To change our community we have to move past the discipleship of incremental growth. The discipleship of the New Testament multiplied disciples because it equipped and commissioned every believer to be a disciple maker. 

If a group of 20 added two new people every week we would be super excited. That would be a growing group. In about 4.5 years (240 weeks), that group would have 500 people!

If a single disciple began to disciple 3 people, we would think that is something small. If after 6 months each of those disciples began to disciple three people that would seem like small growth. After 6 months the “growing group” would have 78 and this little discipleship group would have 12. However, if this continued when the big group reached 500 in 240 weeks, the little discipleship group would 78,732! That is the power of multiplying disciples instead of just adding people.

The biblical model of discipleship is one in which the older generations mentor and raise up the next generations to follow the Lord. Far too often we segregate the ages of our church for everyone’s “comfort” and we allow this crucial aspect of discipleship to wither. We need to recapture the joy and life of intergenerational ministry and discipleship.

One of the key aspects of generational discipleship is the role that parents play as the primary disciplers of their children. We need to raise up this role for parents in our church and become equippers instead of replacers.

Are we only increasing people’s knowledge or are we actually equipping them to become like Jesus? We settle too often for unchanged people as long as they act right and follow the rules. That isn’t discipleship. Discipleship is life changing. We need to lead people beyond knowledge to obedience.