3 Ways to Engage New Disciples in 2023!

One of the recent trends in the Church that lets me know we are moving in the right direction is all the talk about discipleship. And I totally agree, if we are serious about discipleship and making disciples in the church, we will see people and communities transforming all around us. We will see the church be able to make the impact through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are called and equipped to make. And as the Bible tells us in Acts 2:47”…And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

But, in order for all these wonderful things to start happening in the church, we have to stop talking about disciples and take action to start making more disciples. Jesus’ Great Commission that he gave his disciples as recorded in Matthew 28 uses action verbs like go, make, baptize, and teach. It does not say to discuss, form a committee, or publish an article in the newsletter!

The reason we aren’t making tons of new disciples in the church is the same reason we have been stuck for the past few decades. We don’t know how to successfully engage with the people that are already coming to the church to guide them into a deeper relationship with Jesus. You heard me correctly, before we try to connect with people outside the church that need healing, we need to start connecting with the people that are already making some level of commitment to your church now.

Here are 3 opportunities where you can engage with your own people to start building a deeper, spiritual relationship with them.

Engage with the Newly Connected

Most, if not all churches, have some form of visitor and new member assimilation process. You know, the “Coffee with the Pastor” gathering of visitors, or the “Get Connected” classes for those ready to join the church as members. These are people that are opting-in themselves to a relationship with your church. 

But we don’t take these opportunities to discuss discipleship and the expectations you have about becoming disciples. I know, you share your list of Sunday School classes and/or small groups, the Bible Study classes the pastor teaches, and even the mission ministries your church supports. What we usually don’t share is our vision for making an impact in the world by becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. I mean, we don’t want to scare off the visitors, or make it too difficult to become a member now do we?

Let’s think about these opportunities for a moment. The people that are attending these assimilation events are people that are saying to you “I think this church can be a place for me, or my family, to feel, be, experience _______.” The disconnect for the church is that we don’t engage with the person to understand what they are seeking to fill in the blank. We have to seek to understand what their “blank” is and help them find the resources and relationships to satisfy that question in their life.

My recommendation is to leverage these events to not only set an expectation for discipleship, but outline how the church can support them on their own personal journey. Build a process that gives your disciple making team the ability to understand what their blank is and then give them a next step. Maybe it is a follow-up group/class to help them dig deeper into their spiritual needs. Possibly it is pairing them up with a discipleship mentor, or as we call them, Guides, to start building a relationship with that person. Whatever you do, make sure you are seeking to understand their needs first and be relational.

Using a Self-Assessment Survey

Now, I know many of you may be struggling to get people to even attend these assimilation events or groups. This causes us to ask the age-old question, how do I get them to participate in the first place? It’s a valid frustration and one that will probably never go away.

One insight into how the people in our culture engage is to understand their buying behaviors. We want to be in control of our transactions, small or large, all the way from researching all the alternatives, reading the feedback and reviews, and then making the purchase from the vendor that makes us feel most comfortable. We want to opt-in on our own, be influenced in our decision-making by people we trust, and then buy from people we like.

How do we translate this consumer behavior experience into the church? One way is to utilize a Self-Assessment Survey that engages with people in a similar way. The survey gives the person in your church or community the opportunity to engage on their own. The questions they answer will help them self-assess their own weaknesses or problems. And if you do a good job presenting the survey in a credible way, they will opt-in with their email address for an assessment score and report to help them understand and address these issues.

The goal of the survey is to give the person taking it the opportunity to assess themselves on their own and start a conversation about how the church can help them address these shortcomings. Think about it this way, you can’t walk up to someone and tell them “you are spiritually weak and morally bankrupt” and expect them to agree with you. But you can present an opportunity for people to take a deeper look at themselves and their purpose and place in the world.

Digital First Step

Let’s face it, being cooped up for months in our homes during a global pandemic gave Netflix and the other streaming entertainment platforms the ability to re-shape how we consume and engage with content. If your church didn’t have some form of an online worship service before 2020, I am confident most of you do now.

We aren’t going to debate the issue of live, corporate worship versus a live-streamed service. But the reality is that most of you have a component of your congregation that primarily engage with you online. And we have to be able to offer some form of online engagement in our disciple making process too. Hectic family schedules and new ways to do our jobs are making it more important to offer digital next steps to engage with our people in a relevant and meaningful way. Obviously, the Acts 2 Church Experience gives us a model for doing community, but we have to adapt to all the ways we can be in community.

I would recommend that you consider ways to include your online community in the assimilation events that we discussed earlier in this article. And then how can we bring to bear online, digital, and video resources for our disciples to continue on their discipleship journeys. Our mission should be to leverage the digital tools for maximum engagement and not merely view them as a burden, a substitute platform, or a necessary evil in our culture.

Now is the time that we need to approach disciple making and discipleship in an intentional way using a proactive approach. If we truly believe that making disciples is our true mission as commissioned by Jesus Christ, then the allocation of resources should reflect it. Not only our financial resources, but our human and technological assets as well. Our culture should reflect our commitment to making disciples that will share the Gospel in the way Jesus did it, person to person.

If you aren’t sure how to shift your culture to a focus on disciple making and discipleship, then we have some tools and resources to help you. A good starting exercise is to download and start working through this Checklist for Building a Proactive Disciple Making Culture in Your Church. My firm, ChurchCMO is committed to assisting churches to become proactive disciple makers. Check out ChurchCMO.com for more information and resources.

If you're serious about being proactive in your disciple making, now is the time to get started! Let us know how we can help you.