According to Lifeway Research’s Greatest Needs of Pastors study, nearly 2 in 3 pastors (63%) say disciple-making is an area they need to invest in developing to help them be better pastors. Of all the areas of skill development needs, disciple-making stands out above the rest. And discipleship is the heartbeat of the church.
In their latest movie, “The Forge,” Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the director-and-producer brother team behind movies like War Room, Courageous, and Overcomer, highlight the topics of mentorship and discipleship. The Kendricks hope this film inspires churches to invest in cultivating discipleship relationships that impact their congregations and communities. Here’s a look at a recent conversation with Stephen Kendrick on the role of discipleship in the church and how pastors can use “The Forge” and its discipleship resources to spark impactful discipleship in their churches.
Someone walks into a church for the first time and hears the word “discipleship” but has no idea what it means. How would you explain discipleship to them?
Stephen Kendrick: The word disciple means follower. It’s the idea of someone not just teaching from a distance but inviting someone close enough into their lives that they can see the example of what you’re teaching. Discipleship enables you to have a relationship with someone that hopefully is built upon God’s love. You can, like a spiritual parent to a spiritual child, answer their questions and understand their needs. You can be speaking to their needs, comforting them where they’re hurting, helping them heal where they’ve been broken, and leading them to God’s truth in every area of their lives.
Jesus did not just preach to the masses in the Sermon on the Mount, but He invited the 12 to be with Him. That word “with” is important because it’s connected to fellowship and proximity and the invitation to allow someone into your personal space—into your schedule, into your home, into your work environment—so you’re close enough to them to take the relationship to a deeper level.
We have an amazing opportunity in our generation to meet a deep need that every generation has but this generation is desperately lacking. They are emotionally disconnected. They’re digitally relating to other people from a distance, but they’re not having the older generation invite them close and love them right where they are—comforting them, encouraging them, building them up, answering their questions, and modeling what they’re teaching with integrity within the context of that loving relationship.
Have you ever been personally discipled? What has discipleship looked like for you in your Christian walk?
I’ve seen and experienced discipleship on a wide variety of levels. First, growing up, we saw parents living out authentic Christianity at home. We were seeing their prayers answered, seeing them repent of sin, seeing them read Scripture and apply it to their lives. We were seeing the fruit of their obedience to the Lord. And we were watching our parents walk by faith as they trusted God.
We’ve had some amazing Sunday School teachers over the years who have taught us. We’ve had aunts and uncles who love the Lord and poured into us and youth pastors who would teach from a stage. Then, being on staff at churches, we got close to the pastor we were under for 20 years. If you’ve got a relational leader above you, being on staff at a church can be conducive for discipleship.
What is the church’s role in discipleship?
Every church ought to be a disciple-making machine—a living organism, following the Lord ourselves, and inviting other people to come follow Him with us. And it doesn’t begin when a person comes to Christ. Sometimes you’re discipling them to faith first. When Jesus told Peter to follow Him, Peter didn’t yet believe He was the Messiah. Later, he declared, “You are the Messiah, the Son of a living God” (Matthew 16:16, CSB). But before that, Jesus invited him to hang out with Him. He was slowly building trust and inviting him to go deeper in the Word, deeper in ministry and in service and was again modeling love and humility and kindness and service toward other people and intimacy with the Father.
It’s important that we don’t just view discipleship as a six-week course the church offers. That can be the spark of discipleship relationships or a part of a journey, but Jesus was thinking long term and pouring into these 12 over three years. It gave Him a lot of opportunity to have deep conversations, to answer their questions, to deal with their deep-seated pride and insecurities and fear issues and lack of faith. But He also was serving with them. Then He sent them out to serve, and they could come back so He could help fine-tune their ministries.
Yes, churches should do the Sermon on the Mount communication, but there also needs to be believers who are constantly seeking the Lord as to who He would want them to pour into. As the Holy Spirit prompts divine appointments, we need to step into those.
What should the goal of discipleship be?
The product of discipleship is intimacy with God and Christlikeness, that people are growing to maturity (Colossians 1:28). Training someone and being with them to help them grow in the Lord is a beautiful journey. What a privilege, what a joy for us to be able to communicate the gospel to people and then walk them through God’s Word and watch God’s Word transform their hearts and help them overcome anxiety and help them in their marriage and their finances with their parenting—in every area of their lives—as they’re obeying God’s Word and building their houses on the rock.
The goal is not only helping people experience God and grow to maturity but also that they will become disciple-makers themselves—willing to lay down anything for the Lord—and their lives will be spent for eternal purposes, to advance God’s kingdom.
What’s the relationship between surrender and discipleship?
When we accept the gift of salvation, Christ places His Holy Spirit in us, and we will begin to be pulled away from our old identity of death and sin into our new identity in Christ that we’re to walk in on a daily basis. And we will realize He is worthy of every area of our lives.
Discipleship is imitation. And Jesus was willing to give up the riches of heaven—intimacy in the Father’s presence, the glory and the rights He had in heaven—and lay down His life to meet us at our deepest points of need and communicate the gospel, model the gospel, die and be resurrected for us out of love for the Father and love for us. So, the invitation to discipleship is an invitation to lay down anything in order to follow Jesus, to know Him personally, to do the will of the Father, and to demonstrate love to those around us.
It’s an invitation from selfishness to love and self-sacrifice. It is an invitation to experience God at a deep level, not only working in us as He’s making us into the image of Christ but through us, as we’re His hands and feet to serve those around us at physical and spiritual levels.
Investing in eternity is infinitely more fun and valuable than building up riches and wealth and comfort in this life. If Jesus is worthy of your life, then give Him your life. And He is worthy. He’s worth any sacrifice we can make for Him.
What are some ways churches could use “The Forge” and its accompanying resources to make disciples in their contexts?
“The Forge Bible Study” is used before people see the movie “The Forge”. It includes five clips from “The Forge” that can be used in a small group setting or in a sermon series, and it will introduce discipleship over five weeks.
The movie should be an entertaining ride for people with relevant modern-day examples of discipleship throughout the film. At the end, our hope is viewers will either want to surrender more fully to the Lord as His disciple or be inspired to begin to pray about who they can disciple in their context. We know emotions will fade over time. But if we can get people to dive into God’s Word and begin to be transformed by the Word of God, renewing their minds, that’s going to bring the lasting change in their lives.
The Fully Devoted eight-week study includes four weeks about surrendering to Jesus and four weeks about making disciples of others. This study will be used after people see “The Forge.”
Devoted to Jesus is something we’ve wanted ourselves. What do you say to someone you want to disciple? This 52-chapter book gives you the conversations to have with someone you’re pouring into over a year of discipleship. This year-long journey is something we hope will be a default resource. We want this to be something anybody could immediately grab and say, “Let’s go through this together, and let me teach you how to follow Jesus.”
We think churches can turn around if we get back to discipleship, because spiritual growth will happen faster, last longer, and will turn into more multiplication as a result.
For more information about “The Forge”, visit theforgemovie.com. To learn more about “The Forge” discipleship resources, visit lifeway.com/theforge.
This article was written by Marissa Postell Sullivan and originally published to Lifeway Research.
