Great coaches create winning teams because they have an intentional and reproducible system. Through this process, they not only create winning teams, they create players that become great people that go on to become successful leaders themselves.
Jesus was a masterful coach. His apostles knew how to make disciples themselves because of what He had done intentionally and relationally with them.
Jesus was a masterful coach. His apostles knew how to make disciples themselves because of what He had done intentionally and relationally with them. #discipleship Share on XSince Jesus was the greatest disciple-maker in history, the leaders at Real Life Ministries thoroughly studied Jesus’ process for discipleship. The harder we studied, the more we began to see an interesting pattern that, as evidenced in the book of Acts, had been passed on to the early church. Real Life Ministries has given this process a name – the Share, Connect, Minister, Disciple process (SCMD).
After Jesus performed the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11), He shared the truth that He was the Messiah with Peter, John, and the others. Over the next few years, He spent time training His disciples and gave them the opportunity to connect with Him as He prepared them to go out and minister to the people and grow in the discipleship process, eventually learning to become disciple-makers themselves.
After his resurrection, Jesus ascended and left us with the great commission (Matthew 28: 19-20) Later in the upper room his disciples received the Holy Spirit and Peter stood up and began sharing the truth about Jesus. The new believers who responded to this Pentecost message were connected to each other and to the disciples. They all met together daily and were devoted to fellowship together as they learned more about Jesus. From there we hear about how the leaders discovered a problem with the Greek widows not having food, and they assigned men to minister to them. Out of this rose a disciple named Phillip, who went on to reproduce this same intentional process with others in Samaria.
This reproducible process of Relational Discipleship that Jesus modeled for us is timeless. It transcends geographical and cultural barriers. This process does not require a Bible degree or complete knowledge of every spiritual issue. You are able to disciple another, no matter where you are in the process, to the level of maturity you yourself have reached.
You are able to disciple another, no matter where you are in the process, to the level of maturity you yourself have reached. #discipleship Share on XThis reproducible process has proven to be very effective here at Real Life Ministries. As his disciples today, we share our lives with other people, which leads to sharing the good news about Jesus and what he has done for us. Then we move to connect them with Jesus and with other believers in relationship through the church. Next, we help them grow as disciples by providing a place for them to minister in Jesus’ name within their church and community. Then, when they are ready, we deploy them and release them to disciple others in the same way.
Through this process that Jesus modeled for his disciples, the world came to know about him. At Real Life Ministries our vision is to continue to reach the world for Jesus – one person at a time, using His process of relational discipleship.
We have created a graphic we call the Discipleship Wheel, that shows each stage in the process and how it aligns with the corresponding stage of growth and maturity.
You can find out more about the stages of spiritual growth in this post – The 5 Stages Of Growth For A Disciple – Free Resource!
You can read more about this topic in Real Life Discipleship by Jim Putman
Click the link below to download a pdf of the Wheel
REAL LIFE MINISTRIES DISCIPLESHIP WHEEL
