Intentional Discipleship

A Strategy for the Development of Discipleship and Mission for

St Andrew’s Church

Steve McGanity
INTRODUCTION

This short document is an attempt to express my thinking from my sabbatical about the
direction our church should be going in. It is focused entirely on discipleship and
mission and covers a number of areas of church life but if followed fully could affect
others as well (e.g. youth and children’s work). While it is the outcome of the sabbatical
specifically, many of the thoughts and ideas were conceived sometime before then. I
have, for a couple of years, sensed the Lord leading me to think through these areas in
order to lead our Church into his plans and purpose. I also had a number of frustrations
with the way we have been doing mission so far. Although I believe that we have been
doing the things that God has called us to do, there have been aspects of our Church life
that I felt needed further work. For instance we are doing a great job in blessing the
community through our Community Network activities, however, I don’t think that we
have been making the most of the evangelistic opportunities that this raises for people in
the conversations they have with service users. Cells have essentially never fulfilled the
‘witness’ aspect of what they were created to do. Often it seemed like we were failing to
really move new Christians on in their faith at a fast enough rate. These frustrations led
to me think through discipleship and mission as it relates to St Andrew’s

This document is also not a finished work. I think that there are some areas, especially in
respect of relational discipleship that we will be developing for sometime. I am sure that
God will keep on speaking and using the frustrations of Church life (Bill Hybels call this
‘Holy Discontent’) to move us further into what he intends for our Church.

During the sabbatical I really sensed that the Lord was leading me in all this and a
number of things were confirmed at different times both during and since the sabbatical.
However, I also see that debate over these things will help to fine tune many aspects of
what I’m proposing. It is important that this is also covered in prayer. I would
encourage you to read through this prayerfully and to ask whatever questions are
necessary, even if you think it might be a stupid question – if you’ve thought it then you
can guarantee that someone else will be thinking it as well!

2 Intentional Discipleship v1
1. SOME INITIAL THOUGHTS

What is Discipleship?
It is important to go over some basics at the start so that you know where I am coming
from. This section will outline my starting point for discipleship and although it will go
over things you will be familiar with I would encourage you to understand these basic
principles.

The word disciple means follower, learner or pupil. It was a common word in Jesus’
time. Discipleship is the process and methods of being a Jesus follower.

Everyone, Christian and non-Christian, is being discipled by someone! A person is either

being discipled into the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil or into the ways of
Christ. In our discipling of others, we are constantly in a battle against these other
disciplers (media, influential friends and family, tradition etc).

Christian discipleship is about the formation of the whole person into the likeness of
Christ in terms of character, purpose, motivations, behaviour, service and destiny. It is
about a person discovering who they are in Christ and then living in the light of that
discovery for the rest of their lives.

Individuals have responsibility for their own discipleship. They should be looking to
learn and grow in their following of Christ at every opportunity.

However, it is the responsibility of the Church to provide the time, resources, structure
and encouragement to ensure that everyone has the right opportunities to grow. The
Church needs to create an ethos in which everyone is expected to grow in their faith and
is hungry to grow.

What are we trying to do in the process of discipleship?

Much of what we, and other churches do in terms of discipleship is rather accidental.
Any who has consistently grown in their faith over a period of time has done so because
they have put in a large amount of effort and energy rather than by the intentional
focussing of resources of the Church.

Intentional Discipleship v1 3
 What we see in Scripture through the life of Jesus and the early Church is not what we
see in Church today. Jesus consciously and deliberately spent his time with 12 men,
putting all his time and energy into discipling them rather than spreading what little time
he had with a larger crowd of people. We can see in the Gospels that Jesus deliberately
chose to focus on certain teaching and instructions, while choosing to ignore other things
that the disciples would later have to face. i.e. the growth of Christianity in gentile
regions and the subsequent debate about circumcision.

It seems that Jesus only dealt with issues that had immediate relevance or provided a
foundation for future debates and decisions. His teaching was focussed and targeted in
order to ensure that the disciples had what they needed to think through and understand
subsequent events (Cross and resurrection), to grow into the mission God had given (e.g.
Peter preaching to the gentiles) and to keep on learning about applying his teaching to
the situations they found themselves in (all of the epistles demonstrate the debates that
were going as early Christians sought to apply Jesus’ principles to their lives).

Jesus’ methods are also very different to how we seek to disciple people today. Jesus
very rarely taught as we would teach today and two things stand out in the way he went
about it.

i. Rather than outline truth he told stories instead. The purpose of the stories
appears to be on encouraging people to think and act for themselves and
not on telling them what to do. This encouraged people to learn how to
keep on growing for themselves rather than rely on others for their growth.

ii. Secondly, rather than give courses he focused on close, exclusive

relationships. Jesus saw the importance of investing himself into a few
people in order for the mission of God to be fulfilled. In many ways the
differences are simply cultural, Jesus followed many of the practises of
contemporary rabbis. Today people are used to education being expressed
in a certain way and things like courses and conferences are natural in our
society. However, I believe the principles of teaching that we see in Jesus’
ministry need to be incorporated much more in the life of the Church if we
are to be serious about discipleship.

4 Intentional Discipleship v1
 “Paul says that we are to present ourselves mature. Now mature, in my
book does not mean the "churchly," those who have mastered the
vocabulary and the litany of church life, who come alive only when the
church doors open. Rather, I have in mind those who walk through all the
corridors of the larger life—the market place, the home and community,
the playing fields—and do it in such a way that, sooner or later, it is
concluded that Jesus' fingerprints are all over them”.

Gordon MacDonald

The process of discipleship that we follow should aim to produce;

iii. People for whom the Gospel is impacting every part of their lives.
iv. People whose faith is seen and demonstrated in the world.
v. People who are able to take responsibility for their own growth in Christ.

Intentional Discipleship v1 5
2. WHERE DO WE START

The best and simplest way of expressing all that needs to be focussed on in discipleship
is through the diagram below.

This is a variation on the triangle in LifeShapes (more of that later). The reason for the
change to three interlocking circles is that it creates a centre point that I believe is
important. This centre is about who we are in Christ because it is that which defines our
relationships with God, each other and the world. Unless we know who we are in Christ
the rest of it doesn’t make sense. In a Church were there seems to be such a lack of self-
confidence and self-esteem we need to ensure that everyone understands that they are
new creations and as such are now completely different people to who they used to be.
We need to work at allowing people to discover the freedom that Christ has bought for
them from the words, events and hurts of the past so they can live the Christ life now.

Our discipleship therefore needs to focus on the up, in and out of the diagram plus ‘me’
-who we are in Christ. This could also be described as loving God, loving each other,
loving the lost and loving ourselves.

God

Me
Church World

6 Intentional Discipleship v1
 There are certain values that I believe are important within each of these areas. These
values need to be regularly highlighted in every opportunity for teaching and preaching.
They are values that we need to work hard at making the centre of who we are as a
Church. They are;
i. Up
1. Spiritual Disciplines
2. Passion
3. Sacrifice
4. Covenant

ii. In
1. Love and grace
2. Interdependence
3. Inclusiveness
4. Authenticity
5. Accountability & Teachability

iii. Out
1. Evangelism
2. Transformation
3. Power
4. Kingdom

iv. Who I am in Christ

1. Adoption
2. Inheritance
3. Purpose
4. Calling

Many of these values are already at the heart of St Andrew’s, for instance power and
kingdom are often reflected in our sermons and ministry. However, not everyone will
see this as a value that needs to be lived out daily, they may see that it is something that
is only part of their life on a Sunday or in a cell.

Everyone is drawn to different relationships in the diagram, some will focus on their
relationship with God through prayer and worship. Others will want to focus on building
the fellowship of the Church and so it goes on. Many of the debates in our church and
others are because people are naturally focussing on a different relationship in the
diagram and want the rest of the church to do the same as them. The relationship they

Intentional Discipleship v1 7
 will focus on the most is the one that they are most comfortable in. If we only allow
people to focus on one relationship in the diagram we will produce lopsided disciples.

By using this diagram, particularly in conjunction with the values outlined above, we can
develop Church life around discipleship and mission in a way that provides a balance of
the spiritual needs of our Church members. It provides a framework around which we
can build the life of the Church. By encouraging a balance in the different relationships
we will be able to develop an ethos that encourages growth, witness and personal and
social transformation.

8 Intentional Discipleship v1
3. METHODOLOGY

There are four ways in which people grow in their faith that we need to intentionally
incorporate into the life of St Andrew’s. I believe that we need to intentionally include all
four in the life of the church if we are to encourage greater discipleship, and therefore
greater mission.

A. EDUCATION
I've used the word education rather than teaching. 'Teaching' puts the emphasis on the
teacher; education puts more of an emphasis on the learner. We each have the
responsibility to discover for ourselves the riches of Christ's grace. This is not about
getting to know the Bible better, although that is part of it. The whole point of learning
more is about the transformation of our character and behaviour. If what we learn
doesn't transform us in some way then it is a pointless exercise.

I see that our task of education has at its centre the need to encourage people to 'feed'
themselves and to take responsibility for their own growth. In all the conversations I've
had with people from church it is clear that few actually do that. They will occasionally
read the scriptures, but not in a regular systematic way, perhaps never read a Christian
book and very rarely attend any Christian event, apart from Sunday worship (and then
not every week), where there may be life transforming teaching.

James 3:1 says that those of us who teach will be judged more strictly than others. This
is not just about being doctrinally or biblically correct in our teaching but also in the
character of the teachers and the way in which the teaching is presented. There is a
responsibility on those who teach in church to teach well and to seek to accommodate
those who learn in different ways.

Not everyone learns well by simply sitting listening to a sermon, no matter how good it
is. I'd like us to work harder at making sermons and other teaching events more
interactive, visual and relevant. Few of us may have the ability that Jesus had of being
able to tell stories that changed people’s lives. However, we should make every effort to
move away from a solely didactic way of preaching through a greater use of a visual
element to preaching. This is an incredibly difficult thing to do well, as anyone who has
Intentional Discipleship v1 9
 seen our different attempts up until now, will testify. However, we have to keep
working on it more and more. The proposals below will overtime give us more time and
space to be visual in the way we teach.

There are three areas in which we can develop education in Church in order to provide a
better basis for growth in our Church members.

1. Sermons
We are fortunate at St Andrew’s in the number of preachers we have and the generally
good quality of the sermons preached week after week. However, on reflection I feel
there is a need to create the possibility of life change in our sermons, to be more
intentional in what we are teaching and for there to be better planning of sermon series.
As I have said above, there needs to be a move from what we want to preach to what
people need to learn.

Sermons provide the regular scriptural input for most of our members. However,
assuming that someone comes to church every week and assuming a sermon length of
20 minutes, that means that they would only have 17 hours of input a year (the
equivalent of 3 school days). We need to ensure that we are able to bring out the most of
the discipling opportunity that sermons provide within this limited timescale.

There has also been a lot of flexibility and freedom for preachers as they have prepared
their sermons, whether within a series or a one off sermon. While this has allowed
opportunity for the Spirit to guide us on a weekly basis, it has also meant that too many
of our sermons are too similar or don’t cover all the things needed for a person to grow.
As someone commented to me recently, it seemed that all the sermons in the recent
sermon series on Philippians said similar things.

There are a number of things that need to be done that may help us get the most out of
the sermons we preach.

1. Yearly planning – I propose that we plan a whole years sermons well in

advance. The whole year will be based around up, in out and who I am. To get
the Series we start by including other church members in the process of
deciding themes and topics for the year. This could be in an evening were

10 Intentional Discipleship v1
 anyone could come along and suggest things they need to understand or apply
to their lives better. This would give us an idea of the felt needs of the
congregation and provide a basis for planning a year’s sermons. Anything that
didn’t fit with up, in, out and ‘who I am’ would be discarded, unless we felt it
met a particular need in church.

2. Each term would focus on one of up, in or out and could have anything from
1-3 sermon series within it, although it is not necessary for them to fill a whole
term. It will be possible to fit the up in and out subjects to the theological
themes of the major festivals in each term. For instance ‘out’ could be in the
autumn term and related to incarnation, the major theological theme of
Christmas. ‘Me’ will be included at different times in the year and I envisage
there will be a two or three short sermon series on this subject along with a
regular day course (see below).

3. Each sermon series will be planned by the preachers well in advance so that
the main teaching point and scripture will be known for each sermon well in
advance. This will allow preachers time to research any sermon with which
they are not comfortable. There will be an emphasis on having just one, clear
point to every sermon. This will be communicated to others involved in the
service, this way they too may use their segment of the service to focus on the
one point.

4. As there is time for planning we should be looking for ways to develop more
creativity in the way we teach. For instance there will be time to research
video clips that may illustrate a sermon or to include other people in
developing a more creative element to the teaching. This will help with the
learning process of those who are more visual or kinaesthetic. One possible
way of doing this would be to have an open evening, some time before a
sermon series starts, were the more creative among us could come, hear what
the series is about and offer creative ideas about drama, visuals, layout and
decoration of the Church etc. We can also look at simple ways in which the
preachers can interact more in the preparing of a sermon.

Intentional Discipleship v1 11
 5. The preacher will produce a handout for their sermon that will include the
main points, scriptures and space for notes. It will include some ideas for a
response to the sermon and cell questions. An example of this, based on a
sermon I have preached, is at the back of this document

6. We should also consider having one short series a year that would be
evangelistic. This could then be marketed and publicised well in advance.

7. Feedback. This has been something that we have wanted to develop for a long
time. It could be possible to use cell leaders as a conduit for feedback. From
their experience of talking through the sermons each week, they will be able to
feedback whether sermons are too simple/advanced, providing good learning
opportunities and challenging people to change their lives.

2. Courses
For a person to grow in their faith I have, after a lot of thought, concluded that there are
certain things that we need to provide teaching on for basic discipleship. They are;

1. LifeShapes – just the first four shapes.

2. Disciplines – looking at the importance of and incorporating prayer, Bible study,

fasting, tithing and silence

3. Bible - giving an overview of the Bible and how we are to live it out.

4. Freedom – a course looking at who we are in Christ and finding the freedom he
won for us.

5. LifeMap – a day designed to help people discover their gifts and strengths and
how God has designed them for a unique purpose.

6. Supernatural – How we can develop a supernatural lifestyle. Would include

listening to God and how to pray for healing.

7. Witness – How to share your faith.

12 Intentional Discipleship v1
 It's a bit of a list and I'm sure that others could suggest other subjects, but these are I
believe the ones that we need to work on.

LifeShapes – we will only be using the first four shapes as they provide the best tools to
use in trying to develop a Christian lifestyle with people. They are also the best tools to
use within the discipling relationships I will be talking about later. LifeShapes will be
taught in the post Alpha groups (see below), Cell groups and revisited in the Cells on a
regular basis.

The other courses will, more than likely, be day courses. In order to do these with a
focus on the learner rather than the teacher I am proposing that, for the most part, each
day course would have 12-15 participants. The courses would be as interactive and as
visual as possible.

I also propose that on some of the courses the leader of the course would also have one
to one sessions with each participant after the course to work through anything that the
person didn’t understand or need help applying. The emphasis in this is not simply on
providing teaching but to support participants in the understanding and application of
the material.

Some of these day courses would be quite easy to set up as some of the materials we
have already used. For instance the Healing Ministry Training we do would form the
basis of the developing a supernatural lifestyle course. The fifth session of LifeShapes
would help in developing the gifts/purpose course. Other courses would need to be
developed over a period of time. I think it will take up to three years to develop the
courses and train the leaders. By then I envisage that every course will be offered every
term.

Members of the church will be invited to sign up for the courses on their own initiative
or could be encouraged by their Cell leader to join a course that would be appropriate
for their spiritual development for that particular moment in their walk with Jesus.
People will not have to join the courses in any particular order and it will be possible to
do the courses more that once.

Intentional Discipleship v1 13
 3. Summer Bible School
I really want to encourage a rhythm to life of our Church. As it is usually a busy Church
there needs to be a regular period of ‘rest’ (as in the semi-circle). I am therefore
proposing that as a general rule there should be little or no activity during the summer
period of July and August. During that time we will hold a weekly summer Bible
School, either midweek or on a Sunday night that will be run by the clergy. This will
provide a more in depth look at a biblical theme or book. Depending on numbers, an
evening could consist of some central teaching followed by breaking into groups that
are set at different levels. This would provide an opportunity for people of different
abilities and maturity to get as much out of the text as possible.

For those who lead different aspects of Church life this will be designed as an
opportunity for them to receive appropriate biblical teaching to refresh and inspire them
in their walk with Jesus. There will of course be opportunity for ministry but nothing
else will be required in terms of worship etc. There will be no pressure on anyone to
attend and the main emphasis will be on this being a time of spiritual rest and
refreshment.

14 Intentional Discipleship v1
B. EXPERIENCE
It is obvious that just being around God, living the Christian life and belonging to a
group of Christ followers is part of growing in the faith, or at least it should be.
However, I've seen lots of people who have lived for a long time without ever growing
up emotionally, relationally and intellectually because they have never bothered to learn
from their life experience. In the same way just being a Christ follower for a long time
is no guarantee that a person is mature in their faith unless they have taken time to learn
the spiritual lessons that their life experience provides them.

Every experience of life we have is an opportunity to grow in our understanding of who

God is, how he works and who we are as God's children. In Romans 5 Paul says, "We
also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope." Everyone in our Church has life
experiences that they can use to grow in their faith. Those life experiences do not have
to be overtly spiritual in nature for us to learn spiritual truths because to God (and
therefore to us) everything is spiritual. We have seen people in our church go through
incredibly difficult times, some of those people grow amazingly through those times,
others seem to wilt and die and others simply go on to make the same mistakes time and
time again. Lots of people do all sorts of work in Church and especially in the
Community Network activities, some of them seem to thrive and grow in that work,
others just find it a drag and don't grow. Some are able to understand the importance of
what they are doing and make the most of it, while others are simply focussed on
getting a job done that no longer feels worthwhile. What makes the difference?

The difference is a person's ability to stop, reflect, learn and act on their experiences. It's
their ability to look honestly at what is happening, to ask questions and to seek the
answers from God that determines their growth. That is why the first session in the
LifeShapes course is so important as it provides a focused way of reflecting, earning
and growing through our experience of life and service. Some people are naturally
reflective types and do this sort of thing naturally. Others of us need to make time and
intentionally go through the learning process, but we all need to do it. The alternative is
that our life experience is wasted, we don't grow as we should and we miss out on all
that God can do through us.
Intentional Discipleship v1 15
 Encouraging Learning From Experience
i. LifeShapes, and therefore the learning circle, will be taught in cell groups as
part of a sermon series this year. They will then be encouraged to revisit the
four shapes at least once a year.

ii. Cells provide a natural place for encouraging people to develop reflective use
of the learning circle. Cell leaders will be encouraged to use the learning circle
themselves and to encourage its use in cell meetings. Cell leaders will be
trained in the use of all the LifeShapes.

iii. The use of the circle will be encouraged in other contexts such as any
leadership meetings.

iv. The Spiritual Disciplines course will encourage journaling as a useful practise
for learning from experience and place to go through the circle.

16 Intentional Discipleship v1
C. ENCOUNTER
When you look through scripture and reflect on the lives of people in our Church it is
clear that an encounter with God can (and should) change lives. By encounter I mean a
time and place where a person feels that they have met with the Holy Spirit of God in a
very personal and tangible way. Encounter is something we are pretty good at in St
Andrew's. Plenty of opportunity is given to receive prayer and to experience the
presence of the Holy Spirit at work amongst us on a Sunday morning.

Someone in Church once complained to me about the times we have when we invite the
Holy Spirit to come. They, quite rightly, said "he is here all the time isn't he so why
pray that prayer". The fact is that in asking the Holy Spirit to come in that way we are
asking him to work in us in a more specific and powerful way. We are putting ourselves
in a place where He has full access to our lives to mould us and change us into the
likeness of Christ.

There are those who say that we shouldn't be basing our faith on 'experiences' or events
that could have an emotional content. They would say that these things can lead people
astray and of course they are right. However, when encounters are balanced by
education and reflection on experience then they have huge potential to encourage
growth.

There are three reasons why we need to encourage ‘encounter’ as part of the process of
discipleship. Firstly, it is in the encounter we are changed. When I think of some of the
things I have struggled with personally over the last few years I find that I have only
really found some level of victory over them when I have encountered the power and
the presence of God. This year, during the New Wine Leadership Conference in May,
the presence of God was powerfully at work amongst everyone there. It was there in the
presence of God that he changed something in my life that I had been struggling with. I
hadn't asked the Father to do it, I wasn't even aware of what he did at that time but in the
encounter I had with him then he did something that I couldn't have done myself.

Secondly, it is often in this encounter with God that people hear his voice and receive
fresh revelation of who he is and his will for their lives. Without vision, or fresh
revelation, the people die. We will be training people to listen to God in one of the
Intentional Discipleship v1 17
 courses, but we also have to encourage people into the place of encounter so they may
receive the revelation needed to grow deeper into relationship with Him.

Thirdly, it is in the ‘encounter’ that we rediscover our passion for God. One of the
things that struck me on my visits to Churches around Liverpool was, with one
exception, the distinct lack of passion evident on a Sunday morning. We need to keep
on rediscovering our passion for Jesus. Passion is what takes us from simply serving
God to finding joy in that service. Passion is also what makes faith attractive to those
who are spiritual seekers.

We need to create an ethos in which people believe that God can and will act at any
moment in time. We need to teach people to understand it means to be a child of God
and to live every day in His presence. There are too many people in St Andrew's who
know that God can change lives but they don't trust Him to do it to them! Underneath it
all, the underlying belief system at work in their hearts is that God doesn't love me
enough to do anything in my life.

Unfortunately, we cannot program in the time and place were we can encounter the
powerful presence of God. It is something the He, in his grace, decides to do. However,
there are things that we can do that make it more possible to meet with God in that way.
Fortunately, we are already pretty good at encouraging this aspect of discipleship in St
Andrew’s and with a few changes could take things further.

a. The course we will develop on living a supernatural life will give the basics
for this idea of encounter and train people in listening to God.

b. We will continue to make as many opportunities for encounter and ministry

on a Sunday morning.

c. Cell group leaders are not always confident at encouraging the work of the
Holy Spirit through ministry times. Training and encouragement will be
given to them on this subject.

18 Intentional Discipleship v1
D. DISCIPLING RELATIONSHIPS

It only takes a casual reading of the Gospels to understand that Jesus spent most of his
time with just twelve people. It seems that a huge part of the purpose of his ministry was
to invest all of who he was into the lives of those twelve guys. He deliberately chose
those twelve out of the many who he could of chosen. He spent most of his time, not in
teaching the crowds or healing the sick, but in letting these twelve into his life so that
they could understand who he was, what he was like and to share in his passion for God
and the lost. Then, he deliberately left those twelve to carry on the work that he had
started in the cross and resurrection.

This is one aspect of discipleship that we are very weak on and yet it is probably the
most important aspect of what I am proposing. I knew this when I first started my
sabbatical and it was one subject that I wanted to work on. As part of my Sabbatical I
attended a conference at St Thomas Church in Sheffield. This is the Church that
LifeShapes came out of and they have worked hard at developing what could be called
relational discipleship. I attended the conference because I knew that there would be a
lot of teaching on how they have established these kinds of relationships.

They have developed informal groups that they call ‘Huddles’. These groups consist of
a leader and 4-6 others and, depending on what type of group it is, will meet for an
agreed period of time, e.g. every other week for a year. The focus of these groups is the
development of faith and character rather than skills or gifts. At the heart of these
groups is the use of the tools provided by LifeShapes. A normal session would often
begin by considering a series of questions that are used across the Church to help people
think about where they are in their walk with Jesus. The individuals in the group would
then talk about any issues in their lives that surface as they reflect on the questions. The
leader would use what’s been shared to help the group understand any biblical truths
relevant, minister into that persons life, lead the person through the circle or together the
group would hold that person accountable on taking the steps to move on in that area of
their life. The person would then return to the group at the next meeting to share what’s
been happening.

Intentional Discipleship v1 19
 St Tom’s use this model effectively to develop new leaders in Church and to encourage
a deeper sharing of lives across the Church. Every main leader in the Church has a
‘huddle’ they lead. Sometimes the members of the huddle would be part of the leader’s
team for whatever part of church life they are responsible for, other times they are
people they have come into contact with in Church who they believe have the potential
for further growth in a huddle.

The Way Forward for Us?

Of all the areas that I have considered over the sabbatical this is the area that I am the
most vague about. I think that the ‘huddle’ idea is a great one, however, how we would
adapt it to our Church is the issue for me. I think that this area of discipleship is going to
be something of a journey for us and that we will have to be prepared to live with some
level of messiness until we have found the best way for us of utilising this kind of
group. Therefore I propose;

a. That I set up a huddle with a small number of people as a pilot. This

would meet for a year to see what lessons could be learned and to see
how the model can be adapted.

b. A review of the pilot will be held in the Leadership team after about 6
months to start looking at how things have gone and how the model may
be developed.

c. We would then look to expand the model slowly, if at all.

d. We try to create an ethos that encourages a greater sense of accountability

across Church.

i. There should be a sermon series at some point on the idea and

importance of accountable relationships in Church.

ii. Alongside ‘huddles’ we encourage more one to one coaching and

mentoring relationships, e.g. between me and other leaders in
church, between cell leaders and cell members. Training would be
given on this to help its development.

20 Intentional Discipleship v1
4. MISSION DEVELOPMENT

I have three main ideas in this area, two of which are quite small and the other more
dramatic

1. CELL GROUPS
This is the area where we could see the biggest changes and perhaps the most resistance.
I am proposing that we close down the current cell groups and to create a new move for
mission based around ‘clusters’ and cells.

a. CLUSTERS
These are groups of around 20-30 people (although it could be more if necessary)
that are focussed on mission to a specific geographical area, people group or
network. An example would be a group of people who would develop mission on
the Daneville estate. All the members of the cluster should have some sense that
they have been called by God to be part of the mission of the cluster. That sense
of calling is important to understand. We are not just called’ to do’ or ‘to be’
something but also called to a place or people. The ‘what we do’ part of our
calling can be secondary in God’s purpose for us. It will not be possible to
accommodate mission to every place or people that people feel called into
mission with, but over time we will look at developing new clusters addressing
new people and places.

b. CELLS
Each cluster would then be divided in to cells. The focus of the cells is entirely
about discipleship, ministry and pastoral care. They would still use the 4 W’s but
the fourth W would now become ‘Wonders’ (time for ministry) rather that
witness as this is now covered by the cluster. There would be a greater emphasis
on using the material from the Sunday sermon and less liberty to use other
materials. There will also be a greater emphasis on developing discipleship
through use of the LifeShapes and developing accountable relationships.

Intentional Discipleship v1 21
 c. MISSION OF THE CLUSTERS
This will obviously be different for every cluster depending on who or where they
feel called to do mission. What a cluster does will be determined on who/where
their mission is focused. However, the main focus of the cluster should be on
creating relationships with non-Christians so that conversations can take place
about faith. What happens so that this can take place is secondary. The use of
Alpha will be hugely important and will consistently run alongside the clusters so
that the clusters know that they can move people into Alpha on a termly basis.
New converts and new members of Church will be encouraged to join a cluster
and cell after Alpha (see below). As cells grow they will multiply within a cluster
and as a cluster grows we will develop a new cluster, preferably with a different
calling or mission focus, out of the growing cluster.

d. MONTHLY PATTERN
The cluster would meet at once or twice a month, once in the week when we have
baptisms on a Sunday. They would use that meeting to discuss, plan or do
mission. The cells would meet the remaining weeks for teaching, fellowship and
ministry.

e. LEADERSHIP
The cluster would have a leader who keeps the group focussed on its mission and
provides the impetus for action. The cells will be lead by someone other than the
cluster leader and will be accountable to the cluster leader. The cluster leader
effectively becomes the cell supervisor in this respect. The role of cluster leader is
hugely important and is a highly responsible role. The cluster is the primary place
of belonging for the 20-30 people rather than the cells. The cell leader will focus
on developing discipleship and pastoral care in the cell and support the cluster
leader in the mission of the cluster.

f. A PROCESS OF IMPLEMENTATION
i. Sermon series on ‘Calling’ and design a process to allow people to
articulate their mission calling to the leadership Team

22 Intentional Discipleship v1
 ii. Begin a process of developing clusters based around calling. Initially we
should look at developing around three clusters (this is based on current
numbers in cell groups)

iii. Out of the clusters develop the new cell groups.

iv. Training given to cluster and cell leaders.

v. Launch clusters and cells allowing each cluster a short time to develop its
plans for its specific mission.

I was really encouraged when I came back from sabbatical to see that an informal
cluster had happened! The two day time cells got together to put on a Carol service at
Kilrae Lodge. They had a clearly defined focus, everyone was involved and felt part
of the event and aimed to share the gospel in a relevant way.

We have discovered at St Andrew’s that cells are not a great way for us to develop
mission. Clusters have the advantage of having a leader focussed only on the mission
of the cluster (unlike cell groups where the leader has to also focus on other things)
and they also have the advantage of having a larger group of people involved in the
mission work (there is safety in mnumbers!!).

I have to say at this point that Clusters were not on my radar as I came into the
sabbatical. I had looked at them and didn’t really think they were for us. However,
when I went to St Thomas’ in Sheffield to look at huddles I came away with a real
excitement about the impact that clusters could have in our church. This was a total
surprise and yet God seemed to be in it.

2. ALPHA
As the clusters engage in mission we need to ensure that Alpha is running as effectively
as possible. Sue has done a great job at ensuring the running of Alpha is done well, but
there are three areas that we need to work on as a church.

1. We need to develop better advertising and marketing for Alpha. The clusters
need to know in advance when Alpha starts each term and have materials and
invites available that they can use in evangelism.
Intentional Discipleship v1 23
 2. Alongside this we need to work harder at helping people in Church understand
the importance and effectiveness of the course. I’m often amazed at how
reluctant people are to invite people to Alpha. We need to try to overcome that as
best as possible. The suggestion below will help because at the moment there are
not enough people coming through Alpha and then into Church life, there are
some but perhaps not enough to persuade church members that this is
worthwhile. We should also make a bigger deal of it in a morning service
through testimony and prayer.

3. For those who do the course we need to develop better integration into the life of
the Church post-Alpha. There are two things I propose for this.

a. We change the session entitled ‘What is Church’ to a session

specifically about the life and vision of St Andrew’s, particularly
highlighting the things that we do that will help participants grow in
their faith. We will teach them the need for discipleship and show how
belonging to church is important for them.

b. We develop a system of triplets, pairing two members of the course

with a member of Church acting as the triplet leader. The aim of this
triplet is for the leader to disciple the others and to integrate them into
the life of the church. This would be for up to a year while the leader
helps the participants develop a basic Christian lifestyle and integrates
into Church and especially into clusters. The use and some teaching on
LifeShapes in this context will be vital.

3. HIGHLIGHTING MISSION
If we focus the life of the church around up, in, out and me, then we need to think about
how ‘out’ is addressed on a Sunday morning. Currently, we can go through a number of
Sunday’s without the mission of our church ever being mentioned as part of our
gathering together, except as a vague reference during the prayer time. My suggestion is
to drop the prayer time as it currently stands and instead to replace it with a weekly ‘out’
focus which then turns into a short time of prayer. The intercession time of our 10.45am
service is often the weakest in terms of how people connect with it. The aim of this

24 Intentional Discipleship v1
 segment of the service would be to provide a short and snappy prayer focus. The whole
segment would not last more that 5 or 6 minutes. There are a variety of ways in which
this time could be used for highlighting mission.

1. ‘This Time Tomorrow’ (TTT). This would be a short interview with a member of
Church about their work life and the difficulties and opportunities for witness
that their work gives them. We would then pray over that person to be a more
effective witness at work. This would enable people to get to know others a little
better and, more importantly, highlight the work place as the primary mission
field of our Church members.

2. Cluster Prayer. When clusters are set up they could share their prayer needs and
we pray for them

3. When an Alpha course is coming up we will be able to encourage people to

invite friends and contacts and then pray for it.

4. Volunteer Opportunities. We have two minutes to talk about a volunteering

opportunity in the Family Project and then pray for the activity involved. This
would be a regular way of encouraging people to volunteer, it would highlight
Family Project activities and encourage prayer for them.

5. Individual Mission. If anyone in Church is involved in a missional activity

outside of Church they could spend two minutes talking about it and then we
pray for it.

6. If there were a missional activity in the city that it would be helpful for church
members to know about. That activity could be briefly talked about and then
prayed for.

Intentional Discipleship v1 25
5. Leadership

All of the above will, over time, change the nature of our Church, perhaps quite
dramatically. This will naturally have an impact on how we structure leadership in
church. For instance, if we have three cluster leaders who will have a huge responsibility
in the life of the Church, then maybe they need to be on the Leadership Team, assuming
the Leadership Team is the best way of structuring leadership in St Andrew’s! I
personally believe that the correct structure for leadership cannot be understood until we
have started out on the proposals above and I think that we should anticipate some
fluidity in the way we structure leadership over the next few years. The type of structure
needed at the beginning of this may not be the type of structure needed as we approach
the end of the change process needed to make all this happen.

In this period of change strong leadership is going to be needed from anyone in a

position of authority in Church. Everyone will be encouraged to back what we are doing
wholeheartedly, particularly Leadership Team, Church Wardens and Cell Leaders.
Everyone in Leadership should be intentional in the discipleship and be willing to walk
through all discipleship issues personally. It will also need leadership to be sensitive to
questions and difficulties that people may have with the changes that will take place.

Anyone chosen for leadership in the church has, up until now, been chosen primarily for
their ability and skills. While these will continue to be important our primary aim should
be to appoint people on the basis of their character and discipleship. In keeping with the
above, teachability and the willingness to be accountable will be key markers as we
assess character and discipleship.

My Leadership
I’m very aware that implementing the above will involve a change in the way I lead. At
the beginning of last year I sensed God was saying to me that my leadership was going
to change from leading ‘from within’ to leading ‘from the front’. I believe that my
leadership will be focussed more on teaching and ‘equipping the saints’. The
implications for my leadership are;

a. The need to spend time developing, selling and implementing the above strategy

26 Intentional Discipleship v1
 b. My natural leadership style is laid back and reconciliatory. There will be a need
for me to be willing to be more confrontational over discipleship issues with
church members and especially leaders.

c. I will need to spend more time with leaders in Church selling the vision to them
for the next couple of years. This would also include people who we see as up and
coming leaders.

d. More than ever I will need to maintain the accountability relationships that I have
outside of the Church and be willing to be held accountable in the Leadership
Team.

e. For the next two years I will need to preach more often until every feels confident
of where we are heading as a church.

f. I will need to release some aspects of work I am now involved in. I intend to
resign from the TFH steering group and step down as a leader of the New Wine
UPA forum. I am considering stepping down as New Wine network leader for
Liverpool if someone could be found to replace me. I will stay on as part of the
New Wine North leadership team. There may be some items of church ministry to
be delegated. For instance, we could appoint congregational pastors to check on
people who haven’t been to church for a while.

g. It would be helpful for others and myself in leadership to develop some kind of
relationship with St Thomas’, Sheffield. They have implemented clusters and
huddles for some time and their help and advice would be invaluable. At the very
least, further attendance at one of their visitors weeks would be helpful for some
others and myself in leadership.

Intentional Discipleship v1 27
6. Possible Timeline for Implementation

To implement the ideas in this document is going to take some time. I would suggest
that at least 3 years would be needed to put everything in place and up to 5 years for
Church to have settled into the whole idea of what we are trying to do. I do not believe
that anything in this needs to be rushed. It is more important that whatever we do, we do
well. So this time line is a suggestion and things may well take more time than
indicated.

January/February - Discussion in Leadership Team

March - Discussion at PCC

Easter onwards - Implement new preaching ideas

- Start of pilot huddle

- Start of new ‘out’ focus in morning worship.

April - Vision Sunday. An opportunity to put the ideas in this

document to Church

April – July - Develop courses on Supernatural, Witness and LifeMap so they

can be rolled out for the first time in autumn term.

- Teaching on the first four shapes of LifeShapes on a Sunday

and in Cell groups.

- Planning for move from cells to clusters

- Choose and train people to work with the post Alpha groups.

May - Sermon suggestion night to help with the creation of a sermon

series plan from Sept ’08 to August ’09.

July-August - Summer Bible School?

Sept – Dec - Sermon series on accountability, mission and calling

28 Intentional Discipleship v1
 - Create and begin process by which the focus of the clusters can
be decided

- The first run of three courses

- Develop courses on Bible, Freedom, Disciplines

- Final decisions on the implementation of clusters

- Training of cluster leaders

- Choose Cell leaders

- Review of huddle experience so far and plan for the future.

Jan - Launch Clusters and create new cells.

- Train Cell leaders. Cells to start in February or March

- Second run of courses on Supernatural, Witness and LifeMap

- First run of Bible, Freedom and Disciplines

Intentional Discipleship v1 29
7. Final Word

All the above could simply be the start of a journey for us. There will be more that the
Lord will do with us on the subjects covered in this document. The key to it all is how
far you, as the Leadership of the Church, feel this represents God’s vision for our
Church.

The Great Commission calls us to ‘go’ and ‘make’. This document, I believe, represent
what I understand to be the way God intends for us to fulfil the commission.

30 Intentional Discipleship v1