Once upon a time, church leaders were responsible for equipping God’s people and empowering them for ministry. But a subtle shift changed the role of church leaders, putting a higher priority on an attendance model rather than an equipping model – and not much has changed since.
But as we’ve discussed in our eBook, the key to expanding a church’s capacity is to engage more people in the work of ministry and live out God’s design for his church: to ‘equip the saints for ministry.’ The call is for church leaders to equip people for works of service. And how leaders respond to that call is very important.
...the key to expanding a church’s capacity is to engage more people in the work of ministry...
So we’ve rounded up some of our best articles about how leaders can effectively equip their saints for ministry while fostering intentional discipleship. So, without further ado:
Rethinking the Approach to Discipleship:
Rather than choosing programming based on personal preference or even based on what is popular within Christian culture, consider what has the most impact on your discipleship. It’s easy to get distracted by the package, but it’s important to zoom out and remember that we are simply called to make disciples.
Three Discipleship Questions Every Church Must Answer:
Moving people in church from believers to disciples requires equipping and empowering people within some useful structure. When people are equipped to grow spiritually, they often end up doing really powerful things like showing up and giving, volunteering, leading, and sharing their passion with others.
Three Questions That Will Validate (or Challenge) Your Discipleship Strategy:
It can be difficult to take a step back and objectively evaluate whether or not the activity we’re creating is actually making disciples. However, when we want to be intentional about creating environments where people experience life change, we need to ask ourselves the tough questions.
The Equipped Church: How to Engage and Disciple More People in Ministry:
Most church leaders can’t completely scrap the framework of their ministry and start over. But leaders can adapt some current processes like introducing church management software to avoid becoming a church that simply collects people and reports their attendance.
Investing deeply in the lives of people, equipping them with the tools they need to lead, and empowering them to engage in ministry is the heart of an Ephesians 4 church – and squarely at the heart of every leader equipping disciples to fulfill The Great Commission.