Workshop #4: Using the Discipleship Mirror

What does a mirror do?  Among several things it gives us a clear picture of something we may not be able to see.  A mirror also allows us to take a step back to get the full picture of something we are standing too close to see.

In CCC we use the words, ‘Win, Build, Send, Multiply’. These words describe what we do.

The Discipleship Movement Mirror focuses our attention on how people respond to what we do.  This ‘mirror’ allows us to see if what we are doing has a corresponding response in their lives.

Jesus came and told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

According to Mt 28:18-20, Jesus teaches new believers to be true disciples. And what do disciples do? Every follower of Christ seeks to grow in love for God and learn how to obey Jesus’ commands, including witnessing to others and then training these new believers to repeat the process. Every disciple should be a discipler-trainer or ‘multiplier’.

In a discipleship movement every person involved is trained to train others who will immediately be involved in the process of training others to witness and train others, and so on.

The Discipleship Mirror shows us how a new attender moves to becoming a Multiplying disciple.

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Let’s consider some benefits of using the Discipleship Mirror in coaching Key Volunteers who are forming a team to build a movement:

• If movements are going to multiply rapidly, we need to strategically focus on developing spiritual multipliers. The Discipleship Mirror helps to more easily identify the Multipliers within the movement.
• It enables us to evaluate the next step in developing each member.   This answers the question of ‘Where is the movement in the process of rapid multiplication?’
• The Discipleship Mirror can help you pinpoint barriers that are preventing the members from rapidly multiplying.

Often we have groups with many Attenders and Witnesses, yet there are few who become Starters of their own groups and almost no Multipliers.  Using the Discipleship Mirror in the context of the Three-thirds Process can assist KV Teams as they help new believers move from Attenders to Multipliers.

Spend some time thinking about the following barriers that new believers might have in becoming Multipliers:

• Confidence Barrier – afraid to witness, makes excuses, passes evangelism off to ‘gifted people’.
• Permission Barrier – no ‘permission’ given to start new groups, passes disciple-making on to ‘specialists’.
• Vision Barrier – inward focus, lack of foresight, too much control.

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Assignment: Answer the questions below:

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Final Remarks on the Discipleship Mirror

If we wait until everyone in the group is ready to move to the next level of commitment, we will slow down the process of getting to spiritual multiplication. In reality, not every student involved will move on to the next level of commitment.

Coaches and Key Volunteers need to be comfortable with groups that have disciples that are at different levels of commitment while continuing to train and challenge all of them toward spiritual multiplication.

In many cases, only 1 or 2 from a discipleship group will move on to be a Multiplier.  Others in the group may continue to be Witnesses or Starters, which is also good because they are making a contribution to the overall movement and God’s kingdom work.

The next workshop will help you discern when a movement is ready to multiply and to where it should expand.