Making,
Mentoring, Maturing, and
Multiplying disciples of Jesus
We all want our lives to count for something.
We all want to make a dent in the world for good and leave a lasting legacy. We want to have an impact. But how many people design their lives around those kinds of goals? We believe that the most profound impact an individual can have is to become like Jesus. That is why we call ourselves “disciples”. When we build our lives, values, character, schedules, and relationships around a goal like that, it is life-transforming. However, when others who have that same commitment to Jesus get together and intentionally encourage each other toward reaching those goals, then the church is at its best and together we have the possibility to have the Ultimate Impact.
Our goal is to help today's church to be like the church you read about in the Bible; where Jesus’ teachings are instilled in people’s hearts, lives are changed, and the powerful message of the gospel spreads through hearts to homes and communities. It soon can change a region, and eventually the world. We want to help disciples of Jesus to be all God intended for us to be, providing powerful resources that truly change lives, starting with the individual, then to the family, then to the community, then to the world.
What if church were more about relationship than religion? More about ministry than meeting places? What if the church of today was restored to look and act like it did in the New Testament…In love, doctrine, lifestyle, sacrifice, and boldness in proclaiming the gospel? Then we could see the fruit of the church we read about in the Bible; saved souls, transformed lives, humanitarian needs met, and the whole world being changed through the power of God. This is what we are passionately praying about and striving toward. God is just as powerful today as he was 2,000 years ago.
The church you read about in the New Testament was used by God to change the world. Their lives were radically changed and the world was affected for God's glory. We want to see God move in those kinds of ways again in our day. God has put a vision in the hearts of a growing number of people who have a passion for Jesus to change our lives so we can be used to change others' lives.
Contact us if you would like to be a part of a spiritual network that together makes the ultimate impact.
The 4 M’s
To have the Ultimate Impact, we must first make sure our lives are surrendered to Jesus and we have made a commitment to live our lives like His. During his Earthly ministry, he began having the ultimate impact on this world. Looking at his life, he primarily changed the world through changing individual lives, starting with his closest friends. His interaction with people could be summarized in four "M's". Making, Mentoring, Maturing, and Multiplying disciples.
Making Disciples
When Jesus wanted to reach the world, he chose twelve men to pour his life into and taught them everything they could learn to apply in about three years. Those men eventually were used by the power of the Holy Spirit to change the world as their lives had been changed. He didn't teach them in a classroom. He chose them to "be with him" and learn who he was, not just what he did. They, in turn, lived out his message in their spheres of influence and God caused a movement of disciples to spread around the world. We strongly believe that authentic, intentional, open relationships are the best catalyst for spiritual growth.
Mentoring Disciples
Mentoring relationships were the foundation and primary growth vehicle of Jesus’ ministry. When Jesus began His Earthly ministry, He chose and called a few men to be with Him. These men followed Him throughout His ministry and learned His ways, His mindset and His heart. By following Jesus, their lives were radically transformed and were later used by God to transform the world around them. While he taught his disciples a lot, he showed us that discipleship is "caught" more than "taught". The church’s methods today are often program-oriented and miss out on the original, simple, relational plan Jesus used. Advertising specialists will tell you that the best advertising is by word of mouth. This is the only way Jesus spread the gospel message. Discipling people was Jesus’ method. Certainly we cannot improve on the Master’s plan. The problem often comes when we spend most of our time doing good things but neglect to do the best thing. Either we spread ourselves too thin with our time or we are not focused on what is most important; Discipling a few people into following Jesus with all their hearts.
Mentoring Group
A mentoring group is made up of 2-5 Christians ideally of the same gender who meet together regularly (preferably at least weekly and face-to-face) for the express purpose of encouraging and equipping each other for greater usefulness in their Christian lives.
A mentoring group may serve many purposes. Some spend most of their time in prayer for pre-Christians in their sphere of influence. Some hold each other accountable for spiritual disciplines. Some practice refining their people skills or outreach skills. But all help each other keep their commitment to the Ultimate Impact Challenge.
What does a mentoring group look like? Sometimes it looks like a few best friends getting together for breakfast or lunch once a week. As you get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses better, trust God to give you insight and boldness to challenge and encourage each other in specific ways to be more effective. This takes a healthy relationship to work right. But you’ll find that as you “get in the game” of mentoring, God will reveal to you learning opportunities (sometimes called “mistakes” or “experience”). That’s exactly what happened with the disciples when Jesus was mentoring them during his earthly ministry. The more experience you get, the better equipped you will be for even greater usefulness in the Kingdom.
The purpose of mentoring is life-transformation. We are transforming into the image of Christ. With your commitment, a friend’s love, and God’s guidance, your mentoring relationship will forge a Christlikeness in you that you have never encountered. There is no life that compares to a life that honors Jesus by becoming like Him.
Maturing Disciples
Maturity happens best in friendships who are intentional about mentoring and going through life together. It has been said that it takes two ships to get to the destination of maturity; hardships and relationships. Don’t worry, you won’t have to sign up for the hardship journey. It comes with the package (called life). But we do need to get into intentional relationships which draw out the best in us. This is where the mentoring relationships come in.
Each one of us needs a best friend who also holds the values of Christ as their highest calling and will covenant with us to help us be the best Christ-follower we can be. The process of maturity moves so much faster when we are intentional about being equipped for life and our calling. The apostle Paul expressed his mission statement in Colossians when he said he wanted to “present everyone perfect in Christ”. WOW! What a mission! So if we want to follow a dream that big we have to see people the way Jesus sees them. In God’s eyes people are either lost or saved. Jesus looked at crowds and saw them as helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. For those who aren’t in Christ, we want to get them into Christ. For those who are in Christ but are not yet perfect (that’s everyone else) we want to make them more like Christ. Let’s be intentional about maturing.
Multiplying Disciples
As Paul was instructing Timothy, he gave him a vision for passing the Christian torch on to the next generation. We see four spiritual generations just one verse in 2 Timothy 2:2. The Ultimate Impact Challenge starts with a micro practice yet with a macro vision. The micro practice begins with you and those in your sphere of influence. Win one person and then help mentor and mature them to lead someone in their sphere of influence to Christ. But after a short time, you’ll find that you are not only multiplying disciples, but now multiplying your groups. Eventually these disciples will become so mission-minded that new churches can be started and eventually church planting movements will begin.
Isn’t that what happened in the New Testament. The church grew so fast that they had to meet in the temple courts AND from house to house. The church grew until its message saturated the culture and caused a persecution which scattered the disciples and new churches were formed. Apostolic leaders were led by God to go on missionary journeys and the message of Jesus was spread to the whole world in one generation.
God is no less powerful today. But who will take up the call to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and open their lives up for this kind of transformation? There is no limit to what God can do with people who are committed to his Son, his message and his world.
The Ultimate Impact Challenge
“Ultimate Impact” is a practical way to fulfill the great commission by networking together to make, mentor, mature and multiply disciples. The great commission is for everyone, not just those gifted in evangelism. But most of us have never seen a model of evangelism that works and consistently produces maturing disciples. That’s because most churches are using programs to reach people and not training their people to be the messengers of the gospel. That’s also why most churches in America are not growing.
But how did Jesus reach people? He called people to be with him and taught them relationally, not in a classroom. The best place to learn is on-the-job training. Too often, we want to teach people and then hope they will use their knowledge to motivate them to go and make new disciples. Jesus carried people along with him and equipping happened “on the go”. To put it simply, God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called. He does this as they actively do what he has commanded (i.e. go and make disciples).
So taking the “Ultimate Impact Challenge” is simply saying, “I want to learn as I go to be a better disciple-maker”.
Click the link below to see the Ultimate Impact challenge.