In part one of this article, we dove into the first three questions that help cultivate a disciple-making ecosystem in a network or church. If you haven’t read that, you’ll want to do so, as the questions do build on each other and are interdependent, just like ecosystems.
There are all sorts of ecosystems in the world: forests, deserts, oceans, grasslands, and so forth. The Church Jesus is building is designed to be a disciple-making ecosystem. Each question will introduce you to a strategic element within a disciple-making ecosystem.
Disciple-Making Ecosystem Question #4
The Vehicles Question asks: What are the relational environments in which we will intentionally make disciples?
Jesus’ invitation, “Come follow me,” was an invitation into a relationship, not a structured meeting. He spent substantial time with his disciples, letting his life and teachings “rub off” on them, as described by the Greek term “diatribe,” meaning to “rub against.” The church, modeled after this, is a family where discipleship happens through shared life, not just weekly gatherings.
There are five key relational environments where discipleship occurs, modeled after Jesus’ ministry:
Public Relationships: Large social spaces of hundreds sharing an experience. (Crowds)
Social Relationships: Networks of smaller relationships where we engage in mission and live out our faith in community. (The 72)
Personal Relationships: Small groups of six to 16 people where we challenge and encourage one another on a regular basis. (The 12)
Transparent Relationships: Close relationships of three to four where we share intimate details of our lives for accountability. (The 3)
The Divine Relationship: Our relationship with Jesus Christ, where we grow through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. (Father)
Of course, the size of the social space alone doesn’t make it an intentional disciple-making environment. We must intentionally and gracefully mix into a relational environment for it to become one (which is another key framework). Even so, each of these relational spaces is critical to shaping us into the people Jesus has made us to be.
At KC Underground, these relational environments are mirrored (very imperfectly) in the following ways:
Network-wide Gatherings: Large events for vision casting and worship.
Hub Equipping Gatherings: Social spaces for training and strengthening leaders.
Microchurches: Extended spiritual families living out gospel community.
Missional Teams: Focused groups working together on mission.
Discovery Groups (DBS): Personal space for scripture discovery with spiritually curious people.
Training Huddles: Groups for equipping disciple-makers.
Time Alone with Jesus: Encouraging daily personal time alone with Jesus.
Over time, our hope is that disciple-makers can experience all five of these spaces, overlapping and integrating, in one network of relationships or neighborhoods. We gradually “nest” our community within our context where a microchurch family has emerged, which is connected to a larger network of microchurches along with a Hub (a team of equippers supporting and coaching the network of disciple-makers and microchurches) located hyper-locally to them within the city
As we mentioned earlier, this way of life is radically counterculture. It usually takes a disciple months or years to begin to overlap and deepen their relational world in the following way.
In this way, rather than running between multiple networks of relationships, where the community is a mile wide and an inch deep, they can plant their relational roots deep in one network or neighborhood. In doing so, relationships can become both deep and wide. The pace of life can slow down, as much of our living happens in one or two contexts, not five or six, as is common sense in many places in America and is the source of much of our busyness and ensuing isolation.
Consider the following Vehicles questions:
- To what degree is our disciple-making organized and programmatic versus organic and relational?
- What are our relational environments? List them. Then evaluate the following.
- To what degree do those vehicles move people toward living in spiritual extended families that practice the “one anothers” as a way of life on mission together?
- To what degree do they cover and integrate all five social spaces?
- What relational environments do we have that are stagnant or toxic? Why? Should those vehicles be retired? How can those relational environments be restored to health?
- What relational environments do we need?
Disciple-Making Ecosystem Question #5
The Voyage Question asks: What are the stages of the journey?
I know a family whose youngest son simply stopped growing. For a season, no one noticed because a child’s growth is such an incremental thing. Gradually, however, they began to note some critical data points: He is the shortest one in his class, other boys his age have already had significant growth spurts, and every time they would check his height, no progress. After some testing, he was diagnosed with a lack of growth hormones. That was scary news for both the young boy and his parents. But the condition was treatable, and the good news is the medical treatment worked. He started growing again!
What’s the secret behind growth? The pituitary gland makes a growth hormone, which stimulates the growth of bone and other tissues. When children are healthy and provided the right nutrients, they make no effort to grow. It’s automatic! Any parent will tell you that in certain seasons, it’s hard to keep them in shoes and pants because they keep outgrowing them!
As we age, our pituitary gland automatically causes us to grow physically, but there is no such gland for spiritual, emotional, and relational development. We will not automatically become relationally, emotionally, and spiritually mature. We all need to be intentionally discipled (spiritually parented) through the stages of spiritual growth.
Most churches depend completely on programs, services, and small groups for discipleship. Programs, services, and groups do not and cannot replace the parenting and influence of life-on-life disciple-making in community on mission. Wise parents don’t depend on programs, groups, or gatherings at school to parent their children. That approach won’t work within the Church either.
Programs, services, training, and groups can be supplemental tools for disciple-makers to use, but they can never be a substitute for disciple-makers who guide others as they themselves move through the maturity journey.
Read slowly through the following groups of Bible passages and feel out the stages of the maturity journey.
“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” – 1 Corinthians 3:1-2a
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” – 1 Peter 2:2-3
“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” – Hebrews 5:12-14
“For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
“I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” – 1 John 2:14
“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” – 2 Timothy 2:1-2
“Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.” – 1 Timothy 3:1-7
Consider the following Voyage questions:
- What stage(s) of maturity do these passages refer to?
- What stage am I at? How possible is it to be at different stages of maturity in different areas of my life (i.e. elder stage intellectually, but stuck at young adult stage emotionally)?
- On a scale of one to 10, how clearly are these biblical stages of discipleship communicated and resourced in our church/network?
- On a scale from one to 10, how effectively are we equipping disciple-makers to intentionally influence others – in a life-on-life way in the 3-12 space – through these stages?
- What is our next step? What is the Spirit saying to us as a network?
Maturity is a journey beginning with the infancy stage, moving through youth, then young adult, eventually parenting, and finally toward the elder stage. Every disciple is invited by Jesus to experience all these stages. This is not reserved for a few or a special class of professionals.
Each stage has different needs, tasks, and milestones. The Father intends for all of us to graduate through all the Stages of the Journey. Naming and recognizing those stages or phases of the discipleship journey (The Voyage) is an essential element of an intentional disciple-making ecosystem.
In addition, having a clear sense of the journey for the mobilization of ordinary folks on mission into different contexts is incredibly powerful. As we embark on a mission with Jesus in our context, understanding the journey’s phases becomes crucial. Drawing insights from Jesus’ life, the early church, and historical movements, we in the KC Underground recognize five distinct phases in the Missionary Pathway. These phases serve not only as a roadmap, but also as an organizational toolbox for our tools and training.
Phase One: Extraordinary Prayer and Fasting. We begin in prayer. No one bypasses the wilderness or the upper room. Jesus says, “Wait until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49).” Have I? Have we? This isn’t so much about a specific length of time but cultivating an inner posture supported by daily practices.
Phase Two: Live As a Missionary: We don’t plant churches. We plant missionaries, who plant the gospel, and make disciples. Identifying our people and place of primary sentness and nurturing deep incarnational rhythms within hyper-local/hyper-focused network of relationships is essential.
Phase Three: Plant the Gospel: First, we daily plant the gospel in ourselves, internalizing it, and letting it continuously heal our own image of God and self. Then, we boldly share the story of how Jesus is changing us and how the gospel changes everything in a way that is meaningful, contextual, and relational.
Phase Four: Microchurch Emerges. Again, we don’t plant churches. Churches emerge organically from disciple-making. As a new extended spiritual family forms under Jesus’ lordship, they adopt shared rhythms of worship, community, and mission.
Phase Five: Multiplication: Multiplication becomes the norm. We embed simple multiplication practices into everything, understanding that complexity inhibits reproduction. Multiply missionaries, microchurches, hubs.
This is an endless cycle for us as we live into the Lordship of Jesus in our context. This voyage gives disciple-makers a clear sense of where they are on their current journey in their context, what tools or training they might need, and what to look for next.
As we close this article, I do fear that it will come off like we are experts. Please know that on the ground, we are like the dog in the movie Up, “Squirrel!” We get distracted. We do this so very imperfectly. But God’s grace is so large, the Spirit is always speaking if we will listen, God’s Word is eternal, and again, like Paul said, even “dim beholdings in a glass darkly” are transformative! We make it our aim. We simply call it “Return to Jesus.” Everything rises and falls on that continuous return to Jesus, as individuals and as a network.
Disciple-making and leadership development are two sides of the same coin. If our disciples and leaders (disciple-makers) are continuously returning to Jesus, what will emerge is healthy, multiplying microchurches, hubs, and networks. Even those will get sick and off track, and the return to Jesus continues, until he returns.
