Healthy Discipleship Requires Raising Up Disciplers

I wonder how many church leaders don’t even realize the success of ongoing discipleship depends partly on how well they develop leaders. God didn’t design the church to have one person lead everyone else in spiritual formation—far too often the model of evangelical churches. Throughout the New Testament, we see leadership development and delegation—or mass participation—of discipling others. Paul repeatedly told young pastors to entrust the ministry to spiritual people who could then pass it on to the next generation. I’m convinced one of the reasons we struggle with discipleship is because we aren’t raising up leaders to make more disciples.