Discipleship Made Simple



Jesus' Process For Making Disciples
The Bible says, "And Jesus came up 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age'" (Matthew 28:18-20).

Bob Deffinbaugh writes, "Discipleship is a life-long process, beginning at the point of salvation, and participated in by a variety of individuals within the church, each in his or her unique way."

Making disciples is not just for pastors, ministers, or super Christians. Making disciples is the responsibility, privilege and great joy intended for every Christ-follower within the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Remember, having placed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, "our life is no longer our own; we have been bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19,20). The Great Commission has three participles: "go," "baptizing," and "teaching” and one imperative verb, a command: "make disciples." The main idea is to make disciples because we love God (Mth. 22:36-40). The participles tell us how to do that: we make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching. So the goal of discipleship is to make disciples, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. Our ministry exists to provide a very simple, Biblical, and reproducible process we call the "Core Discipleship" process as well as many free downloadable discipleship workbooks.

A Simple & Reproducible Process
CORE Discipleship is a surprisingly simple and reproducible process founded upon a commitment to the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and the theology and methodology of discipleship as presented in both the Gospels and Epistles (Jesus with the inner "core" consisting of Peter, James, and John as well as Paul with Timothy).

This whole-church discipleship process was also used by John Wesley. CORE creates the strength of a triple-braided cord (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Under the oversight of local church leadership, a CORE Group is made up of 3 and no more than 4 believers of the same gender who meet weekly for an extended time to grow in relationship with God and each other. In a CORE Group, each person sincerely and intentionally desires to be formed, conformed, and transformed by both hearing and doing God's Word (knowledge), growing in Christ-likeness (character), and resulting in a changed life (conduct). The Bible is absolutely essential (Acts 2:42; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Heb. 4:12) and the group facilitated by - but never dominated by - a more spiritually-mature believer (2 Tim. 2:2). CORE Groups embrace an environment where life-transformation and multiplication can be greatly accelerated (Gal. 4:19; Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 4:11-16). More about the CORE Process.

Three Simple Steps: 3 Strands. 3 Stages. 3 People.
For the church, CORE is one of three discipleship components we call the "3-strand" discipleship process (crowd, cell, core). For believers committed to making disciples, the heart of CORE is in the third strand or CORE. We use the term "CORE" as a simple way to describe Jesus' "inner-circle" seen throughout the Gospels.

We must get back to simple basics: being a disciple and making disciples is a direct command from our Lord Jesus and the primary purpose and responsibility of the church and every born-again believer. Everything we do in church or ministry should have discipleship as the ultimate core goal. Our going, baptizing, and teaching needs to be discipleship-centered. What we do each time we gather, whether church services, Sunday School, children's ministry, women's ministry, men's ministry, VBS, outreach, etc., all need to focus on making disciples.

Helpful & Free Discipleship Downloads/Resources
• Core Discipleship: Process
• Core Discipleship: Sequence
• How to launch your Core Discipleship: (Free PDF download)
• Core Discipleship Covenant: (Free PDF download)
• Discipleship Books: must reads on discipleship

A Proven Process & Free Resources
CORE is a faith-based Christian ministry providing a simple and proven Biblical discipleship process plus free life-transforming discipleship resources. Since 1994, we have distributed more than 175,000 free eBooks with the CORE discipleship process used around the world by individuals, ministries, Sunday school classes, house churches, organic churches, home schoolers, cell groups, church planters, marketplace and prison ministries, large and small churches, denominational and nondenominational, new and established, inner-city and rural. Click here to read what others have written about CORE...

Feel free to use part or all of the CORE process, our free resources, and even the terms CORE Groups or CORE Discipleship for your discipleship process, but make Jesus' last command your most important mission: "go and make disciples".

May God grant that we become His disciples by His grace,

Doug & Suzie Morrell
Founders/Directors
CORE Discipleship
OakTree Fellowship Church

Simple. Proven. Reproducible.
Discipleship Resources For The Journey™
Copyright © 1995-2010 CORE Discipleship