Gina McClain is a great friend. I actually just got to have lunch with her and her husband along with some other really cool kidmin folks in Knoxville. While I was homeless, Gina graciously allowed me to post on her blog. Maybe I wasn’t the most gracious guest, because I do feel that I wrote about a hot topic.

Basically, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about discipleship. Most of us in kidmin and student ministry have our “elements” that we call discipleship, but I’m wondering about how subjective the word “discipleship” really is. If Jesus set the example of what discipleship looks like, why do we call something we’re doing in ministry discipleship when it really doesn’t look much like what Jesus did at all. I’m sure I’ll blog more about this soon, but for now, check out my Homeless Blogger post over at Gina’s site.

• Too often we get kids committed to programs and people, but when they move on to college, the programs and people are gone… just like their faith. We need to be intentional in helping them develop an independent faith that isn’t program or personality dependent.
• Just because kids are showing up doesn’t mean they’re being discipled. Help kids learn to grow on their own.
• Reproducible discipleship is relational-based. One person cannot disciple everyone.
• Jesus discipled 12. He focused the most on 3. One of his disciples failed. There is a model here.
• When you give your volunteers your title, you win and your kids win. Don’t hang on to what you think it is that you’re supposed to do. Give it away. Empower others.
• Raise the value of your volunteers. When you’re encountered with issues and problems, you involve the leaders.
• (This is my favorite. The same is true in Kidmin, but so few see this) The bait and switch… you get involved in student ministry because you love kids and want to impact their lives, but to really be effective, you spend more time with leaders and parents. (So True)
• Failure, doubt and pain paves the way to spiritual growth. Let these opportunities kick open the doors for spiritual growth. Crave these opportunities. Look for these opportunities in the kids you lead. Our job is not to make kid’s lives easier, but to capitalize on the opportunities when they can grow in faith.
• Students can reproduce themselves. How do I use juniors and seniors to lead… when they normally begin to fade.
• Kids don’t remember your messages, they remember you. We have to be transparent with our personal journey. The kids we lead need to know that we’re still growing and that we don’t have it all together yet. Teenagers need to hear and know about where we’ve struggled and failed. When we do this, we give them hope.
• Tender in our response
• Motivate and maintain a climate of spiritual growth. Create a culture where parents and kids know that spiritual growth is important.  Be repetitive.
• Go Small. Pastors love big… families love small. Kids don’t grow in crowd meetings, they grow in small groups.
• Create and distribute spiritual growth resources. Don’t just give a man a fish, show him how to fish. Don’t just teach them how to fish. Give them the resources. One minute Bible.. best thing ever!
• If kids aren’t asking you questions about the Bible, they aren’t reading their Bible. Have them read it while on the toilet. (That sounds weird as I write this here… but it wasn’t so weird when Doug said it)
• If you want kids to journal. Give them a journal. If you want kids to memorize scripture, give them memory cards.
• Help teenagers discover their unique gifting/SHAPE

Those are all words I’d use to describe the day. I’m so glad I was able to take my team to this experience and bummed that I couldn’t take everyone.

So, this week I’m going to share some of my notes, but not in the way I usually do. Typically when I’m at a conference, I’ll literally download all my notes from the conference onto this blog. This time I want to craft posts specifically dealing with something I heard that resonated with me. I want to blog more about that idea and possibly even strike up a conversation to explore it further. So, let’s get started.

Discipleship. I’m going to use this word lightly as there are many different thoughts and ideas about this word and how it is carried out. That’s not what this post is about… so don’t go after me about what discipleship is or isn’t.

Here’s what was said:

“You may put a child in a room and teach them truth. However, you’re not discipling them unless its the same voice every week.”

At Gateway we like to say that discipleship is life-on-life.

“Studies are showing that kids growing up in church with a consistent voice are more likely to remain in the faith.”

I haven’t actually seen these studies, but it is common sense, right? If a kid comes every week, every other week or once a month, aren’t we going to be a million times more effective leading that kid if it’s the same volunteer leading that kid every time he or she shows up? I’m not talking about the guy from the stage either, I’m talking small group. The leader that knows his or her name. The leader that knows what it takes to get him or her in line. The leader that knows what’s going on at home.

Let’s take it another step. What if that leader is in that kid’s life for three or four years? How about five or six? Isn’t it logical to expect that this leader (assuming the leader does more than just “shows up”) would have significant influence in the child’s life? Maybe that’s a little subjective. At least it would be logical to expect that this leader would have significantly more influence than the leader who is with a group of boys or girls every other week for a year.

If this is the case, why in the world would we not do everything possible to create this kind of environment for the kids we lead?

I know the excuses. I’ve said them. If you’re church only holds one service, you’re going to be hard pressed to find these kinds of volunteers. My only suggestion, beg your pastor to move to two services! I’ve done the one service model and I had leaders who served once a month as well as every other week. It worked, but it wasn’t best for the kids. You know it isn’t either, don’t you?

When that church went to two services, I immediately transitioned every volunteer to every other week scheduled. I was a little nervous about it. I was afraid that I’d have tons of volunteers bail. In the end, I lost two or three. Crazy. My fears were my own and didn’t justify me not asking for a greater commitment.

Then a few years ago I decided to take the next step and begin asking volunteers to make an every week commitment. I didn’t really have many volunteers to begin with, so I was recruiting mostly new volunteers to an every week commitment. Again, I was nervous. What if it was too much? In the end I was surprised again. Most people didn’t balk at the idea of serving every week. When I explained why, they “got it.” Last fall I did a huge recruiting push where we were only recruiting for every week workers. The result? We recruited more volunteers than we ever had before.

I’ve found that the thing usually stopping us from making the transition to every week volunteers is fear. We’re afraid to communicate such a big change to our current volunteers. We’re afraid that all our volunteers will quit. We’re just afraid. Truth is, most of the volunteers really don’t care. Give them a good enough reason and they’ll do just about anything. The quotes at the top of this post are two very good reasons to volunteer every week.

So, what’s keeping you for switching? What’s your story of transitioning to every week volunteers?

Don’t get hung up on the words though, it’s really not about me, it’s about those I hope to influence. Without compromising convictions or beliefs, it’s my job to connect with people in their reality. If finding a unique way to describe what I am about in life that actually engages a non-believer, I’m 100% behind it. I think we need to constantly analyze the words and terms we use while trying to be relevant with the people around us. \

One word we don’t use at my church at all is discipleship. Is it me or is it just so churchy? In addition, there are too many definitions for discipleship. To some churches, it’s a class. For others it’s a group book study. For others it’s a multi-year one on one relationship and to others it’s a program. Many Christ followers have awkward or negative thoughts associated with this term while even some of those outside the church see discipleship as cult-like and mindless devotion to a freaky cause. The term discipleship may need to go the way of the Dodo.

So what’s another word? We use the word transform or transformation. Isn’t that really the point of discipleship, to transform or change? Lots of people are in “discipleship,” but they never change. Isn’t that an oxymoron? It’s a fairly specific word that describes something that could be measured, right? The reason I like this word too is that it isn’t specific to any particular method. People are discipled/transformed by various methods, but just becasue someone is being discipled doesn’t mean they’ve changed.

What do you think of this word? Is it one you’ll add to your vocabulary? Can you think of any other church “inside” words that need to be transformed?

• Discipleship Camp: Some camps are designed for kids who already go to church and it’s simply an opportunity for kids to continue getting what they experience on a typical weekend. Maybe the kids are taken “deeper,” but in all honesty, it doesn’t look much different than what you’d see on Sunday.
• Evangelistic Camp: Other camps are designed to see kids come to life decisions, either to commit to Christ or to recommit to following him. Kids are encouraged to invite their friends to camp.
• Blended Camp: This is a little bit of both. Opportunities are made for kids to make life decisions, but there’s also some good stuff there to help kids continue to grow in their faith.

Actually, some camps take the models above to different extremes. I think Craig Jutila, previously from Saddleback, actually made camp available only to his core leadership kids. So it was discipleship for a very specific niche of kids.

So, what is the purpose of your camp? What do you hope for the kids to get out of it? These are important questions to ask when either planning or picking a camp. When picking a camp, going to one yet expecting another can lead to a great deal of disappointment.

Here’s my take. “They” say that I only get 40 hours a year with most of my kids. But for one week of the year, I get 40 hours all at once. You know I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity. I’m big into fun… it’s got to be the coolest fun they’ve ever had at camp. I hate it when I’m at a camp that only gives kids 1 to 1.5 hours to swim. Most kids look forward to swimming the most. I typically try to book about 3 hours a day at the pool/lake. But then I go after it big time in the God stuff. My intention has always been to create an environment where kids would respond to a life-changing decision., whether it was salvation, re-commitment or something totally different. In addition, I hope to load the kids up with good “take home” application stuff… so they can go out and life the life they’ve been called to.

Don’t worry. My new found revelation has not changed my feelings or passion for world missions. But I do look at this verse a little differently now.

“Go Ye Therefore!” I’ve listened to countless sermons where this was the thrust of the message. The last thing Jesus said to his disciples was to “GO!” This verse has been the catalyst for pushing people out of their comfortable lives a out in the world making a difference.

Then I learned something very interesting. In staff meeting someone asked, “What are the verbs in this command?” Easy. Go, make (disciples), baptize and teaching. Then someone asked, “What is the “main” verb in this command?” Duh. Everyone knows that. Go!

Wrong.

Go is not the main verb. Make disciples is the main verb.

Go, baptize and teach are participles modifying the imperative verb “make disciples.” A better way to say this verse would be “As you go” or “In your going” make disciples. It is thought that as Jesus gave this command, the “Go” was assumed. In the three years Jesus walked with his disciples, they were always on the go. He often spoke about “all nations.” The point that he was making here was that we are to “make disciples.”

Here’s some more information on the context and language of this verse: Site 1 Site 2 Site 3

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. For me I’ve “GONE” many times. I’ve been obedient to “The Great Commission.” I’ve spread the gospel.

However, how many disciples have I made? (Awkward silence)

Sure, I’ve been a part of helping kids grow in their faith over a period off years. I’m very proud of that. However, when I step out of my role as “Kenny Conley: Children’s Pastor,” and become “Kenny Conley: Average Guy” or “Kenny Conley: Next Door Neighbor,” how many disciples have I made?

Rhetorical question: How well have I obeyed “The Great Commission?” How well have you?

Technorati Tags: Great Commission, Missions, Discipleship