{"id":680,"date":"2021-01-27T17:45:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T07:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2021-01-27T17:46:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T07:46:41","slug":"what-does-it-cost-to-make-a-new-disciple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"What does it cost to make a new disciple?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">I was once asked <em>\u201cWhat is the fruit of an apple?\u201d<\/em>&nbsp; Without thinking too hard, I answered <em>\u201cthe seeds for more apples\u201d<\/em>.&nbsp; While that is true, it is NOT just more apples, it\u2019s ultimately an orchard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">If we apply this to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, then the true fruit of a disciple is a disciple who makes disciples \u2013 who makes disciples.&nbsp; Another way of saying this is, <em>the seeds of a disciple-making movement are contained in every disciple<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">If the fruit of a disciple is a disciple-making movement then a fair follow-up question to ask leaders is: <strong><em>What does it cost to make a new disciple?<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp; This may seem like an odd question to ask, but is it really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">A colleague of mine put me onto an international network of disciple-makers that has done the hard work to track and calculate the <em>return on their investment<\/em> so they could study the metrics that mattered most to them.&nbsp; To-date they have facilitated the transformation of approximately 830,000+ people (this is a conservative estimate) who now follow Jesus at a cost of about $35 per new disciple.&nbsp; In addition, they tracked some other data points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li>36,000+ churches started<\/li><li>720,000+ people in small groups.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">Back to the question: <strong><em>What does it cost to make a new disciple?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><strong>The benefits of asking this question are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li>It clarifies the type of fruit that is being harvested<\/li><li>It helps to channel resources in the direction of making disciples<\/li><li>It helps a leader know what opportunities to say <em>\u201cno\u201d<\/em> to<\/li><li>It has the potential to align ministries to support the work of making disciples<\/li><li>It empowers teams to celebrate <em>\u201cwins\u201d<\/em> along the way<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">Rodney Stark in his book \u201cThe Rise of Christianity\u201d points out the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li>In AD 40 there were 1,000 followers of Jesus &#8211; .0017% of the population of the Roman Empire<\/li><li>In AD 400 there were 34 Million followers of Jesus \u2013 56% of the population of the Roman Empire<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">Because the Church made disciples through personal relationships there was little or no cost involved financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">These figures got me thinking. How much does it cost a local church to make an active disciple (not a passive spectator)? As I\u2019m sure you have already guessed, it is very difficult to answer this question because of the multiple variants, but why not try the following:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li>Work out your budget figure for the last five years.<\/li><li>Work out the number of new disciples (not transfers or passive attendees) who have been added to your Church over the last five years.<\/li><li>Divide the number of new disciples into the budget figure.<\/li><li>If the investment of your money is creating few new disciples, what is it being used for?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">The above will trigger a number of reactions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\" style=\"font-size:17px\"><li><strong>Defensive<\/strong> (<em>We don\u2019t track that sort of thing!<\/em>) OR <strong>Curious <\/strong>(<em>Why do you ask?<\/em>)<\/li><li><strong>Closed<\/strong> (<em>Are you kidding?<\/em>) OR <strong>Open<\/strong> (<em>I\u2019ve never thought about it that way before.<\/em>)<\/li><li><strong>Criticism<\/strong> (<em>Aren\u2019t you bringing business principles into the church?<\/em>) OR <strong>Willing <\/strong>(<em>That is an interesting question!<\/em>)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:17px\">I\u2019m the first to agree that this process is too simplistic, but I don\u2019t apologise. Hopefully it will encourage you to think outside of the box and ask the question, \u201cW<em>hat do we have to do to become a movement that makes disciples who makes disciples<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was once asked \u201cWhat is the fruit of an apple?\u201d&nbsp; Without thinking too hard, I answered \u201cthe seeds for more apples\u201d.&nbsp; While that is true, it is NOT just more apples, it\u2019s ultimately an orchard. If we apply this to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, then the true fruit of a disciple is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What does it cost to make a new disciple? - Discipling As You Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/disciplingasyougo.com\/?p=680\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What does it cost to make a new disciple? - Discipling As You Go\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was once asked \u201cWhat is the fruit of an apple?\u201d&nbsp; Without thinking too hard, I answered \u201cthe seeds for more apples\u201d.&nbsp; While that is true, it is NOT just more apples, it\u2019s ultimately an orchard. 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