A senior adult minister and Sunday School teacher attending a large Discipleship/Leadership Conference said recently, “I think I came looking for a way to make a successful discipleship program - now I’m looking for a way to make a successful disciple.”

Echoing a common concern he continued, “I came thinking that we need to heal the training program. Now I’m sure that’s wrong. It’s the end result – the disciple – that matters.”

Another leading director said, “We cannot have people coming to accept Jesus Christ and then just leave them there not having learned that they can have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”

A university president said, “Our discipleship is run amok. It’s not our theology. It’s the fact that people don’t know how to implement it.”

A women’s ministry coordinator put it this way, “Discipleship is missing throughout our church. We can’t know how to influence our culture if we don’t know the Word.”

We live in a time when there is a groundswell of interest in things spiritual. And though we should see this interest as an opportunity to review and revise what we do so that we can meet the need, we have a tendency to label this spiritual hunger as church consumerism. What we may fail to realize is that a church consumer, by definition, is someone who is hungry and thirsty – someone searching to fill a void only God can fill.

Men and women dream of becoming unwavering men and women of God.

Deep down they desire to be spiritually mature, well, and whole as God intends. They long for real fellowship, meaningful growth, genuine sharing, and heartfelt love with others in a place of a safety, confidentiality, and encouragement where no one stands alone, struggles alone, develops alone, or grows up alone. Instead, they buy the latest books from Christian publishers, attend crowd seminaries, institutes, conferences, churches, revivals – wandering souls desperately searching to quench a spiritual thirst.

Those who are hungering for spiritual reality could be satisfied in a small, solid, ongoing process of discipleship training right where you live. This is the challenge to today's church.

Discipleship is a process and requires a commitment and life-long investment with others. Just as is true in raising children, discipleship in the church necessitates personal involvement. To have disciples, men and women committed to the Great Commandment and Great Commission, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded, you must first become involved with them – people do not care about what you know until they know how much you care.

The answer lies in developing spiritual maturity through small groups, where Biblical truth can be imparted through intentional, relational discipleship resulting in depth and width – loving God and each other.

Would you rather have 100 people who are 90 percent committed or 10 people who are 100 percent committed? Your answer provides insight to your vision, mission, and commitment to the Great Commission.

We must understand that the essential thing, the thing God is after above everything else is our becoming Christ-like. As disciples, our goal is that "Christ be formed in you," (Gal. 4:19). Paul declares that: "Those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son" (Romans 8:29). Paul says to the church at Corinth, "All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image" (2 Corinthians 3:18; emphasis added in all three). The goal of discipleship is our being formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

We must realize that discipleship is a life-long process. Jesus realized that every person is at a different level of spiritual maturity and He ministered to the crowds, the cell (12), and the core (the 3). From the viewpoint of the church, discipleship contains three cohesive and integrated levels: Crowd Discipleship, Cell Discipleship, and CORE Discipleship.

John Wesley wrote, “I am more and more convinced that the devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half-awakened and then left to themselves to fall asleep again.”

In 1743, Wesley created 3 strands of discipleship: Societies, Classes, and Bands. We call this the 3-Strand Church Model: Crowd, Cell and CORE.

CORE Discipleship is the third-strand and smallest group because it represents the deepest level of discipleship, establishing and maintaining an ongoing lineage of disciples within the church as it embraces the five purposes of the church (fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry and evangelism).

CORE Groups use the CORE Discipleship Manual - a manual containing the essential elements needed to help guide believers become obedient, loving and fruitful disciples. Each CORE Group is made up of no more than four people (gender specific) with one as the disciple-maker. Each CORE Group member is committed to learning AND doing God's Word.

The CORE Discipleship process is used by churches and ministries around the world, large and small, denominational and non-denominational, new and established, inner city and rural.

CORE Discipleship can help you:

• Fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission
• Become intentional about discipleship
• Establish and preserve leadership through many generations

The CORE Discipleship process will start you on a relational journey, from being a member of a CORE group to being a vital part of an unbelievable, spiritual discipleship network and community where no one stands alone, struggles alone, develops alone, or grows up alone.

Live Christ Deliberately,

Doug Morrell

CORE Notes From Doug