Effective Discipleship

Nazarenes are committed to disciplemaking. The new birth is just the first step in becoming the people God intends his children to be. Even being filled with the Holy Spirit is “for life and for service,” not the end of the spiritual journey.

Fifty years ago, disciple-making was primarily a function of the Sunday School. More recently, the small-group movement has been recommended as a good way to make disciples.

Which of these methods is being used effectively by Churches of the Nazarene at the beginning of the 21st century? Large Churches

The Research Center first studied the largest Churches of the Nazarene in Canada and the United States. In 2005, there were 114 churches that reported at least 500 in worship. Where were they concentrating their discipleship efforts?

In the last five years, these large churches have gained an additional 20,000 more in worship, to just over 100,000 in an average week. During the same time period, their Sunday Schools have grown by 9,000 and their small groups by nearly 12,000.

Small groups are increasingly important in making disciples, at least in larger churches. But the Sunday School remains a strong discipleship tool as well. Traditionally, small groups have been focused on adults rather than on families. The Research Center notes that children and teen Sunday School in large churches grew by 4,500 during the last five years, which is the same amount that the adult Sunday School grew. Perhaps this tool is most useful for the families who are being won.

What about churches averaging less than 500 in worship? After all, ten times as many churches run between 100 and 499 in worship.

Mid-size Churches Of the 1,370 Churches of the Nazarene that averaged between 100 and 499 in 2005, worship gains also totaled about 20,000 over the last five years. Sunday School grew about 5,000 and small groups by 17,000. These midsize churches are incorporating many more disciples into small groups than into Sunday School, though the Sunday School is still growing. For these churches overall, however, fewer children are involved in Sunday School than five years ago.

Smaller Churches There are 2,504 Churches of the Nazarene that have consistently averaged less than 100 in worship. Among these churches, worship has increased about 1,000 over the past five years. Overall, Sunday School has declined by about 1,500 while small group ministries have grown by 4,000. Again, children and teen Sunday School has declined, while adult Sunday School attendance has actually gone up by about 1,000.

Another 1,124 churches used to run over 100 in worship but have dropped below that level in recent years. Not surprisingly, their Sunday School has also dropped in all categories although their small groups are reaching slightly more people today than five years ago.

Implications A traditional strength of the Church of the Nazarene has been to include children and teens in discipleship training. As churches respond to the adult desire for small group discipleship, it will be important to find ways to include the next generations as well.

The mid-size and smaller churches are not seeing increases in children’s Sunday School. This raises the question of discipleship for young believers. Are our small and mid-size churches no longer attracting families with children? Or have they learned to incorporate children into small group ministries? Or are they depending upon large groups for such discipleship? Of course, some discipleship can take place in larger settings, such as a lively children’s worship service. But most discipleship studies indicate that smaller settings have been more effective in encouraging life transformation.

Since discipleship is usually more effective in small groups, our next observation is about those not yet involved.

Overall, the ratio of worshippers involved in discipleship rose from 83% to 85% in the last five years, with a slightly larger increase in the large and mid-size churches. While such increases are good, this still indicates that at least one in six worshippers does not seem to be involved in regular discipleship training beyond the worship service itself.

Churches that believe in life transformation will actively look for ways to encourage all their people to grow in Christ. Exhortation from the pulpit is good, but usually insufficient. While small groups and Sunday Schools are helping most Nazarene worshippers to become better disciples, innovation may be needed to attract more worshippers to a deeper walk with Christ.

One-on-one mentoring and shortterm groups may be appropriate. They are frankly harder to maintain than small group ministries or Sunday School. But churches that intend to make disciples will find ways to help all believers grow in grace.

—prepared by Dale E. Jones, Ken Crow, Richard Houseal