There may be no command of Jesus that the modern church has so widely substituted, watered down, and replaced as the command to make disciples. We have replaced it with making converts. We have replaced it with making members. We have replaced it with running programs. We have replaced it with filling buildings. We have done many good things in His name. But we have largely stopped doing the one thing He actually commanded as His final word before ascending to the Father.
This is not an attack on any particular church or movement. It is a call back to the actual words of Jesus and the actual practice of the early church, and a frank reckoning with how far much of what we now call "church" has drifted from those words and that practice. The recovery of discipleship is, perhaps, the most important task before the body of Christ in our time.
What Jesus Actually Commanded
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
— Matthew 28:18–20 (NKJV)
These are Jesus's last words to His followers before He ascended. They are, in a real sense, His will and testament for the church He established. And in the Greek, the structure of this command is significant in a way most readers miss.
There is only one imperative verb in this command: mathēteusate, "make disciples." Everything else — going, baptizing, teaching — is a participle that modifies this central command. Going is the means by which we make disciples. Baptizing is part of how disciples are formed. Teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded is the substance of what disciple-making involves.
Translated more literally, the command reads: "As you go, make disciples of all the nations, by baptizing them... and by teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
The point is simple. Making disciples is the central task. Not making converts. Not making members. Not running programs. Not filling buildings. Making disciples — formed people in the way of Jesus, who in turn form others.
Disciples, Not Just Converts
The New Testament distinguishes the two clearly.
And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
— Acts 11:26 (NKJV)
The believers in Antioch were already disciples — and only later were they called Christians. The word "disciple" (mathētēs) appears 269 times in the New Testament. The word "Christian" appears three times. The original framing of believer identity was not primarily "Christian" — it was "disciple of Jesus."
A disciple is a learner, a follower, an apprentice. The Greek mathētēs comes from manthano, to learn. But this is not classroom learning. This is life-on-life apprenticeship. A disciple of a rabbi went where the rabbi went, ate what the rabbi ate, listened to what the rabbi taught, and learned to do what the rabbi did. He didn't just know the rabbi's teachings — he became like the rabbi.
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
— Luke 6:40 (NKJV)
Notice the goal — to be like his teacher. Not just to know the teacher's content. To be like the teacher. The whole point of discipleship is formation. The disciple is being shaped into the likeness of the master he follows.
This is what Paul describes when he writes:
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
— Galatians 4:19 (NKJV)
Until Christ is formed in you. That is discipleship. Not converting people. Not getting decisions. Not signing them up. Forming Christ in them. Until the very nature, character, mind, and life of Jesus is alive within them.
How Jesus Made Disciples
If we want to know what discipleship is, we look at how Jesus did it. He is the Master Discipler. His method is the standard.
He Chose The Few
And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.
— Mark 3:13–14 (NKJV)
Jesus could have given His full attention to the crowds. He didn't. He chose twelve, and within the twelve He chose three (Peter, James, John) for even closer formation. Crowds came and went. The disciples stayed. Discipleship is intensive — you cannot disciple thousands at once.
Notice the priority. That they might be with Him — and that He might send them out. Being with Him came first. Sending came second. Modern Christianity often reverses this. We send people out to do things before they have been with Jesus long enough to be formed. The result is workers without depth, ministry without character, activity without fruit that lasts.
He Lived With Them
For three years, the twelve walked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, slept where Jesus slept, watched Jesus pray, watched Jesus heal, watched Jesus confront religious hypocrisy, watched Jesus weep, watched Jesus love. Discipleship was not a class. It was a shared life. Even after the resurrection, Jesus is having breakfast with His disciples on the shore (John 21). The whole training is relational. There is no curriculum substitute for being with Him.
He Gave Them Real Responsibility
Jesus did not keep His disciples in training mode forever. He sent them out — first the twelve (Matthew 10), then the seventy (Luke 10) — with real authority and real assignments.
Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
— Luke 9:1–2 (NKJV)
He gave them authority. He sent them out. They came back. They reported. He debriefed them. He sent them out again. The pattern was — be with Him, do what He sent them to do, return, learn from what happened, go again. The training was apprenticeship in the field, not theoretical study in a classroom.
He Modeled, Then He Required
Jesus never asked His disciples to do anything He had not first done Himself. He prayed; then He taught them to pray. He ministered to the broken; then He sent them to do the same. He suffered; then He told them to take up their cross. The model came first. The requirement followed.
For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
— John 13:15 (NKJV)
Discipleship is "do what you have seen Me do." This requires the discipler to actually live the life, not just teach it. There is no discipling without modeling. A teacher who teaches what he does not live cannot disciple — he can only inform.
Paul's Model — The Timothy Chain
When Paul comes to lay out the discipleship method that should continue after the apostles are gone, he gives us one of the most strategically important verses in the New Testament.
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
— 2 Timothy 2:2 (NKJV)
Count the generations. Paul heard it from the Lord. Timothy heard it from Paul. Timothy commits it to faithful men. Those faithful men teach others also. That is four generations in one verse — Paul, Timothy, faithful men, others. The pattern is reproductive. Discipleship that does not reproduce is discipleship that has stopped.
Paul Modeled Christ — Then Asked Others To Imitate Him
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
— 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NKJV)
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.
— 1 Thessalonians 1:6–7 (NKJV)
Paul did not say "imitate Christ alone, you don't need me." He said "imitate me as I imitate Christ." This is bold. It says: I am not the source, but I am a model. Look at how I live and follow it, because what you see me doing is what Christ formed in me, and what Christ wants to form in you.
The Relational Cost
So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.
— 1 Thessalonians 2:8 (NKJV)
Paul did not just deliver content. He imparted his own life. Discipleship cannot be done from a distance. It cannot be done by giving people books to read or sermons to listen to. It requires real relationship, real time, real cost. Paul knew the Thessalonians by name. He had eaten with them, suffered with them, prayed with them, taught them face to face.
Teaching to Obey, Not Just to Know
This is one of the most important phrases in the Great Commission, and it is the one most often missed.
Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
— Matthew 28:20 (NKJV)
The Greek for "observe" is tērein — to keep, to guard, to obey. Not to know, not to memorize, not to discuss in a class — to obey. The endpoint of teaching in discipleship is not knowledge. It is obedience.
This single phrase exposes a vast amount of what passes for Christian teaching today. We have created systems where people can know enormous amounts about the Bible without their lives being changed by what they know. Bible studies, sermons, courses, podcasts, books — all of them can be consumed without ever producing a single act of costly obedience. That is not Jesus's discipleship. That is information transfer dressed up in religious clothing.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
— James 1:22–24 (NKJV)
Hebrews Calls Out The Problem
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
— Hebrews 5:12–14 (NKJV)
Years had passed, and these believers had not grown into teachers. They were still spiritual babies. The author of Hebrews names this as a deficiency, not a normal state. By a certain point, every disciple should be discipling someone else. If they are not, something has gone wrong.
How many believers have been in church for ten, twenty, thirty years and have never personally discipled another believer? The Hebrews indictment applies. We have created a Christian culture in which lifelong spiritual infancy is normalized.
The Cost — Jesus's Own Terms
Jesus was clear that discipleship is costly. He never softened His terms to grow His following. In fact, He frequently said hard things specifically to thin the crowds and find those who were truly His disciples.
Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
— Luke 14:25–27 (NKJV)
So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
— Luke 14:33 (NKJV)
These are not motivational quotes. These are the entry requirements Jesus laid down. Three times in this single passage He says cannot be My disciple. He uses the word hate in the Hebraic sense — to love less by comparison. Family, possessions, even one's own life are to be loved less than Christ.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
— Matthew 16:24–25 (NKJV)
The cross is not a metaphor for personal hardship. It is the symbol of execution. To take up one's cross is to be willing to die — die to self, die to ambition, die to comfort, die to the right to run one's own life. Discipleship has always been costly. Watering down the cost has produced believers who are not actually disciples.
Continuing in His Word
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
— John 8:31–32 (NKJV)
Note the audience — those Jews who believed Him. They had believed. But Jesus tells them: belief alone is not yet discipleship. Discipleship is abiding in My word — continuing in it, dwelling in it, living from it. Initial faith opens the door. Continued faithfulness in the word produces the disciple.
Why Discipleship Has Been Lost
The drift away from discipleship was not sudden, and it was not the work of any one person or movement. It happened gradually, often with good intentions, and often through substitutes that seemed reasonable in their time. Naming the substitutes is part of recovering the real thing.
Mass Evangelism Without Follow-Through
The modern era has seen tremendous gospel preaching to the masses. Crusades, revivals, broadcasts, services, conferences — millions have heard the gospel and prayed prayers of decision. This is good as far as it goes. But Jesus did not command the making of decisions. He commanded the making of disciples. A decision is the beginning of discipleship, not a substitute for it.
When evangelism is not followed by relational, sustained discipleship, the result is converts who never become disciples. They have prayed a prayer, perhaps been baptized, perhaps been added to a church roll, but no one has invested in them, walked with them, taught them to obey, formed Christ in them. They drift, they stagnate, they often fall away. The decision was real but the discipleship never happened.
Programs Substituting for Relationships
Modern church culture has built elaborate program structures — small groups, classes, courses, curricula. These can serve discipleship, but they are not discipleship itself. A program treats people in batches. Discipleship treats people as individuals being formed.
A man can attend church classes for twenty years and never have one mature believer ask him about his marriage, his finances, his hidden sins, his prayer life, his obedience. Programs cannot do what only relationship can do. Jesus discipled twelve men, not twelve thousand. Paul discipled Timothy by name. The pattern is personal, not programmatic.
Consumer Christianity
Much of modern church culture has trained believers to be consumers. Come for the music, the message, the children's program, the production. Receive what is offered. Go home. Return next week. The believer is positioned as audience, the church as service provider, the worship gathering as event.
This is the inversion of New Testament discipleship. In the New Testament, every believer is being formed and is forming someone else. Every joint supplies. Consumer Christianity creates believers who consume but do not produce — who are fed but never feed others — who are taught but never teach.
Information-Heavy, Obedience-Light
We live in an age of unprecedented access to biblical content. Sermons online, study tools, books, courses, podcasts. A believer today has more information available than any generation before. And yet by every measurable standard — character, marriages, integrity, sexual purity, financial generosity — the church does not appear to be producing disciples in proportion to the information consumed.
The reason is what we have already seen. Information is not the goal. Obedience is. We have learned to consume content without obeying it. This is not Jesus's discipleship. It is something else dressed in His name.
Fear of Calling for the Cost
Jesus called for the cost. Modern church culture often fears doing so. Speak about the cross, the denial of self, the surrender of all to follow Christ, and crowds may shrink. So leaders often soften the call, broaden the gate, sand off the hard edges of Jesus's words. The result is a church full of people who have never been told what they actually signed up for. They are crowds, not disciples.
Recovering Discipleship in Home Churches and Small Fellowships
The home church and small fellowship are uniquely positioned to recover what large institutional structures have struggled to maintain. Smaller numbers force relationship. Shared life replaces audience seating. Every member matters because there is no anonymous crowd to hide in. The very form of the home church or small fellowship demands the kind of discipleship Jesus modeled.
But the form alone does not produce discipleship. Intentional pursuit of it does. Several principles are essential.
Disciple Few, Not Many
Jesus had twelve. Paul had Timothy. The pattern is small numbers given deep attention, not large numbers given shallow attention. A mature believer pouring into two or three younger believers, walking with them, modeling life, teaching them to obey — this produces disciples. Trying to disciple twenty at once produces no one well.
In a fellowship of fifteen, two or three older believers might each be walking with two or three less mature ones. That is six to nine discipling relationships. Within a few years, those younger believers are themselves discipling newer ones. The number multiplies because the depth was real.
Make It Life-On-Life
Jesus's disciples ate with Him, walked with Him, watched Him pray, watched Him minister. Discipleship cannot be reduced to a weekly meeting. It must invade ordinary life. Meals together. Working alongside one another. Praying through real situations. Watching each other's marriages and families. Sharing resources. Carrying each other's burdens.
The home church meal, the shared work day, the help offered when someone is moving house, the prayer at the kitchen table during a crisis — all of these are discipleship moments. The fellowship that loves each other in ordinary life is producing disciples whether or not it ever uses the word.
Teach to Obey, Not Just to Know
Every teaching session in the home church or small fellowship should ask — what is God calling us to do about this? Bible study without application is information transfer. Bible study that asks "how does this change us this week?" begins to be discipleship.
Specific obedience matters. Not "we should be more loving" — but "I am going to call my estranged brother this week." Not "we should pray more" — but "we will gather Tuesday morning at six to pray for our city." General resolutions produce no fruit. Specific obedience produces transformed lives.
Walk With Each Other Through Real Life
Marriage struggles. Financial pressures. Wayward children. Workplace conflicts. Sin patterns. Doubts. Fears. Triumphs. The mature disciple walks with the less mature through all of these. Not as a counselor giving advice from a distance — as a fellow traveler who has walked similar roads and can point to where Christ has met them.
This requires honesty. Discipleship cannot happen where everyone pretends to be fine. The fellowship must be a place where real things can be said and real prayer can happen. Where the marriage that is struggling can be lifted up rather than hidden. Where the man fighting an addiction can find brothers to fight with him. Where the woman drowning in fear can find sisters to bear it with her.
Confront and Restore in Love
Discipleship requires confronting sin, error, and drift. Jesus rebuked Peter (Matthew 16:23). Paul confronted Peter publicly (Galatians 2:11–14). The mature disciple does not let the less mature one stay in their blind spot or sin. They love them enough to risk the conversation.
Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
— Galatians 6:1 (NKJV)
The aim is restoration. The spirit is gentleness. The motive is the believer's growth into Christ. But the action is confrontation when needed. A fellowship that never confronts produces shallow disciples. A fellowship that confronts harshly produces wounded sheep. The biblical balance is firm and gentle, costly and loving.
Reproduce — Disciples Who Make Disciples
The test of discipleship is reproduction. A disciple who is not making disciples is not yet fully formed in the way of Jesus. The early church model was — each believer being formed; each believer in turn forming others. Four generations in one verse: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, others (2 Timothy 2:2, NKJV).
A home church or small fellowship should ask after a few years — are the people we have discipled now discipling others? If not, we may have produced consumers, not disciples. The reproductive nature of discipleship is the proof that real discipleship is happening.
The Pentecostal Distinctive — Spirit-Empowered Discipleship
The pattern of discipleship is the same across Christian traditions. But the Pentecostal stream brings a distinctive that must not be lost. Discipleship is not done in our own strength. It is done by the empowering of the Holy Spirit, with the active gifts of the Spirit as part of normal Christian formation.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me.
— Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
Jesus did not send the disciples out to make more disciples until the Spirit had come upon them. Discipleship without the Spirit is religious instruction. Discipleship with the Spirit is spiritual reproduction.
What this means practically — we teach those we disciple to walk in the gifts of the Spirit. To pray in tongues. To prophesy when the Spirit prompts. To lay hands on the sick. To exercise the authority of a believer. To hear the voice of God. These are not advanced topics for special believers. They are normal Christian living, to be discipled into every disciple from early in their walk.
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
— Mark 16:17–18 (NKJV)
These are the signs of those who believe. Disciples who walk in these realities reproduce other disciples who walk in these realities. Discipleship that excludes the supernatural produces a smaller Christianity than Jesus established.
The Word and the Spirit Together
Discipleship requires both. The Word grounds the disciple in truth and protects from error. The Spirit empowers the disciple to walk in what the Word teaches. Either alone produces a deformed disciple — either dead orthodoxy or untethered emotionalism. Together they produce a Christ-formed believer who knows the truth, walks in the power of the Spirit, and lives the life of Jesus.
Common Questions
I am not a mature believer myself — can I disciple anyone?
Disciple at the level you have walked. If you have been walking with Christ for two years, you can disciple someone six months in. The principle is to give what you have received. Paul says we comfort others with the comfort with which we ourselves were comforted (2 Corinthians 1:4, NKJV). What you have learned, what God has taught you, what mistakes you have walked through — these are the substance of what you give. Begin where you are.
What if no one is discipling me?
Seek out discipleship intentionally. Look for a more mature believer in your fellowship and ask. Most mature believers have never been asked, and many would gladly walk with someone who genuinely wants to grow. If your fellowship has no one in this season, consider a relationship across town, across distance — even a sustained correspondence with a mature believer can be valuable. And in the meantime, learn from those whom God has used in writing and teaching, while seeking the in-person relationship.
How is discipleship different from mentoring?
Mentoring focuses on a particular skill, role, or area of life. Discipleship is the whole of life being formed in the way of Jesus. A mentor might help you become a better teacher or business owner. A discipler walks with you through the formation of Christ in your character, your family, your work, your prayer life, your obedience — the whole of what it means to live as a follower of Jesus.
How do I disciple someone whose life is messy?
The same way Jesus did. He called twelve men whose lives were messy — fishermen who quarreled about who was greatest, a tax collector with a corrupted past, a fiery activist, a doubter, a betrayer. He walked with them through the mess. The mess does not disqualify someone from being discipled. In fact, the mess is the very material that discipleship works with. Patience, prayer, real relationship, willingness to walk through years not months — these are required.
Can a small fellowship really disciple effectively without seminary-trained teachers?
The early church discipled effectively without any of what we now consider standard ministerial training. They had the apostles' teaching (now preserved as the New Testament), the Holy Spirit, and shared life with one another. The same resources are available today. Sound teaching from outside (good books, sound preachers, mature voices) supplements but does not replace life-on-life discipleship within the fellowship. A fellowship of believers who genuinely walk with each other in obedience to Scripture under the Spirit's leading produces real disciples — degree or no degree.
Is discipleship the same as accountability?
Accountability is part of discipleship but smaller than it. Accountability is the structured commitment to ask each other hard questions about specific areas of obedience. Discipleship includes accountability but goes further — it includes teaching, modeling, prayer, encouragement, formation in spiritual gifts, and the whole shaping of a life into Christ. Accountability without the rest produces guilt-driven behavior modification. Discipleship produces a transformed life.
Final Thoughts
The Great Commission was not "go and have services." It was not "go and build buildings." It was not "go and create programs." It was "go and make disciples." That command has not been rescinded. It has not been amended. It still stands as the central task of every believer and every fellowship of believers.
The recovery of discipleship is not optional. It is not a specialty for those who like that kind of thing. It is the actual command of Jesus, and the church that does not pursue it is not, in the deepest sense, doing what He sent her to do. We can have buildings, programs, attendance, and budgets — and not be making disciples. We can have very few of those things and be making disciples in great depth.
The home church and small fellowship have an extraordinary opportunity here. The form forces relationship. The smaller numbers allow real attention. The shared life makes life-on-life discipleship natural. There is no excuse for a home church or small fellowship to neglect what its very form is suited to deliver.
May we recover what Jesus actually commanded. May we make disciples — not just converts, not just members, not just attendees. Disciples. Followers. Apprentices. Sons and daughters formed into the likeness of the One we follow. And may those disciples in turn make others. Generation upon generation, until He returns.
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
— 2 Timothy 2:2 (NKJV)
Key Takeaways
- The Great Commission's central command is "make disciples" — going, baptizing, and teaching are participles that modify this central command (Matthew 28:18–20, NKJV)
- A disciple (mathētēs) is a learner-apprentice being formed into the likeness of his master, not just a person who has agreed with certain beliefs
- Jesus's method was: choose few, live with them, model the life, give real responsibility, send them out to reproduce the same
- Paul's method was the same — modeled Christ, imparted his life, established the four-generation reproductive chain (2 Timothy 2:2, NKJV)
- The endpoint of teaching in discipleship is not knowledge but obedience — teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you (Matthew 28:20, NKJV)
- Jesus's terms for discipleship are costly — denial of self, taking up the cross, willingness to forsake all (Luke 14:25–33, Matthew 16:24–25, NKJV)
- Discipleship has been widely substituted by mass evangelism without follow-through, programs replacing relationships, consumer Christianity, information without obedience, and softened terms
- Home churches and small fellowships are uniquely positioned to recover discipleship — small numbers force relationship; shared life enables life-on-life formation
- Spirit-empowered discipleship is the Pentecostal distinctive — disciples walk in the gifts of the Spirit as part of normal Christian living
- The test of real discipleship is reproduction — disciples who make disciples in the next generation