Discipleship Pathway is a 6-part blog series that walks through the entire discipleship process; from someone who is far from God (the skeptic, the curious, the cynic) to someone who is close to God (the convinced, the sold-out, the on fire). We’ll be looking at each of the steps of a discipleship pathway.
Discipleship Pathway Part 6
Maturity Equals Reproduction
This happens to me every time I visit a church. People will tell me, “I’ve been in this church for 20 years” or “I’ve been on the board for 12 years”. It’s not just information they’re giving me, they’re telling me that they are mature believers. In many churches, we’ve equated maturity with tenure but that’s not what maturity is.
We are called to spiritual maturity (Hebrews 5:14, Hebrews 6:1-2). There is an expectation that Christ-followers will start out as spiritual infants and mature over time. But a key element of maturity is not our age. There are many believers who are older in years but act very spiritually immaturely. This is because we have erroneously defined maturity as “tenure”. When really, spiritual maturity is about reproduction.
We know this biologically. In high school, we sat through awkward classes about reproduction. A person is considered mature when they can reproduce, not when they are old. The same is true for spirituality. The goal isn’t to know as much as we can, but to reproduce disciples for Christ. Disciple-making is the key indicator of spiritual maturity.
Matthew 28:19-20 is the final command of Christ to “Go and make disciples”. But who was He talking to? In Matthew 28:17, we see, “when they saw Him (Jesus), they worshipped Him; but some doubted”. The call to make disciples isn’t for a select few, it’s for everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus. And the call is to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. There needs to be reproduction happening for the Great Commission to be fulfilled.
When you identify spiritual maturity as reproduction, it will change how you challenge, coach and disciple the men in your church.
You’ll Stop Doing Everything.
If your goal is to get Christ-followers to reproduce new disciples of Jesus, you will get them doing more of the ministry and less of listening to you. Disciples reproduce disciples. You’ll see that in how Jesus discipled the disciples. He went from “go find us some food” (John 6:1-14) to “cast out demons” (Mark 6:7-13) to “take over my mission” (Matthew 28:19-20). Jesus’ goal was not to create gatherers, but those who would go and make disciples.
You’ll Challenge People to Grow Up.
Believers who act like babies need to be challenged to grow up. If you’ve been a Christ-follower for a bit and you act more like a consumer than a follower, it’s time to grow up. If you gossip to other people in your church and find yourself acting in a cantankerous manner, it’s time to grow up. We can’t allow Christ-followers who have “been in this church for 20 years” to act as spiritual babies. Being in church Sunday after Sunday does not make you a fully devoted follower of Jesus, just like being in a McDonald’s once a week doesn’t make you a hamburger. It’s time for men and women to become “spiritual fathers and mothers”.
You’ll Focus on More Disciple-making and Less on Learning.
Somewhere along the lines, we got “Christian instruction” confused with “Christian living”. Living a life in Christ looks a whole lot different than learning about Jesus. Discipleship that focuses on learning and instruction falls short of helping Jesus followers make disciples who make disciples. Remember, Jesus didn’t say, “study Me” or “admire Me”, he said “follow Me.” Following Jesus means we go where He goes and do what He does. We keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26) and walk in obedience to Christ.
So now you define spiritual maturity as reproduction, and you’ll make disciple-makers. Your focus will be on seeing people disciple people instead of just seeing them come back next week. This small shift in how you see spiritual maturity will completely change how you disciple men and women.
You’ve reached the end of the six-part discipleship pathway series. This is a chance for you to go back through each lesson and discuss them with your team.
For each lesson, discuss:
How are we doing at this as a church?
What improvements can we make?
How will we measure the continued effectiveness?
Jeremiah works as an Effectiveness Coach with the ABNWT District of the PAOC. He is a passionate and creative leader who believes that the church is the hope of the world. He uses collaboration, innovation, and inspiration to challenge churches and their leadership to engage in the only mission Jesus ever sent his church on: making disciples.