My friend Doug Clark invited me down to his church in Tyler, TX to do an Alongsider Clinic on the 27th
We started up the morning with the discipleship theatre, a metaphor for how discipleship happens in a church.
of July. Grace Church has a wonderful staff and congregation. We had such a great time together thinking and connecting.
One hundred of us gathered for the five hour workshop. This is not an ordinary workshop. The attendees work, connect, and reconsider the elements of the disciple-making process. If I lectured the whole time folks would be bored out of their minds (I’m really not that good anyway) and they’d get less out of it. So we work the day with lots of interaction around the tables, set up by brief messages. At the end of the day people are surprised that five hours had passed by so quickly.
One of the big ideas we want to communicate is that discipleship is not only for the professionals, but for ministry amateurs. We use the word amateur from the Latin definition, meaning “lover.” God wants people who love to help build other’s faith, who do it for the love of God. Acts 4:13 says that the disciples were, “unschooled, ordinary men, who had been with Jesus.” Disciples weren’t the cream of the crop. They were average people taking steps of risk and trust.
Another of the energizing activities is the work each table does to define 
what is a disciple. This critical target gives focus on the important skills and characteristics each follower of Christ must have. The tables work through a number of passages then come up with a picture of a disciple. There’s lots of serious discussion and lots of laughter. And as you can see art is not one of the skills I was trying to build.
As the day comes to a close we want to let these ministry amateurs know just five principles they need to master. When they do these five better their impact and joy increases as they watch people mature. God really does want to use you and me for significant, eternal purposes.
Here’s a video of a couple that emulate many of these principles we lifted up.