Containers of Discipleship
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 131
When you design a house, you design it based on your vision and your needs. That’s how you can have 100 houses which all have the same components, but are all different. There are certain essential things that make a house—a roof, bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. Discipleship needs to have certain essential components.
Containers of Discipleship
1. One-on-one time with the person discipling them
2. Being brought into a team
3. Doctrinal training
4. Practical ministry training and experience
Discipleship needs to include one-on-one time, being part of a team, having classroom doctrinal instruction, and training in practical ministry. These essentials are needed to develop a discipleship pattern that people can plug into.
Each church’s use of these containers will look different. For example, the amount of teachers you have and how well-versed they are would determine how deep into doctrinal training you can go. There are churches with great teachers, and they are going to be able to have continuous classes going. There are churches where that isn’t their strongest gifting, but they certainly can do 12 foundational classes once or twice a year.
Discipleship Questions
Do we have a group of people who can meet with people one-on-one?
Do we have an on-ramp process where people can connect to a team and be part of that team?
Do we have courses and classes set up where people can be taught basic doctrine?
Do you have opportunities where people can get hands-on training for practical ministry?
When we break discipleship down into bite-size pieces in these four containers, it helps us not only get a good grip on it but measure our success. This also helps those being discipled to understand the next step. Instead of starting with a massive detailed list of everything you want discipleship to contain, start with these four containers, and then fill in what each one looks like. The container mentality lets us adjust the different components without tearing down the whole system and starting over again.
When working on your discipleship track, think like a general contractor. You have important components that all need to get done. You may not be the best person to do each component, but you have someone who has gifting for that, so employ them. The container mentality should help you simplify the discipleship process.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
