In discipleship groups you can shepherd anyone to draw closer to the Lord in the Word. You can do this with unbelievers and with believers. Yet when we are looking for people to serve the church as shepherds and models, can we select just anyone? What if you have the model and the conviction that what you're doing is right and then you meet the maverick who appears to have a lot of spiritual schmotz and energy, but doesn't conform or fully follow? What if we meet the gifted, non-conforming genius? Can we hope that after we give him a position he will follow? Can we wish that person into compliance?
Learn from Jesus
Jesus didn't select everyone. Jesus had hundreds of followers to draw from yet chose only 12, and then of that 12 He worked closely with 3. The 12 appear to be very different, yet Jesus must have had some standards that they met. While I might guess at what some of those key standards were, these men met them and they kept following until the end, except for Judas. Jesus called them to be with Him and they came and stayed.
As a disciple maker not everyone needs to be like you, but they need to agree to follow your system. Obviously you are growing and learning and they are growing and learning, but following the model is important in order to learn to be and make disciples. They have to follow. If you want someone to read the one-year Bible every day, they need to be doing this and growing into it. If you want them to be reaching out to the lost, they need to be trying to make contact with neighbors. Hoping and wishing they will do it doesn’t make them do it.
Pick Key Leaders Carefully
Key disciple makers are those whom you are trusting to shepherd people and model the model. There is no baptism of compliance when a person is given a position as a ministry leader or elder or deacon. If they were not reading their Bible before, they won't be doing it afterward. If they were not shepherds before, they won't become shepherds simply by receiving a title. Authors whom I've read strongly suggest observing a person's response to the importance of being in the Word and shepherding others. In 1 Timothy 3:10 Paul says that deacons should be tested first. This is true for every one you make a shepherd. If they will not live and learn within the model, they will pass on something, but not the model for making disciples who make disciples. All of us have issues of maturity and pride, but following and shepherding require humility and teach-ability.
Keep working with the gifted geniuses and spiritually active mavericks, but your shepherds must be proven as those who learn from Jesus and are willing to follow the model the Lord has given us.
As the "coach" of your team, you get to set some of your own standards. There are varieties of churches, pastors and makers of disciples, but the team has to play together. Bill Walton once told UCLA basketball coach John Wooden that given his "player of the year status," he shouldn't have to cut his hair or get rid of his beard. Wooden agreed that he didn't have the right to tell Walton what to do, but added that he did have the right to say who played on his team and that he'd miss Bill. Walton complied, UCLA won, but the real hero was Wooden.
Follow Jesus' Example
Don't wish people into compliance. Work with them and wait for their maturity until they can model learning from Jesus daily in His Word and model the model of disciple-making that shows others how to make disciples.
Luke 5:27-28 After this he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he left everything, and rose and followed him.
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