One way to read trends in the evangelical world is to watch how national conferences like Catalyst, Exponential, and VERGE are “theming.” Based on this, there is evidence that the North American conversation is centering on the theme of discipleship. While the 1980s focused on church growth, the 1990s on church health, and the 2000s on the church distributed, many observers believe that we are well on the way to making discipleship the core conversation of this decade.
John Chandler
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And given Jesus’ Great Commission for us to “make disciples,” this is cause for celebration, right?
Not so fast, warns Mike Breen in his State of the Evangelical Union: “My observation is that in the evangelical world, there are three areas of focus that we have, settling on one to hang our hat on for a time: Leadership, Discipleship, and Mission. We tend to focus on one to the exclusion of the other two. Eventually, that wears thin, we lose people’s interest, and we move onto the next.” In short, is the current focus on discipleship a passing phase?
I hope not. It would be a shame.
But there are reasons to believe this is not the case. One of the promising developments of the current discipleship conversation is that it is becoming the lens through which both leadership and mission are understood.
Regarding mission: the classic “Missio Dei” motto is now front and center: “The church of God doesn’t have a mission; the mission of God has a church.” In other words, God is at work in the world and uses a church of disciples to carry out that mission. The congregation is not the final landing place for God’s work in the world. (Amen!)
Regarding leadership: we are seeing Kingdom leadership understood through the lens of discipleship. The best Kingdom leaders today are the best followers or disciples of Jesus. This has always been true, but it is now widely affirmed. Looking for a great leader? Don’t ask for a polished CEO or extroverted entrepreneur first; look for a vibrant disciple, and go from there.
This is one trend I fervently pray to flourish: that our lead foot is discipleship. When our leadership and mission conversations are interpreted first as discipleship conversations, the movement of Jesus’ Kingdom is taking a step forward!
John Chandler is leader of the Spence Network.