Real-Life Discipleship Training Manual

Equipping Disciples Who Make Disciples

Jim Putman, Bill Krause, Avery Willis, Brandon Guindon

Over 100, 000 sold! Reform the way small groups make disciples. This companion training manual to Real-Life Discipleship provides unique guidance and insight to pastors, church leaders, and their disciples as they work to create an effective discipleship program. With a thorough, results-oriented process that can be applied in other contexts and cultures, this manual explains the necessary components of disciple-making so that every church member can play a part in reaching others for Christ. A great leader's resource, it shows you how to cultivate new leaders for the future and equip them to make disciples. This manual includes these teaching tools:

• Activities and questions that teach an effective, Christlike approach to discipleship
• Training on how to identify, recruit, and develop gifted leaders from within your church fellowship
• An explanation of the role of personal relationships in making disciples

Part of following Jesus is reaching out to others and sharing what we believe. Develop the heart of a disciple-maker in the members of your small group and help them follow God's call to go and make disciples.

Week 1: A Heart to Make Disciples

The church in America is in decline. At the heart of this problem, good Christian people are lost as to what to do. These next twelve weeks are dedicated to what we believe will be a life-changing journey to restoring God’s priorities to our lives. The church was built to win.

Day 1: What Does Winning Look Like?

When Jim Putman met with the people who wanted to plant a church in Idaho, it caused him to think about what a successful church would look like. Consequently, when he agreed to help start a new church, he asked the group he met with two questions: (1) If Christianity were a team sport and the church were Christ’s team, what would winning be? (2) What is the church supposed to be and do to win?

Several people answered that the church wins as we worship together or when it grows in attendance and people become believers. A few said that we win when we are a family who cares for one another. Jim went on to ask what a church would have to do to accomplish all these goals. Some felt it would need inspiring weekend services with dynamic preaching and great music. Others thought the church should train people in pastoral care in order to meet the needs of hurting people.

1. Before you move ahead, write down your answers to these same questions.

• In relation to Christianity and the church, what is winning?
• What is the church supposed to be and do to win?

The varying answers people gave caused Jim to turn to the Bible for a solution. The church needed a clear game plan or it would be divided from the start. Jesus’ last command in Matthew 28:18-20 makes the church’s mission clear: The church is called to reach the world for Jesus one person at a time. In other words, every Christian is commanded to participate in the mission to make disciples. This mission became Real Life Ministries’ purpose.

That was ten years ago. Since then our church has grown to more than eight thousand people, and discipleship is happening in every ministry. Oh, we have made many mistakes and we still have a lot to learn, but God is leading and blessing our obedience to His command to make disciples.

2. Read Matthew 28:18-20 in the margin and circle the words in which Jesus is telling us to do something.

Did you circle the words go, make disciples, baptizing, and teaching?

In the Bible’s original language, make disciples is the key phrase in these verses because the words going, baptizing, and teaching support the command to make disciples.

Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:18-20)

3. In these verses, Jesus commanded us to go into the world and ____________________ of every nation.

4. The three other action words show us what is entailed in obeying that command. To make disciples, we must be ______________, ________________, and _________________.

Go back and review how you answered the two questions at the beginning of this lesson. Compare what you wrote with the command above.

5. Check the box below that fits best at this point:

“Yes! I knew it. I am off to a good start because I knew that the church is supposed to make disciples.”

“No, I missed it. No one has ever explained the church’s purpose to me like this before.”

“Well, I had it right, but I said it in a different way.”

“I disagree! I had a different answer, and I still think I am right.”

Your answers throughout this training manual will shape the discussions in your small group each week. Be sure not to skip over any of them. This process is designed to help you understand and remember the lesson.

6. In your own words, write what part the church plays in making disciples.

7. What is your personal role in helping the church make disciples?

8. Spend some time meditating on Matthew 28:18-20. Begin memorizing it phrase by phrase. You will be asked to write it from memory later. Using these verses, explain to someone today why the church should focus on making disciples. Write the name(s) of the person(s) you told or plan to tell. ___________________________________

Review

• God designed the church to reach the world for Christ by making disciples.
• Making disciples was Jesus’ original command.

Day 2: How Do We Obey Jesus’ Command?

Yesterday we looked at Jesus’ command to make disciples. Today we will take a closer look at the importance of making disciples in our homes, workplaces, and churches.

Jesus Completed His Work

During the Last Supper, before Jesus was arrested and taken to the cross, He prayed with His disciples. In His prayer, Jesus says, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4, emphasis added). How could He say that He had completed the work God had given Him to do when He had not yet died on the cross and risen from the dead?

1. Read John 17:4-9 in the margin and underline the work Jesus had completed when He prayed this prayer.

The answer? In His prayer, Jesus said that He had completed the work of making disciples. The disciples were ready to go and make disciples themselves; all they needed was the Holy Spirit. If Jesus had died on the cross for our sins but had not made disciples who could deliver the message, none of us would have heard the good news. Jesus completed the message: He died for us and rose from the grave. He also created a way for people even today to hear that message: by releasing His disciples to go and make disciples, who in turn were released to go and make disciples, and so on.

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.

(John 17:4-9)

2. Many people believe that Jesus came only to die and be resurrected from the dead. Why do you think they often leave out the work Jesus did of making disciples?

Look again in Matthew 28:18-20. A few weeks after His resurrection, Jesus commanded twelve men to do the same work His Father had given Him to do. The disciples didn’t look at Jesus and say, “How do we do that?” Jesus had already shown them how; He had given them a living model to follow. Jesus made disciples who made other disciples.

3. What main work did Jesus say He had completed when He prayed to the Father in John 17? Circle the answer.

• Healed people who were sick
• Taught truth to the crowds
• Made twelve men into mature disciples
• Reformed Jewish worship
• Rose from the dead

The correct answer is t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• How to Use This Book
• Week 1: A Heart to Make Disciples
• Week 2: What Is a Disciple?
• Week 3: How Disciples Grow
• Week 4: Three Keys to Making Disciples
• Week 5: How to Be an Intentional Leader
• Week 6: A Closer Look at a Relational Environment
• Week 7: A Closer Look at the Reproducible Process
• Week 8: Share: Being Intentional with the Spiritually Dead and Spiritual Infants
• Week 9: Connect: Helping Spiritual Children Grow
• Week 10: Minister: Helping Young Adults Help Others
• Week 11: Disciple: Being Intentional with Spiritual Parents
• Week 12: One Necessary Tool: A Small-Group Curriculum
• Appendix: Summary and Profile of Each Stage of Spiritual Growth
• Leader’s Guide
• Authors