Over five decades ago, as a fourteen-year-old new Christian, I was invited to be part of a small group of fellow students who would meet together weekly. I had no idea what the young adult leader meant when he invited us to take a journey with him in what he called “discipleship.” But over the next two years, I learned not only how to grow in maturity as a Christian, but also how to lead non-Christians into a relationship with Jesus.

 Years later, after planting a church and pastoring it for over 42 years, I believe it is safe to say that Perimeter Church, throughout most of those years, has been best known for its life-transforming ministry of discipleship. And it is equally accurate to say that “discipleship” has been the single greatest passion of my personal ministry.

At the time of this writing, I am now beginning my 54th consecutive year of what I call “laboring in the lives” of a small group of men. Over these years, I have watched countless men mature in their faith and become better equipped for daily life and ministry, then go on to do the same with others. During each of these years, I have personally been blessed, even as an insecure introvert, to lead many people to Christ through life-on-life relationships.

Who is this guide on training disciples for?

Most of you do not know me personally, but if you did, you would quickly discover that I am very average when it comes to intellect and natural abilities. I truly believe that if you were to get to know me well, you would become convinced that if I could become effective at discipleship, then you can as well.

As you read, it will become apparent that the tools presented are designed for anyone’s use, even those of us who are not naturally extroverted and abundantly gifted. In fact, I am reminded and encouraged by Paul’s word to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 2:3-5) when he said, “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

And let me say a word to pastors who are reading this. Regarding our church’s ministry of discipleship, I can say with integrity that this is not a one-church phenomenon. For the past dozen years or so, we have coached hundreds of churches through our discipleship training process, both nationally and globally. These churches are extremely diverse regarding size, denomination affiliation, and theological backgrounds. These churches have the same story to tell as Perimeter, and many of their stories far surpass our own story.

Two Important Concerns:

I am personally still learning more each year about both making and training disciples. With the realization that I am still a learner, I would love to share with each of you some of my life learnings. But before I conclude this introduction, I need to close with two personal concerns:

1) That you might mistakenly hear me say that I believe I (or any of the men and women who are part of our Life on Life staff) think we have it all correct, perfectly put together. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you have already heard in this introduction, “discipleship” covers anything and everything we do that truly helps people become followers of Christ and/or advance in their journey of following. We do believe certain often-neglected biblical principles make discipleship more effective. Please know we are simply sharing our insights regarding these principles for your consideration.

2) That you might mistakenly hear me say that our model for discipleship is THE model that everyone needs to use. We know that God works through these same principles in many differing expressions. And beyond the principles that Life on Life espouses, there are many different approaches to discipleship that God is richly blessing every day.

So I hope you find what I share in these guides to be helpful and know that they are intended to be “first steps.” And don’t forget, for the full picture, you can view our guide on making disciples as well.

As I continued to consider the need for hitting the target of training disciples to be mature and equipped followers of Christ, a second challenge entered my thinking–“What is a mature and equipped follower of Christ?”

After numerous hours of sitting silently in that mountain home, I began to realize that though these words “mature” and “equipped” occur many times in Scripture, the Bible never defines them. However, I assumed that with a healthy knowledge of God’s Word, one could adequately compile a description of the characteristics of such a believer based on God’s Word. So I took on that endeavor.

Qualities of a mature & equipped follower of Christ:

Here is the description of a mature & equipped follower of Christ I came up with after hours of thought, then, and numerous edits since:

• is living consistently under the:
  • control of the Holy Spirit,
  • the direction of the Word of God,
  • and the motivation of the love of Christ,
• has discovered, developed, and is using their spiritual gifts,
• has learned to effectively share their faith in a winsomely engaging way,
• gives evidence of being:
  • a faithful member of God’s church,
  • an effective manager of life, relationships, and resources,
  • a willing minister to others, including “the least of these”,
  • an available messenger to non-Kingdom people, and
• demonstrates a life characterized as:
  • gospel-driven,
  • worship-focused,
  • morally-pure,
  • evangelistically-bold,
  • discipleship-grounded,
  • family-faithful, and
  • socially-responsible.

I realize that in reading this description, one might immediately respond, asking, “And where is this king or queen of glory?”

I would never suggest that such a Christian is “fully” mature or equipped in any of these descriptions. What I am suggesting is that, were you or I to say someone is totally void of any one of these descriptions, we would have to conclude this person is not mature and/or equipped.

For instance, what if someone met all these descriptions except living under the control of the Holy Spirit, the direction of the Word of God, etc.? I would have to conclude that this person should not be considered a mature Christian.

Though I realize there is no description that is going to be “the” description or a perfect description, I do believe it gives an adequate one to define our target, enabling us to determine how well we are accomplishing the task of hitting our goal.

Which plan will help you achieve your goals in training disciples?

Now, assuming our goal is to make mature and equipped followers of Christ, and assuming we have arrived at an adequate description of such a believer, now there’s just one last challenge–figuring out how to hit that target. Little did I realize how difficult that challenge would be.

I was pretty aware of, and our church was practicing, the typical church’s plan for helping believers with their spiritual formation. But I had to honestly evaluate whether that plan was working.

So what is the typical plan used by churches? I will address that in the next chapter, as well as why this plan is not working.

After a week in the mountains seeking the answer to what it would take to make mature and equipped followers of Christ, I came home empty-handed. When I met with our elder team to whom I reported, they agreed that my assessment regarding our church was accurate. When asked what the answer was to our dilemma, I had to plead ignorance. I had racked my brain and had no idea of the solution. Their response was clear–“We will provide for you whatever resources are needed, but you need to find the answer.”

My involvement with pastors of great churches around the country told me that they were in the same dilemma. I was becoming hopeless in finding an answer until one morning, while meeting with our staff. I had once again asked if anyone had any new ideas or thoughts as to where we could go to find a solution.

How Did Mature and Equipped Believers Become Mature and Equipped?

One of our staff members had an insightful idea. “What if we put the names on a board of all those in our church that we believe meet the description of a mature and equipped follower of Christ? And what if we were to go to them and ask how they got there? Perhaps we would find a common pathway.”

With that suggestion, we started the exercise. After writing names on the board, we had a long list of men and women. It was then that someone shared an observation. “Look at how many of the men who are on the list have been in your small group, Randy. Are you doing anything different in your group than we are doing in ours?”

In response to the question asked by our staff member, I initially pushed back. After all, I had more experience leading small groups than perhaps any of our members. And for sure, I had more theological training. (But I did know that it wasn’t that I was working with the “cream of the crop” spiritually. In fact, to a great extent, those names on the board who had been in my groups were men I had led to Christ, coming out of moral and relational messes.) And now, only a few years later, they were becoming elders and other leaders of our church.

But I knew I was leading my group differently from the other people. I was merely doing with my men what my spiritual mentor had done with me. When our staff asked what I was doing in my group, I gave the five words that outlined the content of my group meeting. These words formed an acronym (T.E.A.M.S.) which made for easily remembering. Those five words are: Truth, Equipping, Accountability, Mission, and Supplication.

In the next video, I will explain each of these five ingredients. But for now, let me simply say that the usage of these elements has become the operating system of our discipling ministry, which has given birth to what we call “Life-on-Life Missional Discipleship”.

Defining The Approach to Training Disciples

We define this approach to making and training disciples as:
“Laboring in the lives of a few with the intention of imparting one’s life and God’s truth in such a way as to see them become mature and equipped followers of Christ, committed to doing the same in the lives of others.”

After embracing this approach to discipleship churchwide, I can now say with full integrity that it is the single greatest decision we have made in the history of our church.

And now, after training churches in 20 countries across 6 continents and churches all across America, we can say with confidence, it is not a single church phenomenon. Church after church is giving testimony of the same impact in their church as we have experienced at Perimeter Church. So in the next chapter, I will explain the “operating system” of life-on-life, which we call T.E.A.M.S.

Obviously, during these early years of the church, I was practicing T.E.A.M.S. (without the use of the acronym). But I had never realized the advantage this approach was having compared to other small groups.

Great insight came to the answer of this question several years later while meeting with the same group of pastors from around the country. This meeting was sponsored by Bob Buford of Leadership Network. Bob had invited us to Colorado to be resourced for three days by Ken Blanchard, a noted business leader, author, and, years later, the head of “Lead Like Jesus.”

Situational Leadership Paradigm

When asked by one of the pastors what he attributed the success of his many books and companies, his reply got our attention. He said, “Oh, that’s simple. Every company I build and every book that I write is based on my situational leadership paradigm.”

Ken then went to a large board and explained as he drew. He put the following on the board.

He explained it, suggesting that when you hire a new employee, you initially have to give “directives”–where your office is, how to use the equipment in the office, how you … when you … etc. He went on to say, “But if you are still giving directives months down the road, you’ve failed as a leader.” He then explained how you must move from directing to coaching. The employee watches you. You watch the employee. You give feedback. The employee asks questions, and the employer coaches the newcomer into effectiveness.

Ken explained to us that at some point, it’s time to be near for “support,” but not daily “coaching.” Just being an email or phone call away is important to address that rare and unusual situation that arises. But at some point, the leader needs to “delegate” full responsibility to the employee. He or she is now good to go on their own–in fact, qualified to give the same leadership he or she had received to a new employee entering the ranks.

After relating this to the need of the church in helping our members, he made a statement that I will never forget. He said, “Never, never take your church’s people from directive to delegation. Always coach and support them first. Because if you skip coaching and support, you will produce disillusioned learners.”

Disillusioned Leaders and the Church

Then he said, “By the way, I know of no organization as notoriously guilty of producing disillusioned learners than the church!”

My observation is that this is so true.

Remember my story of asking pastors at Pastor’s Conferences to write down their four or five best offerings that helped their people in spiritual formation? Check them out–virtually all, if not all, are ministries of “directing”. As important as these are, they are not sufficient without “coaching” and “support”!

How T.E.A.M.S. Develops Leaders

Let me now end our story involving Ken Blanchard. By then, we were numerous years into embracing T.E.A.M.S. at our church. When I was listening to Ken speak, and as I observed his presentation of his “situational leadership”, I could now easily answer the question as to why T.E.A.M.S. used with life-on-life relationships is such a difference maker.

The diagram below illustrates the answer:

Directing is the same as “Truth”. Coaching is the same as “Equipping”. Support is the same as “Accountability”. And delegating is the same as “Mission.” Just add “Supplication” and you have the operating system for spiritual formation.

I admit that this comparison is not a perfect one. When I overlay our term “mission” over Ken’s term “delegate”, I don’t want to be confusing. Ken uses “delegate” to refer to the last step in training or developing leaders. Life on Life uses “mission” to refer to embracing Jesus’ mission in both word and deed. So in reality, each term in Ken’s leadership paradigm applies to all aspects of learning and development–whether it be the doctrines of suffering, how to personally worship, or how to take on the “mission” of Jesus.

So let me conclude with this summary thought. If you have the right leader (a mature and equipped follower of Christ), who labors well in the lives of a few hungry followers (life on life), with a gospel-centered, biblically-based, well-thought-through curriculum, and an effective “operating system” like T.E.A.M.S., you have a formula for building strong spiritual leaders.

By the way, this is the description of the model of Jesus and how He trained His handful of disciples. He marked them, and they in turn marked others, and through discipleship, He has marked the world. I think that’s God’s great plan.