand experience in a small group of three to five people for the purpose of intentional discipleship and will see how it can change the culture of their church.

The training will help you understand the six practices that Jesus used for disciple-making. My desire is to train you and others from your church, using a process that’s called D-Life, to develop a disciple-making culture in your church.

We already have two trainings scheduled: one in Pittsburgh on March 2 and another in Gettysburg on March 3. If you serve near either of these, I hope you’ll register and join us. If you’re not, don’t worry, there are more coming, so be watching for the dates. You may register online at brnunited.org/events. Let’s work together to make disciples who make disciples.

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