Tag Archives: disciple making

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Observations on the Church and Discipleship

The five observations that follow have been born out of ten plus years of discussions about the church. These are some of the key thoughts that have formed the foundations for a new way of thinking about discipleship:

1. The church no longer enjoys its former position of societal influence “at the head of main street”. Rather than trying to recapture that position as the place where the community comes to gather together the church must learn what it is to identify and move outward into the cultural and societal centers that have taken center stage.

2. As the church in the west continues to pray for “revival” it gathers together in an upper room and waits on the Lord. Is it not possible that the Lord wants to visit revival on the church even more passionately than the church wants it but that He is waiting for his people to go outside? I believe that the next revival will be one that moves the church out into the world rather than moving the world into the church building.

3. The church in the west has forgotten, if it ever truly knew, what discipleship is all about. It has taken the biblical command to “go and make disciples” and added the phrase “of Jesus”. This works well enough in a community where people are naturally drawn to “attend church.” I believe the verse really means that each of us should progress in our relationship with the Lord to the point where we serve as the equivalent to a Jewish Rabbi….and have disciples. (The disciples of Curtis or Scott or Anne). This calls us to a much higher responsibility in terms of our own relationship with Christ AND calls each of us to move outward. (Jesus found some of His disciples at the beach!) Discipleship today in most cases is nothing more than the process of taking someone who has prayed the sinners prayer and enrolling them in an intensive bible study that lasts somewhere between 12 weeks and a year.

4. The result of the church having taken this approach is that we have several generations of people who should be making disciples who have never themselves been mentored in that way. This in turn means that if we are to turn the tide there will be at least one to three generations of people who will be mentoring without any personal experience to draw from. Of course…this means we need to look even more closely at Jesus process of disciple making.

5. More than anything discipleship is about relationship. Using Jesus example as a model the process begins BEFORE “conversion”. That means that each of us is already in relationship with people we should be “discipling”, whether they are post-conversion, pre-conversion, or formerly converted.

Please feel free to poke holes in any of these observations. The conversation is well worth it. But even as you do so consider these questions:

Is the idea of “pre-conversion discipleship” too radical a departure from traditions you’ve been raised in to examine the possibilities?

If there are folks in your daily circle of relationships that you can identify as potential disciples what would keep you from pursuing that type of relationship?

 

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Disciple Making (Sprirtual Version 1.0)

picture courtesy of ba1969 at sxc.hu18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If you’re a Christian you no doubt have some familiarity with this passage from Matthew 28 – The Great Commission.  What fascinates me most about this charge that Jesus gives the 11, Judas is gone by now, is the way we interpret it today.  Researching the possible interpretations of this passage is truly amazing. You’ll find:

  • “This is really a specific command given only to the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus”
  • “This really speaks to evangelism and the importance of baptism.”
  • “There are no disciples today, as such, so this simply means to witness.”

If I look closely at how the majority of the church, and by this I mean main stream protestant denominations and non-denominational denominations, interprets the passage, and attempts to live it out, I think it looks something like this:

The term “disciples” in the New Testament refers to the followers of Jesus, most specifically the twelve very committed ones. Thus, this passage clearly means we are commanded to go make followers of Jesus, baptize them, and provide them with access to study materials that will enhance their knowledge of scripture.

I have to confess I struggle with that interpretation. First, the word “disciple” is secular word meaning “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another”. John the Baptist had disciples, Socrates had disciples, even Buddha had disciples.  Second, in the context where Jesus’ words were spoken the people he was speaking to understood that any teacher worth his salt had disciples. Third, the notion of creating disciples carried with it a level of personal responsibility on the part of the disciple maker. Fourth, I struggle with it because it seems to let ME off the hook if I can just get someone into the hands of the “professionals” by getting them to attend church.

Thus I really firmly believe that the eleven would not have heard this ‘commission’ as “go make more followers of Jesus”, rather I suggest they would have heard: “Peter, go make disciples of Peter. John, go make disciples of John. James, go make disciple of James. Not pointing them towards yourselves ultimately guys but pointing them towards your father in heaven who has given me authority. And oh, by the way, baptize them in my name AND teach them all that I have passed on to you during YOUR discipleship.”

Radical perhaps?

Stop long enough to consider what it would mean for you to have a relationship with God that was strong enough, significant enough, secure enough, and steeped enough in the truth that He would actually ask you to grab some folks and have them follow you as you followed Him. That He would ask you to live life alongside this group of folks in such a way that they were drawn to Him by your very example.

Stop a second longer to consider what a church full of disciple makers would look like.

If our purpose in life is to “make disciples” then do some of us have some studying to do? Do some of us have some house cleaning to do? Do some of us have some serious consideration that needs to be given to have we live out a faith that is based on leading others rather than on personal growth?

What do you think? Is God calling you to be a disciple maker or an assistant convert maker?

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So…why Disciple Making as a concept?

image courtesy of cornnius at sxc.huThe word Disciple, for most people, either conjures a mental picture of the biblical twelve or of some quasi-cult-sci-fi-horror devotee of an incredibly evil/demonic villain. (Now THAT is an interesting contrast to explore in and of itself, but I digress.) The concept of discipleship is ancient and carriers many nuances depending on which particular tradition you examine.

The Greek philosophical schools used a type of discipleship model. Students typically paid masters to learn from them in a much more “dialogue through life” educational approach than our schools use today. Eventually the students became proponents of what they had learned from their masters. Socrates to Plato to Aristotle being perhaps the most well known of these linkages.

Eastern religions such a Hinduism and Buddhism contain within their practice the concept of disciples: those who submit themselves to the teachings of the master in order to climb the path towards enlightenment.

The biblical notion of discipleship grows out of an origin in rabbinical tradition where a student followed a rabbi, typically paid for the opportunity and devoted themselves to the teaching of the rabbi’s interpretation of the Torah with the intent of eventually becoming rabbis themselves.

In general them the common thread seems to be that disciples engage in four activities:

  • They commit themselves by choice
  • They pay for the opportunity
  • They devote themselves to deeper understanding
  • They seek to promote the teaching of the master.

In a marketing context the term we typically find used is “net promoter”, those people who, on a scale of 0-10, say that they are “highly likely” to recommend a good, or service, or business to a friend. There exist some pretty solid arguments for why this is such a valuable piece of information to track and such a valuable score for a business to increase.

I want to suggest that a Disciple goes beyond simply recommending IF they are given the opportunity. The third activity of the disciple holds the key.

They devote themselves to deeper understanding. This means they want more than the menu items. They want to know the back story. They find value in the business ethics and decision making paradigms of a company to whom they give their allegiance. They don’t just want to know and use “what” you do, they want to know “why” and “how” you do it.

Of course, you can’t just give lip service to the “why and how” you have to actually live it. Just like the rabbis and Greek philosophers and Buddhist monks have to.

When I was in full time vocational ministry I used to joke that there seemed to be a fine line between ministry and marketing when it came to church growth. This model of Discipleship lends itself to a different approach to spiritual discipleship than we see in most churches today but it also has some seriously strong ju-ju in the marketing world. Whether you run a corner store, a home based business, the local soccer club or a fortune 500 company you’ve got people out there who want to promote you if you’re giving them the goods.

Do you give potential Disciples access to the “why and how” of what you do?

Do they get to see your “corporate values” exhibited in your dealings with them?

More importantly do you live by them when the customer isn’t looking?

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What if you treated your boss like a customer?

Composite photos courtesy of marmaladepip and kirilee and deviantart.comLast week we looked at what it meant to be ready for creating “more than satisfied” customers a.k.a. Disciples.  I suggested that the three essentials that had to exist in order to be ready to make Disciples were:

(You can find them here in the original post)

  1. You need to be prepared to serve.
  2. You need to be prepared to give
  3. You need to be prepared to nurture

It struck me a couple days later. What if I treated my boss like that?

If you think of a customer as someone who pays you money in exchange for goods or services doesn’t your boss fit into that category rather nicely? But somehow we treat the boss like he or she owes us. We did the work so they owe us the money. Because, after all, we get paid AFTER the work is done.

But what if we flipped all that on its head and started thinking of the boss as a customer. Someone we were prepared to serve above and beyond, all the time. Someone we were prepared to give recognition  and appreciate. Someone with whom we were ready to nurture a relationship. Rather than expecting to BE served, BE recognized, and BE nurtured?

I freely confess I am terrible at managing upward. I have even scoffed at the notion in the past when confounded by managers who could manage up well enough but couldn’t manage downward worth a lick. I always figured it had more to do with the color of their nose rather than any particular skill. But all of that aside I wonder what would happen if I started treating my boos like a customer. Same expectation on delivery, same anticipation of need, same attention to service. What might happen?

What do you think would happen if you started to treat your boss like your most valued customer?

 

 

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Good food + Bad service = bad blog review

Our family went out to dinner the other night to celebrate our son Ian’s 16th birthday.  He had chosen the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant in downtown Colorado Springs.  (Compare this to the choices his siblings made this past year, California Pizza Kitchen and Johnny Carino’s) We showed up a bit early for our reservation but they got us right in and seated. We had informed them that it was Ian’s birthday and they had offered, for a mere ten dollars, to take a picture and give it to us in a commemorative frame, we said, “sure, why not.”

Our waiter was a decent enough fellow just finishing his premed degree, who welcomed Ian by name, wished him a happy 16th birthday, gave him a birthday card signed by the staff, and deftly explained the menu options. After all three of the kids choked back whispered shock at the prices we settled in to the routine of a meal out which, at the Melting Pot, consists of four courses: cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and chocolate fondue.

The first bump in the road came when our waiter, who shall remain nameless, only brought four instead of five plates with the cheese course. He apologetically ran off to get another plate. After he got the table sorted he asked if we thought we might need more of any of the dipping items: bread, veggies, fruit etc. and we told him we’d definitely need more bread. This turned out to be bump two since his, “Bread, gotcha.” turned out to mean, “I’m not bringing any more of anything.”

Bump three hit when we had to sit through the entire course panting into empty glasses awaiting refills. When the very pleasant bus person came to help clear the first course she also welcomed Ian by name and wished him a happy sixteenth birthday.

Bump four came with the wrong number of plates again on the third course. (We must have confused him when only four of us had salads on the second course.) Bump five was another parched twenty minutes between refills, during which time the manager came by, wished Ian a happy 16th birthday, by name, and said he’d be back to take our picture when they brought out the chocolate course, apologizing for our empty glasses as he dashed off. He must have said something because another server came by to refill our glasses and guess what. She wished Ian a happy 16th birthday! By name!

Bump six, we took our own picture so the candle wouldn’t melt ALL the way down AFTER it had caught the stem of the maraschino cherry on fire, bump seven, they finally got around to taking their picture when we were clearing the plates…but the person who came to take the picture DID wish Ian a happy 16th birthday, by name!  And bump eight, the final jolt, came when they forgot to bring back the printed version of the picture they’d taken. We had to ask for it on the way out. The person who tracked it down smiled as she put it in the frame and wished Ian a happy 16th birthday, by name.

At the end of the experience, which my son Nathan pointed out lasted three hours, we felt like we had had some really good food, and some of the worst service we’d had in a long time.

Moral of the story:

You can add all the little niceties you want but if you don’t cover the basics the niceties just seem cheesy. Pun intended. If you want satisfied customers, who can later become Disciples, you MUST cover the basics.

When you serve your customers are you putting more effort into the “nice to have’s” or are you making certain that you provide solid service on the “must have’s”?

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Preparing for Disciples (Marketing version 1.0)

Stock image courtesy of nosheep at sxc.huLast week we looked at the notion of Disciples as “more than satisfied” customers and created a working definition for Disciples in a marketing sense. While it can be easy to make excuses about your particular enterprise and its worthiness in terms of attracting disciples let’s set aside that skepticism for just a moment and look at some preparatory essentials. These are the attitudinal building blocks that lay the foundation for Disciple making:

1. You have to be prepared serve

A customer who gets exactly what they expect is satisfied. A customer who gets more than what they expect on a regular basis is ripe for becoming a Disciple. This means that you need to be prepared to go above and beyond ALL THE TIME.  It’s easy to imagine a company like Disney or Apple creating Disciples because they provide goods and services that tap into some of our core emotions and values: Family, Coolness, Escape, Social acceptance etc. But how does a lawn service or a purveyor of pencils make Disciples when the goods and services they provide are much more mundane? By going out of their way to serve the customer. Customer service that fosters Disciples does not seek to merely serve the customer needs in the moment. It seeks to anticipate the what the customer’s needs will be tomorrow and stands prepared to meet them or even preempt them.  Are you ready to anticipate and serve your customers future needs? Then you’ve begun laying the foundation for Disciple making.

2. You have to be prepared to give

Two of the characteristics we identified as hallmarks of Disciples were that they typically self-identify and that they crave ‘insider’ information. (And I’m not referring to public trading) They want to feel like they are a part of your organization. If you’re going to capture this sentiment you need to be prepared to give some form of recognition. It may be that you’ll give recognition by creating some form of membership or named group, it may be that beyond a named group you’ll provide levels of involvement, it may be that you’ll provide members with information not available to the general public. It doesn’t always mean that you’ll give away material goods, but you may choose to do that as well.

I remember standing in line to get into the Denver Zoo one summer when our kids were small. There were several new exhibits and the line literally stretched around the block. We happened to be annual pass holders at the time and I clearly recall 90 degree heat, one child strapped to my back with another in a stroller,  and no recognition that we were pass holders. We stood in line with hundreds of folks who had never seen the zoo. Now, imagine they had had a separate line for annual pass holders, that this simple change was the only ‘perk’ they gave us. Not only would we have felt as sense of thanks and recognition for  being pass holders but we would also have stood in a far shorter line. Now, how many annual passes do you think they might have sold that day had they chosen to simply give out some turn-style recognition?

Remember, this giving of recognition is above and beyond your normal service offering. “Hey, you like what we do? Why not join us? And once you do here’s what you’ll get!”

3. You have to be prepared to nuture

Sounds touchy-feely I know. In this instance think of nurturing as being something as simple as drip feeding, a little water now and again to keep growth happening. If you’d like to see a phenomenal example of this approach do a little web research into Jack Daniels Tennessee Squires. According to several sources:

“The Tennessee Squire Association was formed many years ago to honour special friends of the Distillery and their world-famous Tennessee Whiskey. Many prominent business and entertainment professionals are included amongst its members”

I know about the Squires because my dad was a member. He was given a “plot of land” (I eventually learned it was about an inch square) and at least once a year something would come in the mail, a horse chestnut from “near your property”, a plug of tobacco from a “local boy”, or some Jack Daniels logo item reserved for the Squires.  By following up over time the company nurtured the relationship and my dad was a pretty brand loyal guy I have to believe, at least in part, due to that nurturing.

So, still a skeptic? Still think your brand of organization isn’t suitable for Disciple making? Are you prepared to anticipate and meet need? Are you prepared to give recognition? Are you prepared to nurture your customer relationships? Then you may be more prepared than you think!

What is the biggest stumbling block you face in moving towards creating Disciples? How can it be moved?


 

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What is a Disciple? (Marketing version 1.0)

When we hear the word disciple we tend to think immediately of the twelve guys that followed Jesus around the pages of the Bible. The truth is that many businesses today are out to create disciples they just refer to them using other titles: Advocates, Raving Fans, Maxxinistas, Trekkies and so on.

These folks are much more than just satisfied customers. They are ardent followers of the brands, products, services, and personalities they espouse and support. They’ve gone well beyond clicking the ‘Like’ button, they’ve got skin in the game!

So how do you know if you’ve got disciples?

I recently “attended”, on Facebook, the cast reunion for the film The Big Lebowski. The Achievers, as these fans refer to themselves, gathered in New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom to celebrate the release of the film on Blu-Ray and all the key players were there on stage: John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Jeff Bridges, the whole gang.  But this wasn’t just a one time event, no sirree. The “Lebowski Fest” happens every year in about a dozen different cities. Hundreds of people drives hundreds of miles to attend these events! Imagine Star Trek convention meets Woodstock in bathrobes and you’ll get something of a picture.

But this type of behavior isn’t a random anomaly.What we have here is the first of four characteristics that are exhibited by disciples:

1. The tend to self-identify and gather

  • Disney started the D23 Expo in 2010, an annual event conceived as the ultimate Disney fan event.
  • Apple fans flock to the MacWorld conference every year in droves.
  • Microsoft is launching “HaloFest” in celebration of 10 years of game play. (Has it been that long?)
  • Oracle OpenWorld packs out San Francisco every fall.

To be fair these events aren’t just attended by disciples, the general public comes along as well, otherwise there would be no one to convert. But pay closer attention to some of the conversations occurring at these events and you can start to distinguish the Disciples from the attendees. Watch what people are wearing, it’s a good first clue.

2. They’re typically VERY well informed

A second characteristic of a Disciple is that when it comes to knowing the inside scoop on the brands they support they are connected to the rumor mill, the social media hubs, and the official publications even before they become official. Disciples take pride in knowing things before they’re generally known. They crave this information. They feed on it. They ache to be ahead of the curve. As such they may well know what people are saying about you before you do!

3. They have strong opinions about “their brand”

If you happen to visit Disneyland around the Holidays ask a cast member or two if they’ve heard any complaints from guests about the Holiday changes to some of their favorite attractions. Many Disney Disciples actually find these changes offensive because it smacks of disrespecting of traditions and they’re quite vocal about it! Whether you agree with the opinion of these types of radical zealots or not they can give you insight into how customers may respond to changes you’re considering.

4. The don’t just advertise, they evangelize

Folks who have crossed over to disciple-dom don’t just want you to know about their favorite game, or television show, or computer they want you to adopt it as your own. They go out of their way to try to convince others of the superiority of their brand. They become an unsolicited, unpaid, sometimes undisciplined sales force.

But what if you could harness their energy? What if you could leverage their enthusiasm, provide ways for them to feel even more “connected” to the inside scoop they crave, and give them tools to help them make converts? If you could find a way to create one Disciple out of every five satisfied customers what sort of organic sales force would you have on your hands? There is power here for those that know how to identify it and harness it for good!!

Does your organization have Disciples? If not, why not? If so, how are you mentoring them?

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Commercial Perfection

Have you seen the new Perrier commercial?

This is really brilliant stuff, especially when held up next to much of what is being aired these days. If you’ve seen it in context, meaning on TV, it really stands out from the commercials on either side of it. Why? you may ask, what makes it so appealing? Let me suggest three simple elements:

1) It Understands the Medium:

Television is a visual medium. The visuals of all the melting landscape and props are artistic candy. Watch the actors as they interact with their melting surroundings…great stuff. There is a trend in commercials today to be more reliant on audio, the thought being that people are headed to the fridge with their back turned to the tube so we better give them an audio message. This piece is purely visual communication. Walk to the fridge with your back turned and you won’t know what the commercial is about but watch it, and you’re captivated.

2) It Tells a Story:

We’re drawn in early on to the mystery of why stuff is melting. We shown the main character with a look of confusion approaching panic. She moves toward resolution and then the story arc peaks as the bottle falls off the ledge, a moment of high tension. We get it, we know where this is headed because we’ve seen it before but the piece is so artistically done, the story so visually well told, that we follow it anyway.

3) It Resolves on the Product:

The moment we see the “heroine” drink deeply in the pool we think, or at least I thought, “refreshment”. No slogan is spoken, no print on the screen, but the idea is clear, and more importantly, it is centered on the product. Not the funny person in the video, not the comedic climax, not the tag line, the product. We’re given one word “Perrier” and we provide our own tag line, highly personalized, subconsciously.

What are the places in life where you are trying, or have to try, to convince people to do something, or try something, or decide something? Do your “commercials” understand the medium in which you’re presenting your idea? Do you have a story to tell? DO you focus on “the product”? The thing you want them to choose?

It may be trying to get your kids out of bed in the morning. It may be trying to convince a friend to start exercising with you. It may be trying to sell your boss on a new idea. How can you leverage these three elements to convince your audience in a more compelling way?