If everyone, from the pastor leading the flock to the youngest lamb following along, is mindful of Jesus' instruction to go and make disciples, it will be easy to go with the flow. Someone used to the ways of less participative churches will adjust to what they experience as the new culture of the church of disciples.

So how do we create this discipling culture?

Empowering, not disempowering
Not by the top-down kind of controlling shepherding I saw in the 1970s and early 80s. I saw how that disempowers people – the opposite of what w e are trying to do. It produces passive followers who are confused about who they are following. Such is the way of a cult and it has no place in God's plan. In a discipling culture, everyone takes responsibility for their own walk with God and their growth in God, and everyone's journey includes obstacles and difficulties. That part is tackled together. In a discipling culture, people pastor one another under the guidance of those more experienced who are called to lead.

Disciplines: Individual responsibility, journeying together
During the Second World War my dad was on a destroyer assigned to North Atlantic convoys for a time; Alison's Uncle Eddie was serving on tankers on that route. Both were of course prime targets. Shipping was essential to bring in oil and other supplies. Individual ships were highly vulnerable to both raiders and submarines. The strategy was to form convoys with escorts. Each ship's master was responsible for his own vessel – the safe routine and navigation and position keeping. The convoy commodore set the overall course and provided the essential protection. The merchant navy crews, used to deciding their own best course and speed, resented the discipline imposed by the Royal Navy escorts who insisted on freighters maintaining exact speed and keeping close station. A constant stream of engine room commands was not the merchant navy way! But it was essential for everyone's safety that the convoy stayed close together and watched out for each other.

Our journey through life has its storms and attacks. We are responsible for how we go, and that involves some discipline, but journeying together is better by far than going it doggedly alone.


Leader-leader model – US Navy Capt. David Marquet ceased giving orders
At the risk of overloading this with examples from life at sea, I’ll mention another. What makes these rich illustrations for us is that everyone who is part of a ship’s crew is aware of the risks, and therefore their responsibilities to others. “Every man for himself" is an order only ever given when the ship is going down, and it reverses the normal discipline. David Marquet was appointed Captain of USS Santa Fe, a nuclear submarine when it was not a happy ship. The captain’s word is law, and this couldn't change, but Marquet addressed poor morale and performance by empowering everyone under his command, from weapons officer to cook, to think like leaders and to take responsibility for their domain, keeping him informed and seeking advice where necessary. This, he explains in his acclaimed book Turn the Ship Around!, breaks the mould of the usual leader-follower model and makes it leader-to-leader instead. His people rose to the challenge, mutual respect grew and the ship became the top performer in its class.

What was Jesus working to instil into His first disciples?

The two guiding questions
The two big challenges for us seeking to be disciples is to live the message of Jesus and to live the life of Jesus. What did Jesus say? What did Jesus do? These are the two guiding questions. Whether we work in a school or a call centre, for the police or in a canning factory, we are seeking to show people who Jesus is – and also to speak for Him if we have openings to do so. In church life it is much the same. The risk of an abrasive attitude is probably higher there because of all the religious-spirit residue. Whether inside a church building or in the real world, we are intentional about growing in Jesus, and that includes Jesus-like relationships and attitudes, and a Jesus-like mission.