When Am I Ready to Make Disciples?

When am I ready to make disciples?

This is an incredibly common question in the disciple-making movement I have been a part of. When is someone ready to be sent out to make disciples?

Start With Jesus

I first want to turn to Scripture and look at what Jesus modeled in His ministry. As Paul says, our goal in discipleship is to have people imitate us as we imitate Christ. We must always start with Jesus.

It is widely known that Jesus had twelve disciples. After roughly three years of intimate, everyday life with Jesus, they received the Great Commission and were sent to make disciples of all nations. At the same time, Jesus also sent the Twelve and other disciples to practice ministry while they were still being formed. They learned by being with Him and by joining Him in the work.

I am not saying that three years is a magical number. But it is important to notice that their formation was not three years of meeting once a week in a discipleship group with a sinful person like me. It was three years of surrendering every day and every moment to walking alongside the embodied Creator of the universe, who knows no sin.

From that perspective, it can feel discouraging to even attempt to make a disciple when I am still so far from the goal. But that should not slow us down or stop us. It should give us a clearer picture of the goal.

The goal is to send out disciples who make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded, and trust that He will be with them.

To do that effectively, we must first be disciples who increasingly look like Jesus and walk surrendered lives. We must know the teachings of Jesus and obey them well enough to share them and teach others to obey them too.

Anyone Can Share Their Testimony

There are many examples in Scripture of people receiving healing or ministry from Jesus and immediately going to tell others what happened. This is evangelism, and it is an aspect of discipleship.

Those people were not yet teaching others to obey everything Jesus commanded because they did not yet know all He had commanded. But they could tell the truth about what Jesus had done for them.

Anyone, at any point, can share a testimony. We should train and equip people to express their story of life change clearly. That can happen minutes or years after a radical encounter with Jesus.

Ask the Holy Spirit From the Beginning

Even in the earliest stages of discipleship, we should turn our eyes and ears toward the Holy Spirit and ask whom He is leading us to invest in. Then we trust Him in that process.

I have been walking with a group of guys for about two years. Since day one, I have told them, “You guys are going to repeat this process,” while trying to trust the Holy Spirit in it.

At the end of the first year, I asked, “Who is going to bring someone into this group next year so we can multiply?” No one else brought anyone, so I added somebody. I will be honest: I was a little discouraged.

But the truth was that they were praying about it and thinking about it. They simply did not yet have the boldness or readiness to ask those people. So we kept praying and talking about it.

This year, almost two and a half years in, one of the guys came to the group on his own and said, “I have invited two of my friends. One of them is a brand-new Christian, and I want him to walk in a discipleship group with me.”

I was ecstatic. I was so thankful that he had the boldness and readiness to do that, and it was all prompted by the Holy Spirit. There was nothing I did to declare him ready or fit to make disciples. He had been asking the Spirit whom he was being led to and whom the Spirit wanted him to invest in.

When Someone Still Has Not Moved

If sharing and investing are not beginning to happen naturally, the person may need an “I see you” conversation.

If your discipleship groups are like mine, the people you are discipling may have already walked through all of Scripture at least once. They may have a general understanding of the metanarrative of Scripture and the character of God. They have an example of a godly life to follow, but they have not yet moved to action.

That is worth a specific conversation. Ask whether something is holding them back, such as shame, pride, another area of sin, or simply ignoring prompts from the Holy Spirit. It’s worth mentioning that early in the process of being a disciple, my eyes were mostly on myself and how I was changing and growing. As I have grown in Christlikeness, my attention naturally has shifted to those around me and their needs/desires.

Different People Will Disciple Differently

Some people will be much better at sharing their testimony. Some will be better at walking others through the teachings of Jesus. Some will be better at praying with people, quietly serving others, or interceding for them.

Some people will have clear discernment and authority where darkness is present in people’s lives. Others will be natural gatherers who pull groups together.

We cannot assume that everyone will disciple exactly the way we do. But we can know that the Holy Spirit will not lead someone to focus only on their own sanctification for the rest of their life.

We must encourage people to look outward and prayerfully consider whom the Lord is highlighting for them to invest in, pray for, intercede for, care for, or share their testimony with.

This also highlights the beautiful gift of the family of God. We were meant to live and grow in relationship with one another, and it’s in that context where we are best discipled.

Where are you on your journey of being a disciple? Have you begun to invite someone on that journey with you? What step might the Spirit be prompting you to take next toward Him?