A church can launch a discipleship program with real hope. The curriculum is well reviewed, the leaders are prepared, and the first weeks go well. A few months later, attendance has thinned, and many of the people who finished seem much as they were before. When that happens, it is easy to conclude that programs simply do not work.
That conclusion goes too far. The program itself is not the problem. A well-run program can serve discipleship well. What does not work is expecting a program to change people by existing, or by delivering good material. Transformation is God’s work, and Scripture shows discipleship happening as believers share their lives, care for each person and keep urging one another toward lives that honor God. A program helps when it carries that kind of discipleship. It falls short when it puts content in its place.
The Program Can Help
“Program” can sound like the opposite of real discipleship, as if anything organized must be shallow. It is not. A program is simply an organized way of doing something on purpose, and many believers have grown through programs like that. The question is not whether a church should have a program. It is what the program actually carries.
That is also why changing the curriculum may not solve the problem on its own. Better material can help. But if what people receive is mainly content, a new course will tend to produce the same result as the old one.
What Paul Shared Besides the Message
Paul described his time with the believers in Thessalonica this way: “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too” (1 Thessalonians 2:8, NLT). A few sentences later he added:
“And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.”
1 Thessalonians 2:11–12, NLT
Three things stand out. Paul shared his life, not only his message. He cared for each person, the way a father cares for each of his children. And everything he did was aimed at how they would live, in response to the God who had called them.
Where Programs Fall Short
A program can deliver excellent teaching to a full room and still miss all three. People can attend for weeks without anyone sharing life with them. A group can finish the material without anyone knowing how each person is actually doing. And completing the course can quietly become the goal, instead of the lives the course was meant to shape.
None of these is a flaw in programs as such. Each is what happens when a program carries information without the kind of discipleship Paul describes.
Three Questions to Ask of Any Program
When choosing or reviewing a discipleship program (opens in a new tab), church leaders can consider three practical questions. Does it encourage believers to share life, not only content? Does it allow for personal care, not only group participation? And does it help believers consider how they will live, rather than simply completing the material?
These questions help leaders consider whether a program supports the kind of personal, purposeful discipleship reflected in Paul’s example.
When the Program Ends
Even a program that does all of this often runs for a set number of weeks. When it ends, the people who took part still have the rest of their lives to live, and the encouragement that surrounded them may end with the course. That raises a broader question: why doesn’t growth stay consistent once a season of focus is over, and what does Scripture say structure is for?
Why Consistency Requires Structure answers that question.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
