We asked this question a few years ago: What are the essential habits to be a disciple that makes disciples?
From our understanding of Jesus’ ministry, observations from others who make reproducing disciples, and studying disciple making movements – these are the habits we landed on in response to that question:
Habit #1 – Missional Values – knowing and understanding your personal values and living them out through consistent behavior
Habit #2 – ACTIVE PRAYER – utilizing prayer as a critical key element in the disciple-making journey
Habit #3 – RELATIONAL CONNECTIONS – building strong and authentic relationships with both Christians and non-Christians in your community
Habit #4 – DISCIPLE MAKING CYCLE – creating intentional and enduring disciples who, in turn, create intentional and enduring disciples
Habit #5 – STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS – forging strategic partnerships to keep you on mission in your disciple-making journey
The Discipleship Collective is a learning community to support, nurture and coach disciples to make disciples makers.
Sharpen Your Discipleship Effectiveness
Finish 2023 strong with a commitment to sharpen your discipleship effectiveness.
The first step is to identify your strengths and areas for development – there is no better tool for that than the Discipleship Quiz. Included in your report is a coaching guide with suggestions for the best resources to help you target growth in the identified areas. This assessment is truly the tool to take your disciple making to the next level.
“Gary Reinecke and the team from InFocus have created a crucial resource for leaders and churches who are serious about being with Jesus on His Mission. I highly recommend the Disciple Coach Quiz as a tool for shaping the future of your disciple making efforts. The five qualities it measures and the behavior it supports provide a solid foundation for helping people authentically follow Jesus.”
Steve Pike – President, Urban Islands Project
Harness the power of disciple making using a coach approach by enrolling in the Discipleship Collective. The Discipleship Collective is structured to maximize your growth and sharpen your effectiveness as a disciple maker. Collectives are limited to no more than 12 participants per session. Each session offers 10 hours of training including:
5 Habits of a Disciple Maker webinar – Monday, October 16, 2023 from 10-3 PST and
One of the things I’ve observed over the last 30+ years is that there are many ways to make disciples.
You are limited only by your imagination. From organic to highly programmatic, new approaches are being developed as you read this blog.
I am focusing on the absolute minimum support a discipler or disciple maker requires to make disciples. Specifically if the discipler has adopted a coach approach because the people the disciple coach is engaging with have aborted absolute Truth, are highly individualistic and secular. Because of this dynamic the disciple coach must help the people they engage with discover Truth for themselves. The disciple coach does this through listening and asking questions. It is not a one size fits all approach. Over the previous four weeks, I have been addressing the bare essentials a disciple coach needs to sustain their ministry–I call these essentials the habits of a disciple coach.
Here are the first four habits of a disciple coach:
Missional Values
Active Prayer
Relational Connections
Disciple Making Cycle
The fifth and final habit is Strategic Partnerships.
Partnerships that support disciple-making relationships are multifaceted and help keep the disciple coach on mission:
Partnership with God
Partnership with those the disciple coach has engaged with on their spiritual journey
Partnerships with trusted mentors
It would be easy to focus on any of these to the exclusion of the other two, or to focus on two and exclude the third. in the best case scenario, all three would be exercised at the same time. While that is optimal, it can be difficult to prioritize all three simultaneously.
Here is a simple example:
As a disciple coach, you and I are doing life in the community of a small group of other disciple coaches who are on mission loving God, loving their neighbors, and making disciples. Partnerships within the group encourage and support the three values. When a disciple takes the next step on their spiritual journey to find and follow Jesus, it is celebrated! This might take the form of an act of service, a generous gift of one’s resources, or taking a step of faith to pray for the very first time. Whatever it is, the group synergistically supports the work of the disciple coach.
The other Strategic Partnerships the disciple coach nurtures is with not-yet Christians. Right now, at the tail end of a global pandemic, developing new relationships can be complicated. Creative ideas are necessary. A church planter that I work with has launched a virtual “Youth Alpha”. This has provided an opportunity to form small pods of young people to emerge where redemptive relationships are being formed. that will growth as the church transitions to in-person gatherings. The youth Alpha not only sustained the plant but grew the church to the point now the plan is well on its way to reaching the vision to launch 5 missional communities. Whatever the needs, the Lord instills creative ideas in the minds and hearts of disciple coaches – even during the most challenging times.
This completes the list of the five habits of a disciple coach! I wonder if you have some thoughts of what else a disciple coach needs to support the work of making disciples. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
One of the lessons Jesus lived in front of–and with–his disciples was the importance of relationships. Inside the band of disciples, the relationships were deeper. There was John, then Peter and James, and finally the other nine. Outside the band of disciples was a wide assortment of people Jesus was in relationship with, ranging from religious to non-religious people, many far from God. The lesson Jesus taught his disciples was to live in both worlds.
A couple of weeks ago I shared about understanding your personal Missional Values. Here’s what I mean by missional values:
Missional = disciples making disciples into the 3rd & 4th generation
Values = principles that drive missional behaviors
Simply put, Missional Values guide people who are making disciples into the 3rd & 4th generation.
This may seem so basic, but if followers of Jesus focused on Active Prayer (Habit #1) and Missional Values (Habit #2), we might see an upward tick in the caliber of disciples being made.
Now let’s take a look at two areas of focus in RELATIONAL CONNECTIONS:
Relationships with non-Christians
Relationships with Christians
It is challenging to live in the tension of developing relationships with people near to God (insiders) and with others who are far from God (outsiders). But this is the way Jesus lived and the way he trained his disciples to live. In my life, it’s easy to make excuses and end up not doing either one very well.
Research tells us that after a relatively short period of time (the most conservative estimate is 2 years, but some say 3-6 months is more accurate) new Christians lose contact with their non-Christian friends. My earliest memories of connecting with outsiders goes back to when I was in elementary school and I felt the compulsion to invite my neighbor to church. I did eventually give an invitation and I thought that was a major accomplishment. I also remember my mom hosting a VBS in our backyard (to my introverted self it felt like an intrusion on my privacy) forcing me to put my faith “out there”. My dad took a bold step and invited all 300+ employees from his plant to a holiday outreach event at our church called the Living Christmas Tree. Together, they led a vibrant ministry to singles and singles-again through our home church. There were fits and starts through my college years as I attempted to connect with outsiders.
In my estimation, the lineage of disciple making is more of a squiggly line than an upward trajectory. And, perhaps that is a good insight to capture here – disciple making is hard work, with little reward (at least in the here and now).
I honestly believe people like my mom and dad have an amazing lineage of people who are now celebrating with their Lord and Savior in heaven. You may be that kind of person. In this habit of relational connection, I want to encourage you to take an honest, inward look and see yourself as God created you. From there, take on the challenge of developing relationships with both insiders and outsiders, leading from your missional values and responding in active prayer. I’ve had the privilege of coaching many amazing leaders over 30+ years. So many of them have soul-crushing stories of how God has used them to empower others to connect with insiders and outsiders through starting and reproducing healthy churches.
You might be wired more like an introvert than an extrovert–I certainly am. That does not give us a pass on relationships. It does suggest that you will build different kinds of relationships than your extroverted friends. You may be an extrovert with an amazing ability to connect with people. But developing connections in and of itself is not the mission; making disciples is. Therefore, be certain that you have a path to help others follow you, as you follow Jesus.
Next week, I’ll be sharing about the Disciple-Making Cycle–the journey of making a disciple!
Find out what is keeping you from flourishing as a disciple maker using a coach approach and what is missing in the kind of support those you are coaching need on their discipleship journey.
October 11 is right around the corner, and you know what that means… Our 5 Discipleship Coach Habits Webinar is finally launching! After putting a lot of time and effort in creating this training approach to disciple-making, we are so excited to finally begin this journey with anyone who feels ready to take the next step in their discipleship coaching. The webinar launches on October 11, 2021 from 10am-3pmPST.
For those just joining us now, this is a webinar focused on building five strategic habits that all discipleship coaches need: missional values, active prayer, relational connections, disciple making cycles and strategic partnerships. This webinar is for anyone aspiring to take their disciple-making to the next level: pastor and church leaders, church planters or even just dedicated Christians looking to make a difference in their community. We have been commissioned to share the love of the Lord and discipleship is the best approach to create a sustainable pattern of multiplication. But multiplying churches and followers of Christ is more difficult than ever (only two percent of churches are growing!) and we are here to offer support and guidance to your team of disciple-makers and their disciples. We can always build more awareness of ourselves, learn new ways to reach others and build stronger connections within our teams and with Jesus.
This is a five-hour webinar that will be led by InFocus’s Executive Director Gary Reinecke, and long-time InFocus partner Micah Dodson of Thrive Church Planting. We are also offering personal triad sessions following the webinar: five sessions for fifty-five minutes, the times are TBD. In these sessions Gary or Micah will work closely with you and another disciple coach on your team, processing new information and insights from the webinar, working through your personal strengths and weaknesses, and discovering your own unique and most effective way of discipleship coaching. We believe that sharing this journey with a small group, including a mentor, adds to the process and the level of personal engagement as well as grows the relationship between team members.
If you are one of our followers who has taken the Disciple Coach Quiz, processed the results with us and passed it along to your own disciples, you might be wondering what you can do next. How can you utilize your Quiz results even further? Discipleship is a life-long journey, and wherever you are on that path, there is always a next step; a way to grow and bear more fruit, a way to deepen your relationship with God and others.
If you still haven’t taken our FREE Disciple Coach Quiz, CLICK HERE.
For those who are looking for a next step, we are offering a webinar on the 5 habits of a Disciple Coach. This webinar, like our inaugural webinar in November 2020, will be led by InFocus’s Executive Director, Gary Reinecke, and long-time InFocus partner Micah Dodson. This webinar is a great way to follow up on your newfound insights after you have taken the quiz and can help further deepen your understanding of Discipleship and hone in on the habits of a Disciple Coach. We will help you clarify your missional values, activate prayer, make relational connections and strategic partnerships, while learning how to create your own Disciple making Cycle.
Check out the 5 Disciple Coach Habits training coming up October 11 – CLICK HERE!
In addition to the 5-hour webinar, we are also offering personal triad sessions following the webinar. In these sessions Gary or Micah will work closely with you and another Disciple Coach on your team, processing the webinar, working through your personal strengths and weaknesses, and discover your own unique and most effective way of making disciples. These five sessions of fifty-five minutes will help you to develop yourself and the future leaders around you!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
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