Five Components Of Effective Discipleship
One phrase I have found myself using too much in the last year is “since the pandemic”. But it's hard not to talk about how the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped so much about the way I view life, ministry, strategy and even effectiveness as a pastor and church leader. The huge question on my mind right now is DISCIPLESHIP. What does it take to make robust, mature, Biblically literate, Jesus followers in 2022 and beyond?
What have we done well over the last twenty years?
What has been missing?
What are the obstacles we are facing today?
How do we develop a plan that really works?
There are five components in disciple-making that are relevant to the methods we have used in the past, and in what we will need to redesign for the future.
#1 - CLASSROOM
One of the contexts for discipleship is in the classroom. Often this is where induction courses are taught for new believers, new members, or growth track classes.
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How Do I Measure Me? Success? Effectiveness?
When my kids were growing up, we had their names and growth marks with dates on the wall in the basement. It was a fun event as we marked how much they had each grown in the past year and a huge celebration when they were finally tall enough to ride certain rides at Kennywood Park!
I think the desire to measure ourselves is something that never really goes away. As we grow older, we stop measuring physical progress (though I still battle the numbers on the scale) and our focus shifts to personal progress and success.
For pastors and church leaders we may ask:
How is my ministry doing?
Should it be bigger? Better? More effective?
Am I somehow inadequate? Ineffective?
These questions are intensely personal and incredibly sensitive. I know! I also know that comparison is a trap. Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 10:12, "When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." I think we all get this concept. Instagram comparison is toxic. Looking at someone else's 'highlight reel' is a recipe for depression, especially when the movie in your head about yourself is of your life's worst moments.
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Do You Believe In Miracles?
As I was growing up, one of the things that convinced me to become a follower of Jesus were the stories of God’s miraculous power in the lives of people I knew. One of the stories was about my father’s healing from heart damage caused by a bought with rheumatic fever when he nine years old.
When my dad contracted rheumatic fever, the doctors told him that the that damage to his heart would cause him to be limited the rest of his life; he would never be able to play sports or to do any kind of physical labor. And as he lay on the couch, suffering from the fever and terrible joint pain, he was crying to his mom about the pain. She had done everything she knew to do and so she told him to cry out to Jesus. This little nine year old boy called out on the Name of Jesus and then fell asleep. When he woke up, my father was completely healed.
When my dad reached his forties, he was undergoing a series of testing. He asked the doctors to check his heart for any signs of damage from the rheumatic fever but they indicated that there was no evidence of any damage to his heart at all. No scar tissue. No irregular beats. Nothing at all. My dad passed away last September at 81 years of age but it wasn’t from a heart issue. The healing of his heart that God did at nine years old, he sustained for 72 more years!
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FOUR WAYS THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS ME GROW
As a leader of an organization, one of the things that I have so appreciated is being able to talk to a Life Coach. Someone who serves in the role of a Life Coach is trained to help you process your problems, challenges, and perspective. They know how to ask powerful questions. They help guide your thinking toward clarity. I will never forget a coaching moment that happened years ago with my friend, Jane Abatte. We were dialoging about challenges with some of my key partners when she asked me a question that was so direct it left me speechless. “Why do you think you are allowing and enabling people to treat you that way?” After a few seconds of total silence, I finally said, “I think I need a day to process that question because I can’t really answer that right now.” Her question hit me like a punch in the stomach. But it was exactly what I needed to consider.
Great coaches ask powerful questions. Let me give you a few basic ones to ponder:
What is it that you want out of your life right now?
Where are you trying to change?
What challenge are you trying to navigate?
What goal are you trying to reach?
When Jesus provided coaching and direction to His followers, He gave them more than a set of powerful and poignant questions. He knew they needed something beyond just clarity and direction. So much of our world presents strategies for change and growth but most of them are based on self-help tactics. Motivation. Discipline. Habits. Vision. All of these things are amazing keys to becoming better at whatever we are trying to be.
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Online Campus - What We Have Learned
Written by Pastor Kelli Brownlee (APC Online Campus Pastor)
I remember the first weekend in March 2020 when Allison Park Church went ONLINE ONLY for the weekend services. Like the rest of the world, we assumed that our physical locations would only be shut down by Covid-19 for a week or two.
Our production team, an innovative group of people led by our Experiences Director, Brendon Robinson, seemed to be excited about the pivot.
Prior to the pandemic, we had already been streaming most of our services online from our Hampton Campus location, “the mothership”. But, Covid-19 forced us to accept that there was a group of people who might never step foot in a physical church building again, or at the very least, might be some of the last people to return.
Here are a few things we learned:
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The Role Of Central Ministries In A Multi-Campus Church
Having been involved with our multi-campus journey for almost 10 years, I have seen the benefits and challenges of having one church in multiple locations. Setting up a structure that serves multiple campuses in different areas of our region, with different demographics of people and with campus pastors that have various leadership styles is extremely complicated. However, being multi-campus allows us to impact communities that would be outside of our reach with a single location model.
One of the most important elements of setting up a multi-campus structure is establishing “Central Ministries and Services”. These central functions are designed to remove some of the day to day tasks from our pastors which allows them to have more time to focus on people. In our structure, our campus staff is free to focus on the needs of the people because our central staff handles many of the specialized skills, systems and/or processes.
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Better together? Seven Advantages Of A Multi-Site Church
For the past ten years, Allison Park Church has functioned as one church in multiple locations, or what has come to be known as ‘multi-site church’. Currently, we have six physical locations, an online campus, and an associated international church (Revival Church International) who all function as a part of one larger organization.
This post is the beginning of a seven part blog post series, in which the Campus Pastors of APC have been asked to share their perspective on the WHAT and the WHY of our model and function. The first of these is from a pastor who has been on the team for over twenty years. Chris Griffin is currently the Campus Pastor of the Mt Nebo Campus.
Here’s his thoughts on the benefits of being multi-site and how we are better together…
#1 - OPTIONS
People like options. A multi-site church with campuses creates many options for people to choose from, and still belong to the same church. Size options. Geographic options. Demographic options. Service Time options. Worship style options. The size option is really important for some people. Some prefer the worship and production of a larger campus. Also, a larger campus does provide a sense of anonymity for a person or family who is just checking things out. While some people really prefer a smaller campus size that feels more welcoming, less intimidating and can be easier to get connected.
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What Does Success Look Like?
One of the major adjustments that church leaders needed to make over the last two years is designing a way to measure what success looks like in the areas we lead.
We would all have to admit that, in the past, we were probably overly attached to the metrics of church attendance and giving. These two metrics tend to be the easiest to count and the most gratifying to measure, if they are headed in the right direction. However, if they are dropping, for whatever reason, the feelings of insecurity and failure can settle in like a dark, gloomy cloud.
The endemic and its effect on church attendance has caused many pastors to re-evaluate and begin searching for different ways to measure success while waiting for things to go back to “normal.” (Cue laugh track. If we are honest with ourselves, we all know there is no “normal” anymore).
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Three Ways To Help Your Kids Engage With God
Currently, we are in a twenty-one day season of prayer as a church. These moments provide a tremendous opportunity to engage your child or young person in your spiritual journey.
So often, parents are intimidated to engage with their kids spiritually. They may want to leave spiritual training to the "experts"; their children's pastor or youth pastor. While parents may not know where to begin, it's good to remember that spiritual development is not as much about imparting theological knowledge as it is about sharing your spiritual journey with someone.
Jesus' method of discipleship was to be WITH his followers. His influence on them was more than just His teachings. It was about His passions; His dreams; His struggles; and the powerful way He asked questions.
With that in mind, here are a few ways to engage your kids:
#1 - IT'S ABOUT THE PASSION WE SHARE
As a boy, I inherited my dad's passion for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I will never forget sitting around the TV and hearing him yell out in frustration or celebration over what was happening in the game. These were precious moments we shared together.
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Five Things I Do On A Fast
Over the years, I have developed the skill set of fasting and prayer. Honestly, when I first started out during my Bible College days, I never made it more than a few hours. Every time I would go to fast, I would end up eating! Some of my good friends fasted for weeks. Somehow, I could not last even a day.
Then, I learned the secret of accountability. Having a partner you did not want to disappoint, helped me stay with it. First it was three days. Then five. Then an entire week. Eventually, I grew to where 21 days of fasting (liquid only) became a pattern for me every January.
But even then, I was sometimes just miserable and hungry the entire time! My focus was still on my empty growling stomach, and how much longer I had to go until I would be able to eat again. It was like grinding it out till the end of a 'hunger strike' rather than an intimate time in relationship with God.
Okay...I might be exaggerating a little bit. But there were many days I felt like 'What's the point!?' This is just awful. So here's five things that I have learned to do to make my season of fasting and prayer powerful and more meaningful.
#1 - I CLEAR AS MUCH CLUTTER FROM MY SCHEDULE
My first mistake was that I was working just as hard during my fast as I was the rest of the year. I kept a full schedule of appointments. When I came home at night, I was exhausted. So I ended up dealing with my fatigue by laying on the couch and watching a TV program or sporting event, and craving the food advertised during every commercial.
When I decided to limit my number of appointments, and carve out more time for solitude, my entire approach changed. It's not that I was getting less done, or just vegging out. But my time of solitude allowed me to think about longer term planning. I had space to think. Dream. Evaluate. Discern.
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Top Ten Recommended Reads Of 2021
As we come to the close of another crazy year, I thought I would take a moment and recommend some of the best articles that have impacted my thinking over the past year. It's amazing how this new era, which suddenly came upon us in 2020, has made me even more hungry to learn and grow.
Most of the listed articles ignited in me a desire for further study, with some of the articles recommending books that I went on to read. But I used all of these articles as discussion points with some of the key leaders in my life.
These are listed in no particular order. But I hope you are as benefited by them as I have been:
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THE PANDEMIC BECAME THE GREAT ACCELERATOR
It seems like every few weeks, my wife and I have the same conversation. "Can you believe what has happened in the last two years!? Remember when we were totally locked down? I never thought it would last this long or get this weird!" We are still just trying to make sense of it all.
One thing we are still trying to get our heads around is how much people's church attendance has changed. Carey Nieuwhof said in his recent blog post, "During the pandemic, however, new habits were formed. The longer the lockdown lasted, the deeper the habits. As a result, casual attendees and members who were nominally committed to the church or the Christian faith drifted away (more on why below), leaving you with mostly…Engagers. For the most part, the Engagers returned. The disengaged didn’t.”
Secondly, things that were previously beneath the surface have been uncovered and exposed: attitudes, opinions, affiliations, belief systems, patterns and political leanings. It's all been brought to the surface in all of its wonder and glory...and ugliness.
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Hope For Struggling Parents
Last week, I saw an Instagram post from one of my pastor friends who is currently raising young children. It was a picture of a scene in Star Wars, where Yoda is dying. The quote on the meme was, "Once I became a parent I finally understood the scene where Yoda gets so tired of answering Luke's questions he just dies!"
When I saw that, I laughed out loud (literally L-O-L). I remember those days! There are so many ways in which parenting leaves us exasperated and exhausted. Whether it is chasing a two year old around the room or battling it out with your teenager about what is fair and unfair, raising kids is one of the most challenging experiences anyone can ever endure.
So let me give you five reasons why you should have hope today:
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Do We Underestimate Our Need For The Holy Spirit?
A few weeks ago, I completed two weeks of teaching at the Allison Park Leadership Academy on the BOOK OF ACTS. Honestly, this is one of my favorite books of the Bible because helps us deconstruct what is current cultural Christianity, and reconstruct the paradigm that is based on the function of the early church.
At the very beginning of the book, Jesus is speaking to his disciples just after his resurrection and before his ascension. It is during this moment that he challenges them to take the gospel to every nation on earth. He asks his followers to lead people into the revolution of the Kingdom of God.
But he also warns them with a promise.
“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5
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Sometimes You Need To Look Back To Move Forward
We have experienced something in the last few weeks that has been so incredibly healthy for us as a church! During the month of September, we decided to do a series entitled GRAB THE BATON, as we took some time to celebrate the fact that I have now been the Lead Pastor at Allison Park Church for three decades.
The purpose of a celebration of an anniversary is to mark the moment; to pull up the memories of what makes the shared relationship special; to thank God for His faithfulness; and to renew the commitment to the future together.
This is what we have been doing during this sermon series. Our hope is that the next generation, who was not here thirty years ago, will hear the stories of the past, understand the DNA of what makes us unique, and grab that baton so that they can run their race.
As a part of the weekend messages, I have been sharing some of the key moments, miracles, and marks of what God has done at APC over the years. Somehow, the experience of looking back has helped us prepare to move past the stress and tension of the last two years, so that we can move forward again.
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Seven Steps To Grow Your Group
I will never forget the moment when I heard John Maxwell quote Benjamin J. Hooks, “He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following only taketh a walk!” I laughed out loud, not only at the creative use of ‘King James’ English, but by the stark and obvious nature of the truth revealed in that observation!
Leadership is more than just a position. It is so much more than just a title. True leadership is evidenced by the fact that someone or some group of people are actually attached to and following you. This reality seems to be of the the biggest needs within the atmosphere of Allison Park Church (and beyond that probably every church) in the season we are in.
Here’s my assessment of where we are right now: Prior to the pandemic (which I guess now is an endemic), it was already challenging to get people to connect within a local church. We have three primary ways we hope to get people into relationships beyond a weekend experience:
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Why I Am Involved In Bridge-Building Relationships
Was anyone else surprised by the polarization and division that surfaced during 2020? I have to admit that I was! But then again, I wasn’t. Sure, I knew that there was significant and growing political division by the tone of the 2016 presidential debates. In addition, the intensity of news coverage seemed to widen the polarization, as news channels battled each other daily. But I had no idea the depth of this division until it all came boiling to the surface in 2020. Now, it is the new norm of our world and it seems like there is no going back.
About five years ago, I began to feel God convicting me to become better at bridge building. While I was very active in helping other churches get started in my city and had been in a multi-denominational pastors’ prayer group for twenty-five years, I had not taken enough time to get to know leaders from different backgrounds and perspectives. The pastors in my regional prayer group were all white and evangelical. The pastors in my network were all from my tribe or were spiritual sons and daughters. I had attempted some bridge-building activities, but it was sporadic, at best.
When the shooting at the Tree of Life Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh occurred in October of 2018, I watched a memorial service on TV with local pastors, rabbi’s, and priests. I wondered aloud to myself, “Why I am not invited into that room? I’ve been serving here in this city for almost thirty years.” The answer was simple, I had not worked hard enough to build relationships with people who are different than me and people who lead in different parts of my city.
This tragedy deeply impacted me and compelled me to make a more intentional and disciplined effort to go to lunch, listen, and learn from other leaders around my city. I carved out time every month to meet with someone new and hear their story.
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