Pastor: are you making disciples?

by Sep 5, 2019

Here is one question every pastor ought to ask: “Who are you discipling?” If the mission of the Church is to make disciples, then every pastor ought to be making them. Every pastor ought to be personally engaged in the mission of making disciples. Why are so many pastors not personally making disciples? Let’s walk through some possible reasons pastors are not making disciples.

Reason #1: I am too busy! I have known many a pastor who claimed to be too busy for making disciples. Those pastors have a lot of activities on their calendars and have not prioritized space for disciple making. Can I remind you that we all have exactly the same amount of time in a week? Everyone has 168 hours in a week. Pastor, if you are too busy to make disciples as Jesus did, you are just too busy. Do not become so busy you cannot make time to do the very thing Jesus came to do. No one in history was as busy as Jesus, and He still made time for disciple making.

Reason #2: I don’t know how! Not knowing how to disciple someone is a very legitimate reason for why a pastor may not be making more disciples. If pastors have never been discipled or taught how to make more disciples, it makes since that they would not know how to begin that process. The good news is that everyone can learn. Even if you have never been discipled, you have the perfect model in Jesus. I encourage you to learn from other disciple making pastors, but let Jesus be the model you follow. Study His life and ministry and learn how He went about making disciples. You cannot go wrong studying Jesus’ approach to disciple making. 

Reason #3: It’s not a priority! I know several pastors who simply do not believe disciple making should be the main priority in their ministries. They are not claiming to be too busy or uninformed: they simply do not see it as the main goal. These pastors may not realize it, but failing to make disciples is an act of disobedience to God. Jesus Himself called us to come after Him in making disciples. If something is a priority for Christ, it certainly ought to be a priority for every pastor leading Christ’s Church. 

At Impact Discipleship Ministries, we are helping pastors become disciple makers. We recently began our first online equipping group for pastors called The Making of a Disciple Making Pastor. This group is a six month process of helping a pastor learn the six priorities of a disciple making pastor. If you would like to sign up for the next online equipping group, email us at info@impactdisciples.com. We are here to help you be and build disciples.

By Ken Adams, founder and director of Impact Discipleship Ministries.

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