"Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  Luke 9:23

Here is another place that Jesus makes clear what he expects of his disciples and thus what you and I should expect of them. Our first sign in this series was commitment or surrender.  This is self-denial. The next expectations from this verse are cross-carrying and following.

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34, 35

This is one of those times Jesus makes crystal clear what his followers look like.  This quality is so outstanding that people don't miss it.  Love.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  Luke 16:13

Last time we talked about Commitment as the foundational quality of a Christ-follower.  For most of us commitment is a familiar theme of our faith.  Maybe too familiar.

In last week's blog I made the case that the best way to measure discipleship is by tracking the signs (or indicators) of Jesus followership in a person's life.  One of the first and most fundamental signs is commitment. 

Commitment to Christ and commitment to his church.  Let's consider these and then how to use data to track them.  

Like you, I love the church and am enamored with Jesus' commission to make disciples of all nations.  Years ago as a university student, I was heavily involved in a college disciple-making ministry.   During that time I consumed Leroy Eims' book, The Lost Art of Disciplemaking.  It gave me a framework with clear objectives for becoming and making disciples - devoted followers of Christ. 

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here is a list of some of the objectives right out of the appendix of this

 book. (There are 30 listed there.) 

A few weeks ago, in a blog post entitled Groups consistency, I talked about using attendance as a sign that points to faithfulness.  And faithfulness is a pre-requisite character quality for choosing leaders who multiply the ministry.  (2 Timothy 2:2)

In the same way, attendance is a sign for pastors and church staff that something may be going on in a person's life they are called to shepherd.

In discipleship discussions, we often quote 2 Timothy 2:2 as a pillar text for understanding discipleship that multiplies disciples.  The idea, of course, is that Paul invested in training Timothy and was encouraging him to invest in other people who would invest in others.  

Notice the adjective that Paul uses to describe the people in whom Timothy was to invest his time.  Depending on your translation, the word is generally reliable (NIV, NLT), or faithful (ESV, NASB, KJV).  It is someone in whom you trust.

The ways churches are meeting at this point in the pandemic are as diverse as the church itself.  I know great churches that haven't met live on Sundays since March of last year.  And I know great churches that have been meeting live since July and now don't even require masks or social distance.  This is the beauty of God's design and the difference in the communities our churches serve. 

For nearly every church, the second or third largest line item in their budget is related to facility operations.  This includes the care, maintenance, energy consumption, capital reserves, etc.  All of this can be lumped into the cost of facilities. 

Churchteams was built around the idea of growing a church using groups as the common building material for every ministry. This means that everything that involves more than one person is managed as a group. 

Every worship service, small group, class, committee, ministry team, leadership team, service team, mission team, event, and even assimilation step is managed as a group. 

This is one of the design constructs that makes our software unique, powerful and user-friendly.  Once understood, ministry rocks of all sizes are formed together to become a solidly built organization.

I started this series more than a month ago but got sidestracked on topics related to the Covid 19 crisis.  The pandemic has only ramped up.  But, for a moment, let's refocus on how we help a church measure how well they are multiplying disciples.

Jesus didn't mentor his disciples just to make them better men.  His goal was for them to mentor other people who would do the same thing.  Paul was super clear on this multiplication model of mentoring in 2 Timothy 2:2.

We who are captivated by the privilege and challenge of this calling are part of a growing movement of churches owning the multiplication vision.  Our experience has shown us that consistency and conversations are two powerfully helpful measures of multiplication.

Last week we were at the Exponential Conference in Orlando.  It is an exciting gathering of thousands of people devoted to multiplying leaders and planting churches. Our many conversations with men and women enthusiastically pursuing a life of significance through mentoring and multiplication reminded me again of why we started Churchteams.