What Is the Difference Between Discipleship and Disciple-Making?
An Excerpt from My Upcoming Book on Living a Disciple-Making Lifestyle
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This is what most of the church world in the West has missed, and it is costing us the multiplication of disciples. Both of these activities are core to becoming what Christ envisions for us. Both are critical to following Jesus❗️
For decades, maybe longer, we have used discipleship and disciple-making as if they were the same word with the same meaning. They are not. They are related. But they are not the same.
Here’s the clearest way I know to draw the line:
Discipleship is primarily inward. Disciple-making is primarily outward.
Discipleship is the process of sanctification. Disciple-making is the process of multiplication.
Discipleship is the process of growing in Christlikeness, learning His Word, surrendering your will, developing the fruit of the Spirit, renewing your mind, dealing with your sin patterns, and deepening your prayer life. It is the lifelong, never-finished, deeply personal journey of becoming more and more like Jesus. That is sacred work. Beautiful work. Absolutely essential work.
🚫 And it never stops. 🚫
The suffix, “-ship” changes the meaning of a word to reflect the “act or state of being.” So in other words, discipleship is the act or state of BEING a disciple. The act of making disciples first requires one to BE a disciple, so it is a critical part of becoming a disciple-maker.
But here is where we have made a critical error. We have taught people that once they get their discipleship right, once they have grown enough, read enough, matured enough, gotten enough of their stuff together, ➠THEN they will be ready to make disciples.
❌ That is not the Jesus model ❌
Jesus called His disciples while they were still in process.
Simon Peter had an anger problem.
Thomas had a doubt problem.
The Sons of Thunder had a pride problem.
James and John literally asked Jesus if they could call down fire from heaven on a village that rejected them (Luke 9:54). These are not polished, put-together spiritual giants. These are works in progress. Just like you. Just like me.
And Jesus sent them out to make disciples anyway. Before they had a seminary degree. Before they had it all figured out. Before they fully understood the resurrection. He sent them on mission in the middle of their own growth journey.
❓So what does that tell us❓
Discipleship and disciple-making are not sequential. They are simultaneous. That’s a game-changer. You do not graduate from discipleship into disciple-making. You grow in both at the same time. In fact, one of the most accelerating things you can do for your own sanctification is to start investing in someone else’s spiritual journey. Nothing grows you faster than being responsible to teach what you are learning.
Paul instructed one of his young disciples, Timothy: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2). That is a four-generation chain of disciple-making from a man who was simultaneously working out his own sanctification, writing letters wrestling with a thorn in the flesh, with tension in relationships, with the mystery of suffering.
🏃➡️➠🏃♀️➡️➠🏃🏼♂️➡️➠🏃➡️➠
Discipleship is about working on your Christ-likeness. Disciple-making is about creating the culture and environments where others can enter and walk the disciple-making journey that Jesus modeled.
✔︎ You need both.
And you can practice both right now, wherever you are.
The person who thinks they need to be further along before they start making disciples will never start. I have watched it happen for years. Well-meaning, sincere followers of Jesus who are waiting for the green light of spiritual maturity or the permission from a spiritual authority often never really get moving. That green light is not coming, not the way they imagine it. The green light was given at the moment Jesus uttered the Great Commission.
When our pastor came 22 yearn ago he brought with him, as he called it "followership". As I think about your article this term covers both. I really like the outward - inward distinction.