The 5 Key Components Of A Disciple Making Church

Reprint of a blog post by Real Life Discipleship and Training Ministry

In 2013, Jim Putman, Senior Pastor at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho, took the stage at the Exponential Church Planters Conference in Orlando, Florida. He spoke about the church today, and raised the question – is it winning? According to Jim, in order to determine if the church is winning, we must define what a winning church looks like. He challenged the crowd to see what God considers a winning church. Jim said, “It’s not enough to say that Jesus’ church wins, we have to determine what makes a church His church. After all – Jesus didn’t say my church wins or your church wins. He said that His Church wins.”

Jim went on say that Jesus gave us a mission to make disciples. (Matt. 28:19) And during his time on earth, Jesus also gave us a model of disciple making to follow. When we look at Jesus’ model, we see 5 key components that he used to make disciples. At Real Life Ministries, we have used those components as we disciple and train others to disciple.

Here is a list of those 5 components with their definitions.

As we talk about these components, it needs to be understood that all of them are coming from a Biblical Foundation.

The 5 components are:

• Biblical Foundation for Relationships
• Intentional Leader
• Relational Environment
• Reproducible Discipleship Process
• Church Alignment

Biblical Foundation for Relationship:

We believe we are designed to be in relationship with God first and foremost, and secondly we are designed to be in relationship with others. The purpose of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus, who can make disciples of Jesus. We do this with the understanding that relationship is the key vehicle.

Intentional Leader:

This leader understands that part of their role is to reach the lost, make disciples of Jesus and create Christ centered environments where disciple making can happen. They understand where a person is spiritually and what is needed to help them grow.

Relational Environment:

This is a group of 3-18 people, facilitated by a leader who is intentionally modeling spiritual fruit. (love, joy, etc) The people involved are doing life together with a kingdom mindset. The relationships go beyond the small group time, they move from strangers to friendship. These relationships press into areas of privacy, transparency and vulnerability.

Reproducible Disciple Making Process:

This is the process for developing people towards Christ likeness. This includes three parts. “My Part” (the disciple) “Their Part” (the disciplee), and “God’s Part”. This leader understands the 5 stages of spiritual growth. They can identify where a person is spiritually, and help them mature and grow at each stage of the spiritual growth process.

Church Alignment:

There are 4 key areas of alignment to equip the church in it’s purpose of making disciples of Jesus.

1. Relational Alignment

2. Philosophical Alignment

3. Theological Alignment

4. Organizational Alignment

The Church today needs to make a shift, and foster a culture of personalized discipleship.