Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry (eBook)

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Making Disciples Who Make Disciples

Discipleship in Youth Ministry

Darren DePaul

The focus of this chapter is discipleship in the context of youth ministry. The content of this chapter is by no means exhaustive, but it will hopefully serve as a guide for you, as a leader in the church, to relationally and effectively disciple young people. Here is my basic, biblical assumption: the primary role of the youth pastor and the student ministry in the local church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

I must be clear from the outset that I do not believe in one particular model of discipleship, other than the one we find demonstrated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The programs that we enable, along with how we relate to different students, will adapt and change, but Jesus Christ and his call to make disciples will not. Jesus is our model, not merely as a guide but as the personification of discipleship. He not only called and led the disciples and others to himself, but loved them, taught them, trained them, equipped them, and sent them out to do as he had done . . . make disciples (Matt. 28:19; Mark 11:17; 16:15–16).

Before we move into the main content of the chapter, we must first provide a simple definition of a disciple. A disciple is a lifelong learner who is following and growing in relationship with Jesus Christ. This consistent following and growing in Christ is essential because it means that the disciple is personally experiencing the love and grace of Jesus and then, just as Jesus did, giving that love and grace to others in word and deed. Unfortunately, as has been outlined in many books over the last several years, many churches have failed at “making” disciples because the central focus has been only on the teachings of Jesus rather than on the importance of personally following and growing in Jesus. As Jonathan Dodson noted, “Gospel-centered discipleship is not about how we perform but who we are—imperfect people, clinging to a perfect Christ, being perfected by the Spirit.”1 The focus then is not only on knowing about Jesus, but on “clinging” to him and “being” with him. Jesus modeled this (John 10), the disciples did this, and we are called to the same as we minister to young people.

Our youth ministries should be focused on making disciples who will in turn make disciples. Here is where we must be honest with ourselves as people who lead young people. We must ask: Is the point of our youth ministry the program or the people? Is it about growing followers of Jesus or about the great American youth ministry dream of big programs and personal accolades?2 For the Pharisees, their mission focused on programs, the outward appearance, and a legalistic religion that brought death instead of life. Jesus, on the other hand, was relational. He focused on the heart of the individual person and, in the midst of relationship, challenged him or her to abandon idols for the sake of an abundant life through faith in him. And Jesus said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Those words are just as challenging now as they were two thousand years ago when Jesus first delivered them, and in no way have they lost their value or relevance.

As you think about your own growth as a disciple and how you’re leading the young people in your ministry, think about these words from Tom Sine, “Jesus expects those who follow Him to be as extreme as His first followers were in putting aside every lesser thing and making this business of being a disciple a whole-life proposition.”3 This is, in other words, a call to believe Jesus and also to embrace him personally as Savior and Lord. Discipleship involves knowing about Jesus . . . and also knowing Jesus.

We must remember as youth leaders that discipleship is a journey—a long journey. Large groups, small groups, one-on-one meetings, mission trips, and the like all play a part in that journey for our students, but the focal point must always be Jesus. We should be teaching, leading, showing, and modeling to our young people that being a disciple is not about a program or our personality, but rather about following Jesus in all of life. Francis Chan stated this well when he wrote, “Making disciples is far more than a program. It is the mission of our lives. It defines us. A disciple is a disciple maker.”4

As we pour into the lives of our students we must also remember that discipleship is a purposeful process. Simply because a student “shows up” doesn’t mean he or she is following Jesus, or even has a context to know what that means.5 My hope in this short chapter is to address a few areas that will help us as we consider how to purposefully disciple the students whom the Lord has placed in our lives, for the glory of our Lord and Savior.

The Purpose of Discipleship

Discipleship in the context of youth ministry is leading, teaching, and modeling to our students what it means to be a lifelong learner who is following and growing in Jesus Christ. While discipling, we must remember that right information and teaching is not an adequate strategy to make disciples.6 We must indeed teach the Bible, theology, and doctrine clearly and effectively, but we cannot lose sight of the intensely relational aspect to discipleship. While our programs are of some value, we should view them not as the end but as the means to connect with students relationally, pushing them to know and grow in relationship with Jesus Christ. Several years ago, I read Steve Shadrach’s book The Fuel and the Flame. He wrote something that changed the way I thought about discipleship: “If you want to see your campus ablaze for Christ, purpose-driven, love-filled relationships will have to permeate your life and ministry. Why? Because discipleship is a combination of direction and affection.”7 For so long, I focused on direction in discipleship but neglected the affection. We can’t simply say we’re about relational ministry; we actually have to be about those relationships.

We must constantly examine our hearts and our ministries and ask the hard question: Are we making disciples? That is the command that Jesus has put before us. He made disciples and commands us to follow his lead and “make disciples” (Matt. 28:19). Jesus “made” a handful of disciples and then they went and made disciples. Jesus calls us to do the same today, and if our ministries do not have disciple making as their goal, we may find that we are dangerously out of step with Jesus himself!

The underlying purpose of relational youth ministry is to connect young people to Jesus—making disciples who will make disciples. Yet, with so many demands on us through programming, staff meetings, and other responsibilities, our relationships with students can suffer. Relationships mattered to Jesus and they should matter to us and to our ministries.

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Practical Considerations for Discipleship in Youth Ministry

A Pattern for Discipleship

Through his life and ministry, Jesus provided a pattern for us to emulate as we engage in relational ministry. He showed us how to effectively disciple others by initiating, identifying, and invading the lives of those that the Father put before him.8 We see this in the beginning of his ministry in the calling of the first disciples (Matt. 4:18–22; Mark 1:16–34; Luke 5:1–11), to the end of his life and ministry as he hung on the cross and ministered to the repentant criminal (Luke 23:41–43). While there are countless accounts in the life and ministry of Jesus where we see him initiating, identifying, and invading the lives of people, for the sake of space we will focus on one transforming passage: John 4 and the account of the woman at the well.9

Initiate

In the beginning of the story in John 4, Jesus had been in Judea, and it was time for him to move on to Galilee. As Jesus began the journey to Galilee, John wrote that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” (4:4). Now, Jesus didn’t technically need to “pass through” Samaria, which was an area detested by the Jews; the need was based on God’s divine purpose. As Rodney Whitacre noted, “There is no geographical necessity for going through Samaria. The necessity is due to God’s plan. . . . The Father was sending Him there to look for those who would worship Him in spirit and truth (4:23).”10

Passing through our ministries each week are students the Lord is putting before us and calling us to engage. He continues to look for those who would worship him in spirit and truth, and our calling is to engage with those students relationally. Our disciple making begins with listening and being open, just as Jesus was, to those divine meetings that the Lord is putting in our lives.

Tired from his travels, Jesus stopped and sat at a well in Samaria. As Jesus was sitting there, a woman from Samaria came to draw water and he asked her for a drink. On the surface, her coming to the well does not seem that unusual to us, but context is key; the text says she was there at the sixth hour, which is noon. In that...