Raising up Lay Leaders: Empowering Your Congregation for Disciple-Making

Walter Bennett
When I was in primary and secondary school, I suffered under the misconception that all the content I was learning was critically important to live a productive life. Certainly, as I progressed through college, Naval Nuclear Power School, and my Master’s in Teaching, there were elements that specifically applied to specific jobs, but much of the learning, particularly in the earlier years, was learning how to learn. It was about discipline in seeking and gaining knowledge that IS critically necessary in various circumstances throughout work and life.
The Organic Outreach International Spiritual Markers Assessment can be the beginning of an exciting lifelong journey of intentional, strategic, and spirit-led discipleship for every member of your church. Once individual church members have taken the assessment and receive their report, they will know where they currently are on their road to becoming more like Jesus in every aspect of who He is, and sharing Jesus naturally with others through deep, meaningful, and loving relationships. Making disciples the way that Jesus did, every day and in natural ways.
Once we all know our starting point for each of these spiritual markers, how do we, as leaders in the church, help each and every member develop their own personalized growth plan? Even for a small church of 30 or 40, helping every individual on their plan and following up with them on a regular basis for inspiration, accountability, learning and planning could become a full time job!

On your OOI Dashboard at the bottom of the page, you will see Organic Disciples – 8-part Discipleship Experience. If you follow that link it will take you to a page that contains a link to our Spiritual Markers Mentor Training Video. You will also see downloadable documents for mentors to use as they work with others to help them develop and plan an intentional path toward spiritual maturity.
Discipleship relationships as Christians are critical in our spiritual growth with reciprocal benefit. We should each have someone who is discipling us, we should be discipling another, and they should be discipling another. Often, when lay people engage in these types of relationships they can evolve over time to being more like social catch-up sessions. There needs to be intentionality in these relationships focused on steady spiritual growth. To achieve this, the members of your church need to be trained and equipped to take on these roles of discipling and being discipled.