The Making of a Disciple Making Pastor
#3- Lead the Organization
Disciple making churches need disciple making pastors. A disciple making pastor is a pastor that leads toward the mission, and a pastor that leads themselves first. A disciple making pastor is also a pastor that leads his church to be a disciple making church. Sadly, not all churches are organized and structured to make disciples. It takes a courageous leader to help a church get organized and structured to accomplish the mission of making disciples.
In this blog post, I want to share some insights into how to lead a church to become a disciple making church. Please pass this on to any pastor you may know.
#3- Lead the Organization! Over the years I have had several lay leaders in churches ask me about how their church could become a disciple making church. I usually share several things, but one thing always stays in the back of my mind. If the lead pastor of the church is not leading the church to be a disciple making church, it will be hard to get any traction in disciple making. If the lead pastor champions disciple making, you greatly increase the chances of a church being a disciple making church. If the lead pastor does not champion disciple making, it will be extremely hard for that church to become a disciple making church.
One of the first things a pastor does in leading the church to become a disciple making church is to clearly define the target. If a church does not know what the target is, the likely hood of hitting it is not very good. The pastor’s job is to clearly define the target! In every church, the target is to make disciples that are “fully trained” and look like Jesus.
The second thing a disciple making pastor does is to determine a strategy. Disciples are not made automatically. People move from untrained to fully trained by taking steps of growth and development. Even Jesus took the original twelve disciples through a process of becoming “fully trained” disciples. The pastor’s job is to know what the church needs to do and not do in order to accomplish the right mission.
The third thing a disciple making pastor does is to design environments that help people become “fully trained”disciples. The small group is the primary environment for disciple making. In the same way Jesus made disciples in a small group, we are to make disciples in a small group. The disciple making pastor helps drive the value of mission-driven groups that stay focused on making “fully trained” disciples. The pastor’s job is to help small group leaders create the right types of small groups.
Finally, the disciple making pastor helps develop more disciple making leaders. It takes disciple making leaders to help the church hit the right target, work the right strategy, and design the right environments. None of these things happen by chance. The right leaders make the right things happen!
Once again, the pastor’s job is to feed the congregation and to lead the congregation to be a disciple making church. At Impact Ministries, we are seeking to help pastors learn to lead. If you want to learn more, or have interest in a coaching group, please contact us at impactdisciples.com.
