Ultimately, disciple-making is about, well… making more disciples. It is often very easy to get so wrapped up in our own personal growth and the growth of your D-Group that it is easy to forget that one the most important things we can do as disciples is to make more disciples. This often involves leaving the group we are in and starting a new group. It also involves sharing the Gospel with lost people and leading them as they become a follower of Jesus Christ and have a personal relationship with Him and with other disciples.

2 Timothy 2:2 is one of the most well used and treasured Scripture verses of a disciple. In this verse, Paul writes,

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,
commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2, CSB)

This verse is well known because it has four generations of disciples in only one verse (Paul, Timothy, faithful men, others). In other words, Paul is instructing his protege Timothy to replicate himself – to make more disciples. Paul can encourage Timothy to do this because Timothy knows that Paul replicated himself; not just in Timothy, but in Titus, Silas, Luke, Philemon, Lydia, Mark, Aristarchus, Epaphroditus, and so many more. Paul’s words ring true with Timothy (and with us) because we can see this ministry of replication in Paul’s life, it is clearly visible.

Let’s slow down and make this personal for a moment… as a disciple, is your ministry of replication plainly visible?

Many efforts at making disciples in the local church fall way short of four generations. Few rarely get past generation 2. The problem is that at generation 2 (identified in the verse as Timothy’s generation), we are still operating on the level of addition. But once the disciple-making movement reaches generation 3, and definitely generation 4, it has moved from addition to multiplication. Our failure to replicate beyond generation 2 is the reason most disciple-making movements in the local church fizzle out.

Three Arenas of Replication

Replicate Yourself
The first arena of replication is to replicate yourself. We will not initiate a movement if we have not successfully initiated this first arena. You may lead someone to Christ and have the opportunity to show this new believer how to meditate on God’s Word, pray, live in biblical community, and replicate themselves in someone else. Perhaps you know a church member or someone or some people in your small group with whom you could form a D-Group to help them better follow Jesus. But the fact of the matter is, a mature disciple is a replicating disciple.

Replicate Your Group
When a disciple forms a new D-Group, they should immediately begin making plans to lead that group to start another group, or even groups! This is the generation 2 problem discussed a couple of paragraphs above. When a group fails to replicate, it freezes the movement at generation 2, plus it robs the disciples in the group of an opportunity to start a new group themselves. For multiplication to occur, groups must replicate and the more often the better.

Replicate the Movement
Disciple-making does not become a movement until individual disciples are making disciples evangelistically and personally, AND individual groups are replicating and forming more groups. Paul had a massive impact on making disciples, not just personally or in groups, but as a movement because he encouraged both personal and group disciplemaking.

Feel free to leave your questions or comments in the comments section below.

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Bob Mayfield is the Sunday School and Discipleship specialist at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. You can follow Bob on his blog at bobmayfield.com, Twitter at @bobmayfield and Facebook @thebobmayfield.