5 Insights for Discipleship Multiplication

“Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…”

Have you ever passionately delivered a message to your youth only to discover they just weren’t listening? Sometimes youth ministry can feel like the scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the teacher repeatedly calls out “Bueller” to no avail. This has happened within my own youth ministry on several occasions! I’ll go up in front of all my teenagers excited to share from God’s Word, only to find out later that the students cannot remember what I told them. It can be a pretty discouraging experience to feel like your students aren’t “getting it.”

Disconnected students can cause any youth leader to question his or her ability to lead. So how do you begin to change the climate and turn the ship? Prayer and disciple multiplication—which is why one of the key tactics for developing a Gospel Advancing Ministry involves focusing on the right kinds of strategies for disciple multiplication.

Here are five insights to help with your disciple multiplication strategy.

1. Understand your role

Your goal as a youth leader is discipleship multiplication. Your ministry needs to grow in size and influence in order to fulfill this goal. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean that you are solely responsible for personally inviting every student that comes into youth ministry. Instead, your greatest priority as a youth leader is to equip your teenagers and leaders to be more than followers. You need to help them become disciples who make disciples. Remember, gospel advancement involves multiplication, not just addition.

2. Develop a core group

Trying to invest in every student and leader is just not possible. Even if you are a high capacity leader, there will come a time within every ministry where there are too many teenagers and adults to individually disciple. Fear not, that’s a good problem, and especially if you handle it with wisdom! Take a deep breathe and remember, the ministry isn’t built around you; the ministry is built around Christ. Instead of trying to disciple every student and leader, you want to find the right leaders to multiply your influence.

3. Who to pick for your core group

Developing a core group is kind of like Jesus picking out His twelve apostles. These are the group of people who you will be spending the bulk of your time with, so select them prayerfully and carefully. Look for students who are passionate about the gospel and reaching others for Christ. Find leaders who care about teenagers and want to make long-lasting investments (for more, check out 3 Questions Every Leader Needs to Ask and Answer). As you wrestle with who to choose, invite God into the conversation and ask for Him to help guide you or send someone to you. After all, your disciple multiplication is the very work He has called His church to be a part of and, for that reason, He wants you to succeed!

4. Make investments

Once you’ve selected your core group, start investing in your team by spending time together. Building relationships helps your students to hear the heart of your message and buy into it. It also helps keep everyone accountable to THE Cause. As you inspire them to live sold-out, gospel advancing lives, they will begin to inspire you and the others around them.

5. Keep it simple 

Don’t overwhelm your teenagers and adults (especially your student leaders) with ever-changing strategies and goals. While having a BOLD vision and specific goals are good things (Power of Leadership & Bold Vision), you want to keep the message simple. Teach your adult and student leaders the 7 Values of a Gospel Advancing Ministry. If you need help, try out our yearlong leadership training package on the seven values called Gospelize Your Team.

Understanding your role, picking out a core group, making investments and keeping it simple are all key mechanisms to help guide a disciple multiplication strategy. Whether you are a large youth ministry with hundreds of teenagers or a smaller youth ministry, realize that developing a Gospel Advancing Ministry takes time, and that’s a good thing. We aren’t trying to create a fad; we are trying to make lifelong disciples who are committed to making more disciples through the love of Jesus Christ.