Principles of Discipleship Appendix B

APPENDIX B
PRINCIPLES OF DISCIPLESHIP

The heart of spiritual movements is multiple generations of disciples. This means introducing
others to faith in Jesus, discipling them, then teaching them to do the same, producing a chain of
excited disciples for Jesus. This is a challenge to many churches today because the members do
little personal discipleship particularly the kind that develops people who totally surrender their
lives to Christ.
The purpose of this appendix is to review key principles in the process of discipling others.
These principles are effectively presented in The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman.
The author draws his principles from the life of Christ. In this age of mega-programs, we should
remember Christs method was simply to develop a few good men who would take His message
and teach it to others who would then teach others (2 Timothy 2:2). This study summarizes the
observations made in The Master Plan of Evangelism, but the book is well worth reading itself.
Robert Coleman explains eight guiding principles of the Lords plan for growing His church.
These eight principles are summarized below. They do not have to occur sequentially.
1. The Principle of Selecting
Jesus focused much of His efforts on a few key men. He also reached out to the multitudes
He loved and for whom He came to die. But the multitudes were concerned largely with
being fed and seeing His miracles. They quickly left Him when they heard the true cost of
discipleship. Jesus could have gathered a great following by focusing on the concerns of the
masses rather than taking the time to train a few key men. But then He would have had no
leaders after His crucifixion. Jesus priority was to build His life into a few good men. These
men were not great by the worlds standards, but they did have a heart to learn and a
willingness to obey. They would carry on and expand Christs kingdom after He was gone.
This same priority of training leaders needs to be addressed today. We may have great
programs, but discipleship usually falls on the shoulders of a very few. We need to greatly
increase the number of lay leaders capable of discipling others.
2. The Principle of Being Together
Jesus poured His life into His key disciples. His method of training was to have His disciples
spend time with Him. For three years, they were with Him continually. As the end of His life
approached, He spent more time with them alone. Even when He was ministering to the
multitudes, His disciples were there observing and learning. Jesus told His disciples, You
also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning (John 15:27). Discipleship
is much like fatherhood. The only way a father can properly raise his children is to spend
time with them. Churches today suffer from the lack of personal discipleship of both new and
old believers because few members have gone through the process themselves and know how
to disciple others. This problem lies at the root of mediocre churches today. (Note: It is
difficult to spend this kind of time with your disciples in this modern age. They cannot
follow you around like the disciples followed Jesus, but they can spend time daily with Jesus
by studying His Word and applying it to their lives. And it is important that they see the
gospel truths working in your life.)

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3. The Principle of Commitment

Jesus made the cost of discipleship quite clear from the beginning. No one who puts his
hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). At one
point, He told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24). He wanted no half-hearted commitment. Just
as Christ was faithful to do the will of His Father, so His disciples were expected to be
faithful to do His will. If you love me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15). Many
followers could not accept those terms and turned away. Interestingly, Jesus did not run after
them. He focused on building leaders and knew the effort would be futile with people
unwilling to be totally committed to Him.
4. The Principle of the Spirit-filled Life
Jesus life was a life of giving giving away what the Father had given Him. He held
nothing back, not even His own life. This was the work of the Holy Spirit in His life, and His
disciples needed the same work of the Spirit in their lives. They could not do greater things
than these (John 14:12) in their own power. Therefore, it was important that they were
continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Counselor to be with you forever the Spirit of truth (John 14:16). The
Spirit would guide them into all truth, show them things to come, teach them all things, and
help them pray. This is the source of power for the Christian life today as well, and it is only
available as we totally yield our lives to the Lordship of Christ. This power is not available to
those who sit on the sidelines or prefer to walk in darkness.
5. The Principle of Demonstrating the Needed Skills
Jesus is the ultimate teacher, and His classroom was His life. His disciples learned His truths
by watching Him live them out daily. They learned to pray by watching Him pray. They
learned the importance of Scripture by watching Him use it in His messages and apply it to
people and their circumstances. They learned to share the gospel with others by watching
Jesus. His life was an ongoing demonstration of the truths He wanted them to learn. In a
similar way, we need to live out spiritual truths in the presence of our disciples.
Demonstration is a very powerful form of teaching. In fact, our teaching will be useless if we
do not demonstrate it in our own lives.
6. The Principle of Delegating Responsibility to Others
It was not enough for Jesus to merely serve as an example of how to live. His whole purpose
of choosing and training the disciples was to prepare them to take over the ministry once He
was gone. But delegating responsibility to them was a process. For the first year, the disciples
did little more than follow Him and observe. Then there came a time for them to begin
practicing what they had learned. As He sent out the His disciples, Jesus gave them clear
instructions. They were to preach that the kingdom of heaven was near and to heal the sick.
They were to go only to the Jews and trust God to meet their needs. They were also
specifically instructed to find someone in town who was worthy and stay with him. This
person would be the one who would continue the discipleship process after Jesus disciples
had left. This is another example of the human chain of disciples Jesus wanted to establish.
This delegation of tasks became more specific as the time of Jesus departure grew closer,
and finally concluded with the Great Commission just before His ascension. Delegation and
modeling need to go hand-in-hand. You cannot expect people to disciple others well if they
have not observed the process themselves.

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7. The Principle of Supervision

Jesus continually reviewed the progress of His disciples. He sent them out on their own and
reviewed the results when they returned. He took advantage of both their failings and their
successes to teach them more about the kingdom of God. For example, when the seventy-two
disciples returned with glowing reports of their success, Jesus used the occasion to caution
them against pride in their accomplishments. He pointed out that they should not rejoice over
their success, but rejoice that their names were written in heaven. When the disciples could
not cast out the demon from the boy, Jesus explained that they needed more prayer and
fasting. He taught them patience when others cast out demons in His name and when the
Samaritan town did not receive Him. He would not let them rest in success or in failure. No
matter what they did, He had more for them to do and to learn. His plan of teaching by
example, assignment, and constant check-up was meant to bring out the best in them. Today,
we often take a disciple through a training manual, and then expect him to continue applying
the lessons on his own. That is not discipleship. Discipleship is spending time with a person,
teaching and helping him until he is spiritually mature and able to carry on alone.
8. The Principle of Reproduction
Jesus counted on a few men to carry on the task of taking the gospel to the world. He poured
His life into them, and He promised to send them the Holy Spirit to give them power. The
story of the vine and the branches illustrates the importance of being fruitful (John 15:1-17).
Any branch that lives on the vine has to produce in order to survive. Any vine that does not
bear fruit is to be cut off, and any vine that does bear fruit is pruned so that it will bear more
fruit. Producing fruit is a vines purpose. An unfruitful Christian is a contradiction. So what
does it take to become a reproducing Christian? It takes a person totally surrendered to the
Lordship of Christ, who shares His vision for the world, and who is committed to teaching
others who will go on to teach others. In His Great Commission, Jesus did not say to go and
make believers. He said to go and make disciples. We have only succeeded when these
disciples reproduce themselves.
Epilogue The Master and Your Plan
The time has come to apply what you have learned. What is your plan? It is not enough to
know what to do. We must live it out as well. The methods may vary, and we may have to
change some priorities we hold dear. But Jesus life and His example should convince us that
finding and training men who will reach other men must be a priority. We should also realize
that this does not happen by accident. Here are a few simple principles we can keep in mind
from what we have learned:
1. Begin with a few. Remember, the goal is multiplication. Like begets like, so you need to
emphasize quality over quantity as your final product. If the right quality is there, it will
reproduce itself.
2. Be together. Our disciples need to observe our lives if they are to learn from us what
they are to become.
3. Give them time. A plan like this is going to take time. Find creative ways to spend time
together. It does not always have to be in obvious spiritual pursuits. The daily activities
of life offer many opportunities.
4. Have group meetings. This is both practical and valuable as we learn from one another.
5. Expect something from them. We need to be very creative and consider the gifts and
maturity of each person. Everyone should not be expected to do the same thing or grow
in the same way. But each person should be encouraged to be doing something in bearing
fruit and building up the kingdom of God.
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6. Keep them going. The focus is to help them continue growing in grace and knowledge.
We need to be patient because their growth may be slow with numerous setbacks.
7. Help them carry their burdens. We must anticipate their problems and prepare them for
what they will face. This can be very difficult and requires constant thought and prayer.
We cannot assume, at least at the early stages, that they can handle everything that comes
along.
8. Let them carry on. Everything should be leading these chosen people to the day when
they will continue a ministry to others on their own. As this happens, they should
understand the process of discipleship they have experienced and see the goal of
reproducing it in the lives of others.
9. Help them have a true spiritual experience. The final measure will be the spiritual
commitment of these people to Christ. If they have grown to love God with all their
hearts and to follow Christ wherever He leads, then everything else will follow. If they
have not reached this point, those after them will have nothing to follow.
10. Realize the price of victory is often high. This high standard of expectation is costly,
but anything less is worthless. Some will perhaps drop away, but disciples must be taught
to seek first the kingdom of God.
Hopefully, this review of Robert Colemans book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, has
challenged you to think about the relevance of all you do in the light of the Lords Great
Commission to go and make disciples . . . teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Master Plan of Evangelism. Copyright 1964, 1994, 2006 Robert Coleman. Published by
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman, may be purchased from the publisher,
http://www.revellbooks.com, other online booksellers, and through your local bookstore.

2008 2010 CCCI All rights reserved.

Reprints of unchanged appendices allowed.
Contact:
trulyfollowingjesus@ccci.org

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