Paul’s Model of Discipleship

I have recently been looking back over my early days of transitioning from a staffed-campus strategy to the catalytic approach. I remember that it took me a while to grasp the concept of ‘discipleship’ in the catalytic strategy. I think it was because I went directly from a classic team to a catalytic metro team. I brought with me an experience of one concept of discipleship that didn’t directly carry over into my new context.  My ‘muscle memory’ simply clicked in and I found myself developing my student leaders much the same way I discipled the students in my discipleship chain in a classic campus setting.

My circumstances in catalytic were different, the strategy was different, what I was looking to produce in ministry was different (students who direct and lead the local ministry themselves), but my experience and training produced only one particular way to disciple someone, which kept me from approaching discipleship a different way.  Because I was so well trained in the classic approach of discipleship, I was convinced it was the only effective approach.  It took me a while to recognize that there could be other approaches to discipleship that were just as valid and just as effective.

It was helpful for me to look at the variety of ways Paul modeled discipleship.  You remember Paul, don’t you? And you remember that great example of our beloved discipleship model found in 2 Timothy 2:2?  The person on whom we base our understanding of multiplying discipleship…  To be honest, I never really attentively studied Paul’s model(s) of discipleship until I came to catalytic.  One thing I realized, after stepping back to look at it with fresh eyes, was that it appears that he didn’t disciple every person the same way.

A challenge that I would suggest is that you look into the life of Paul in Acts to see how he discipled ‘his’ people.  One way you could approach your study is by looking at the following:

PEOPLE PAUL INVESTED IN	OBSERVATIONS
Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos The church in Corinth Timothy, Silas, and the rest of Paul’s companions The church in Thessalonika The church in Colossae	Make observations about the context and length of time Paul spent with each group Note the circumstances of Paul’s interaction with the disciples Reflect on why Paul might have used the approach he did Consider what he might have focused on teaching for each group Look for what the results of each group of people were

You might look at each of the categories of people who were under Paul’s care and note the answers to the questions in the column on the right.  You will probably come up with more questions to pursue or other ideas to look into, but this could be a good start.

(If you do this study or study this topic from your own angle, let me know what you find out!  I would like to make an on-going list of everyone’s findings and insights.)

I think you will find that different situations required different approaches, but all approaches resulted in the same ‘end goal’ for discipleship:  people who are following Jesus, engaged in the Great Commission and who are making new disciples…as they are building Movements Everywhere.

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Questions to consider:

What assumptions about discipleship do you have?  How do those assumptions shape the way you approach discipleship? Have those assumptions hindered you in any way?  If so, how have they hindered?

How has your understanding of discipleship changed as you have experienced different kinds of ministry?

What advice would you give to someone new to catalytic about discipling Key Volunteers?

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Passages to ponder:

See the passages above!