Part Three

Those of you who have been around awhile will remember Andy Anderson and his Sunday School Growth Spiral.  Today, these practices are often demonized as Programmatic.  The general consensus of the day is, Lord knows, we don’t need another PROGRAM.   The word program has become a dirty word; but it need not be so.  A program is simply an organized way of doing something.  I remember Max Caldwell saying, Organization is putting yourself in the best position to be used by the Holy Spirit.  However, when a program exists only to sustain itself, then it loses its mission.  This is the case with many Sunday School ministries.  Sunday School can be an effective, mission-centered program for making disciples.

Disciple-Making Behaviors

The language of the old Growth Spiral can be transformed from a church growth focus to13 disciple-making behaviors:

1. Invite Potential Disciples to Become Members – Make it a priority constantly to be inviting and adding disciples to your small groups.
2. Disciple-making Small Groups – Make it a priority to create and provide adequate numbers of small groups whose mission is to make disciples.
3. Discipling Ministry Touches – Make it a priority to connect with every disciple weekly; regularly.
4. Disciples Attending Weekly – Make it a priority to encourage disciples to be faithful to their spiritual growth by regular Bible study and fellowship in small group.
5. Disciple-making Space – Make it a priority to provide adequate space for small groups and for new disciple-making groups.
6. Disciple-making Leaders – Make it a priority to enlist disciple-making leaders for small groups.
7. Leaders in Training for Making Disciples – Make it a priority to train disciple-making leaders for small groups.
8. Disciple – making Leadership Meetings – Make it a priority for leaders to meet regularly to plan for disciple-making      ministries
9. Disciple-Maturing Small Groups – Make it a priority to provide closed, small groups in which believer disciples can mature and grow spiritually and prepare for making disciples
10. Potential Disciples List – Make it a priority to keep a current list of potential disciples with whom to build meaningful relationships and to invite to “come learn with us” as learner      disciples.
11. Disciple-making Outreach Leaders – Make it a priority to enlist and train disciple-making outreach leaders who will maintain the Potential Disciples List and will encourage small group members to build meaningful relationships with them and invite them to “come learn with us” as learner disciples.
12. Evangelistic Prayer – Make it a priority in each small group to pray for potential disciples to become learner disciples and eventually believer disciples.
13. Disciple-making Missional Projects – Make it a priority for each small group to be involved in missional projects where disciples can connect to the community full of potential disciples. 

These behaviors, combined with transformational Bible study that involves the learner disciples in discovering life-transforming biblical truths for themselves plus the mentoring and spiritual friendship of believer disciples will create an environment in which the Holy Spirit can do his work of transformation.  Potential disciples will become learner disciples, who become believer disciples and grow into fully devoted, reproducing disciples of Jesus.  This is our mission.  This is Sunday School at its best.

 A Disciple-Making Culture Will Affect the Ministry of the Whole Church…

The behaviors, attitudes, values, and goals of a Disciple-Making Culture in the Sunday School Small Group Ministry will have positive effects on the entire church:

1.  Worship – As the connection of disciples with other disciples increases in the Small Group Ministry, so will the participation in worship, and more people will be connected to God.
2. Offerings – As disciples connect with other disciples and with God, commitment to the spiritual mandate of giving will become more apparent.
3. Baptisms – As learner disciples connect with other disciples in the study the gospel and see it lived out in the lives of other disciples in the small group and as they become connected to God in worship, they are more likely to become believer disciples and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

This is, I believe, what Jesus intended when He commissioned the church to “Go, Make Disciples”.  Let’s take this seriously as our Co-Mission as we work together in the Sunday School to create a disciple-making culture in which minds are renewed, and lives are transformed by the power of God.

________________________________________________

Phil Stone, State Sunday School Director

Church Administrant and Church Building Planning Ministries

Baptist State Convention of North Carolina

Part Two

There is a great deal of talk about “Making Disciples” today.  Everywhere people are pontificating this philosophy, but just talking want make disciples.  Creating a disciple-making culture takes more than just changing our philosophies, attitudes, values, and beliefs.  We’ve got to walk the talk.  It takes a change in behavior.

Only God Can Transform…

If we are to create a culture of making disciples in which lives are transformed, we must recognize that it is God that does the transformation.  We cannot create a Believer; this is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Our task is to create an environment where the Spirit can do His work.  This takes us back to the definition of culture:  it involves beliefs, but more; it takes a commitment to attitudes, values, goals and even more importantly, it takes a solid change of actions and practices; it depends on the behaviors of our everyday existence.  It is our starting place; it is the air we breathe.  It is priority one.

Behaviors that Create a Disciple-making Culture

We can talk about the philosophy of making disciples but that will never make one.  We can dialogue about the importance of culture but that will never transform a life.  Talking, philosophies, and dialogues do not make disciples, behavior does.  To create a disciple-making culture in our Sunday Schools, we will need to follow the action plan set by Jesus.  He didn’t just talk, he acted.  He invited learner disciples to become participating members of his small group.  He stayed connected to them.  He ministered to them, and he involved them in ministry.  Eventually, these learner disciples became believer disciples who then became fully devoted, reproducing disciples who turned the world upside down.

__________________________________________________

Phil Stone, State Sunday School Director

Church Administrant and Church Building Planning Ministries

Baptist State Convention of North Carolina

Part One

What were Jesus’ intentions when he commissioned His followers to “Go…Make Disciples”? Matthew 28:19-20

I think He intended to change their very culture into one that focused on making disciples.

Culture…

Webster defines Culture as: the customary beliefs, social forms, and behaviors of a group; the characteristic features of everyday existence; the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an organization.

What does it mean to create a Disciple-making culture?

It means that the customary beliefs of our small groups, the characteristic features of the members’ everyday existence; the shared attitudes, values, and goals of the small group ministry are focused on making disciples.

Even more than that, small group members see it as their life-style behaviors and practices to make disciples. This may mean to be intentional about building meaningful relationships with people in their world and trying authentically, not manipulatively, to lead them to become Disciples of Jesus. This does not mean our mission is to create spiritual giants or biblical scholars but people who are simply willing to learn about Jesus; to become students. It means that when small group members step out into their world they see it as a mission field full of potential disciples whose lives need to be transformed by Jesus. Their life behaviors and practices are focused on making disciples.

Transformation…

Transformation is usually defined as change; a metamorphosis from an old existence to a new one as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17, …behold all things are become new. We usually think of the butterfly transformed from the caterpillar. Transformation is radical change and more. If we change the crawling caterpillar, he’s still a caterpillar, however when he enters the cocoon, transformation takes place and he assumes a new life-path. He doesn’t crawl, he flies. Change fixes things; transformation creates a new path for life. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2 that transformation comes through the renewing of your minds.

Sunday School: Part of a Disciple-making, Transformational Ministry Process…

The renewing of mind refers to learning. As one learns about the gospel of Jesus from God’s Word and sees it lived out in a small group of believers, his mind can become renewed and transformation takes place. He moves from being a learner to a believer disciple. Sunday School is a learning place where potential disciples can renew their minds as they hear and see the gospel in others. That’s why Sunday School Small Group Ministry is an important part in a disciple-making, transformational ministry process.

In the Simple Church by Geiger and Rainer, churches were encouraged to develop a Discile-Making Process, and this usually consisted of three elements:

1. Worship – where disciples connect with God
2. Community – where disciples connect with other disciples and invite potential disciples
3. Missions – where disciples connect with the community full of potential disciples

Sunday School is that second step in the Disciple-Making process. It is that small group to which believer disciples invite and welcome potential, learner disciples to experience the gospel. It is the cocoon for transformation; a safe place where learner disciples can ask the hard questions and hear the stories of and be mentored by believer disciples.

_______________________________________________

Phil Stone, State Sunday School Director
Church Administration and Church Building Planning Ministries

Baptist State Convention of North Carolina