The coalface experience of the disciple-making movement.
My first appointment with The Salvation Army was to pioneer a new expression in Bathurst, NSW. I was given a renovated building that had previously been a law firm, complete with offices, meeting rooms and furniture. But no congregation, no band and no leadership team. It was just me.
So I started where I could: a Bible study. I sent invitations to former TSA members in Bathurst. Looking back, that wasn’t my best decision, but it did connect me with a couple who had previously attended TSA.
As I was introduced to disciple-making within our movement, that Bible study naturally became a discipleship group. It eventually grew to around two dozen people. However, my lack of experience in understanding people transitioning from what Colin Stoodley describes as ‘passive mission-minded’ churches soon became a significant challenge.
Around the same time, I met the Lithgow Family Store Manager, who was passionate about seeing the Lithgow corps restarted after more than a decade. We agreed to begin a Bible study the following week, which quickly developed into another discipleship group. Again, we didn’t begin with Sunday services – we simply focused on making disciples.
Meanwhile, the Bible study in Mudgee transitioned into a TSA discipleship group and soon outgrew our home, moving into the Mudgee building. Suddenly I was overseeing three discipleship groups, each about 90 minutes apart, travelling close to 2,000 kilometres every week. The travel wasn’t the difficult part. Transfer growth was.
The greatest resistance came from established churches that had become comfortable in a passive mission mindset. Ironically, when they saw disciples being made, they didn’t join the work – they often opposed it. Genuine transfer growth from people wanting to become disciple-makers was rare. More commonly, people remained committed to their existing understanding of church.
The Bathurst couple became a good example. While I believed they were joining the disciple-making journey, they were quietly building their own ministry alongside it. New believers were being encouraged away from making disciples and back towards simply attending Sunday services. It became clear that much of my energy was better invested in what I now call the ‘blank canvases’: people with little or no church background.
To date, these blank canvases have proven to be the most fruitful. Those who come to faith and are discipled from the beginning tend to embrace disciple-making far more naturally than those trying to transition from established church cultures.
Multiplication, however, takes time.
In my previous ministry, our primary focus was the Sunday event. With great production, inspiring preaching and attractive gatherings, numbers came quite easily. But I now realise that wasn’t necessarily multiplication, it was attendance.
Biblical multiplication is different. Like Abraham’s descendants, it grows through reproduction. Numbers can rise and fall, but when disciples make disciples, the Kingdom continues to multiply.
The challenge is that growing people into spiritual maturity doesn’t happen overnight. At present, much of my energy is spent helping new believers take their first steps: equipping them, encouraging them and picking them up when they stumble. It means my personal evangelism has slowed, but I recognise that’s part of the process.
Slowly, though, those disciples are beginning to invite others, lead people to Christ and grow in confidence. We have since introduced one Sunday service each month in all three locations, not because discipleship required it, but because our communities and other churches simply recognise a Sunday gathering as ‘being a church.’
I’ve come to accept that genuine multiplication follows patient investment in people. It can’t be rushed.
What I continue to wrestle with is how we help those from static, resistant church contexts to transition into disciple-making. Our greatest challenge remains protecting and encouraging new disciples while walking patiently with those who are still holding tightly to an older mindset.
Through it all, we’ve been reminded that disciple-making isn’t ultimately about following a procedure. It’s about relationships. We can learn a process from Jesus, but we must never lose sight of the Kingdom call to love God, love ourselves and love others.
It’s been an incredible journey for those willing to count the cost and take up their cross daily.
