Eventually every category comes down to two. Even though there are thousands of options, the choice typically narrows to just two. Sound reductionist? It’s not.
Think about it. It’s Coke and Pepsi, Crest and Colgate, Android and iPhone, Lowe’s and Home Depot, Ford and Chevy, chocolate and vanilla, the list could go on and on. Over time categories come down to two. Of course other options still exist. Strawberry ice cream is an option, as is Subaru, but the vast majority of each category is represented by just two choices.
The same is true with disciple making.
Can you guess what they are? It’s not obvious, in part, because most people never choose how they will make a disciple, and in part, because the disciple making conversation just hasn’t gotten here yet. But if you had to come up with the two main choices in how to make a disciple what would they be?
Engaging the question is both important and helpful, because if you can’t even see another way to make a disciple then you’re inevitably blind to the strengths and weaknesses of your approach. It’s the equivalent of only being exposed to vanilla and then being asked to compare and contrast it to other flavors. So even if you never even try another disciple making approach, the awareness is valuable.
So what are the two main disciple making options?
1. Standardized Disciple Making
The first and most popular way to make disciples is what I call the Standardized Discipling. It could also be called proficient discipling or wholesale disciple making. It’s so popular that many disciple making experts don’t believe effective disciple making happens any other way. Standardized discipling emphasizes simplicity, ease of use, and broad accessibility (scale). Product discipling means you need some thing to carry the weight of disciple making. That thing is always in addition to the Bible. Typically, it’s a book or curriculum written by a pastor or faith hero. Standardized practitioners persuasively speak of the need for “tracks to run on” and a “basic skeleton that the disciple can flesh out.” Additionally they emphasize the need for the disciple making process to be made so simple that anyone can do it.
Practically, standardized disciple making happens most often in groups of four or more (but can happen in both smaller and bigger spaces). Disciples are invited to move through the curriculum, book, Bible study, or app for a specific amount of time. Once they have completed the thing, they are asked/expected to lead a new group through the same.
There are clear advantages to standardizeddisciple making. It quickly engages participants with key discipleship concepts in a familiar setting. The setting is similar to small groups, so it feels comfortable to most of them. As a result, participants are able to absorb the information quickly and personally. The early results of standardized disciple making are broad enrollment and fast-formed disciples and disciple makers.
There are certainly downsides too, but we’ll save those for a future blog.
2. Tool-Based Disciple Making
The second, much lesser known way of discipling is Tool-based discipling.
Tool-based discipling can also be called customized disciple making or creative disciple making. Customized discipling requires the disciple maker to be equipped and skilled in using different disciple making tools. The tools include things like illustrations, acronyms, or other “pass-on-ables” intended to both impact and equip the disciple. Tool-based disciplers emphasize the relational nature of disciple making, tailoring the approach to the individual, and helping the disciple become holistically like Jesus. Creative disciple makers speak persuasively about the need to equip and develop the disciple into a a mature version of themselves, not a copy of the disciple maker. The tools used along the way function as a place to hang Biblical truths, not as the primary focus or instrument of the training. In other words, the tool isn’t the point, but rather a way to remember and to pass on the point.
Tool-based practitioners work tirelessly to equip disciples to disciple others out of their individual gifting and design, while maintaining the Bible as their primary resource. Practically, tool-based disciple making happens most often in one-to-one or one-to-two contexts and, when they are ready, they go out and do the same.
Tool-based disciple making has its advantages. Participants quickly feel equipped with a multitude of tools they can pass on to others. The relational experience of moving tools out from their meetings and into the lives of others sets them up to disciple others with both confidence and competence. The customized approach enables a tight focus right where the disciple needs it most. It connects their personal growth to their fruitfulness with others. This provides a unified field in which they can run on for the rest of their lives.
There are certainly downsides too, but we’ll save those for a future blog.
Naming these two disciple-making choices can help us consider the path that best fits the principles Jesus modeled in His disciple making ministry.
Let’s end with some poetry (hat tip to Robert Frost):
Two disciple making roads diverged in your ‘hood
And sorry you cannot travel both at once
Stand and look down each as far as one can
To where your sight grows dim.
I challenge you to stand at this disciple making fork in the road and look down each one as far as you can. Soon we’ll do that together.
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Find this helpful? Want to grow as a disciple or disciple maker? Check out my books: The Bicycle Illustration and The Foundation of a Disciple Making Culture. Too much to read? Check out my Podcast, “The Practitioners’ Podcast” for short, hyper focused disciple making episodes wherever you get podcasts!