Here are some additional thoughts and considerations that have gone into the development of this strategy.
Both Greg Ogden* and Bill Hull** did discipleship groups for years and both had the same conclusions. The process didn't work or it was frustrating. The reasons I see for the frustrations are as follows:
· Leadership training was too vague or too complicated. It couldn't reproduce itself.
· The material was limited, was secondary and it got old. The Bible itself was only a support book.
· The emphasis was not on being a disciple who makes disciples who make disciples in the harvest.
· Reproduction was not built into the groups from the beginning.
· The group size was either too large (Sunday school) or too small (1 on 1). Greg Ogden did one-on-one discipleship coaching and mentoring for years. His conclusion and experience brought him to settle on groups of 4-5, including the leader. This was also Jesus' model. Jesus had a group of 12 but within that group, He had Peter, James and John, a group of four.
· "Volunteers" almost always failed. Those who entered discipleship groups had to be invited and they had to make the basic commitments or they could not enter.
This disciple making strategy can become the culture of a church or an organization if all the ministry staff and elders are following this model. This cannot become a culture unless all the leaders are doing it. The lead pastor has to be doing this with his staff and key leaders, who, in turn, will be led to do this with those they lead.
My suggestion is that all lay leaders have two groups: their group, led by someone giving them leadership and support, and the group they are leading. Some lay leaders will be able to do more groups.
Here is a suggestion how this process might work out. Fulltime staff can support several groups comprised of the key lay leaders they are supporting in their particular ministry (i.e., youth, children, etc.). The lead pastor does the staff and head elders. Other elders and deacons would be part of the staff's groups since all leaders must be involved in discipleship and ministry. All leaders have to model following Christ in the harvest, reading their Bibles, making disciples, reaching out to neighbors.
As the members of my group each take on 3-4 others, I continue to meet with those same 3 people. This gives the new disciple-makers weekly support as they make disciples and encounter challenges and questions.
This seems like slow growth and for this reason it will not be accepted by many churches or pastors, but if you work the model numerically over 5 years, it not only grows, but you have intentionally nurtured, mature and seasoned leaders and makers of disciples. The model below describes a perfect world. Also, this is lay led, meaning that the first disciple-maker is not a full-time ministry person who could do 3-5 groups in a week.
Year one: 1 disciple-maker and 3 disciples.
Year two: 4 disciple-makers and 9 new disciples.
Year three: 13 disciple-makers and 27 new disciples.
Year four: 40 disciple-makers and 81 new disciples.
Year five: 121 disciple-makers and 243 new disciples. I don't know of any church that has this.
Imagine year six.
Notice that as the network grows and each person is still receiving primary support in his discipleship cell, no one gets recruited and forgotten. The network stays together, expanding through new disciples making disciples. The Lord Himself regulates the growth of the network. The limiting factor is the number of people who come to Christ. The leadership core of the church expands naturally to accommodate the additional growth. Again, this would be in a perfect world. But even if your key leaders leave, you have leaders to take their places and the person who leaves is sent out as an experienced maker of disciples.
* Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship
** Bill Hull, http://www.tnetwork.com/Newsletter/0303Tnetworker/Hull0303.htm#1%20in%20place
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