by Regi Campbell: We, as a culture, learned this in parenting a long time ago: You can talk to your kids until you’re blue in the face, but they may not do what you say. It’s a lot more likely they’ll do what you say, if they see you do it first. It’s human nature.

When the leader of an organization does something, it encourages the followers to do it, too. The turnout of volunteers from companies who build houses for Habitat for Humanity goes through the roof when the executives of that company show up. Their participation validates the deal and gives followers permission.

The same is true in church world.

When a Senior Pastor starts raising his hands high over his head during worship, others will often start raising their hands. When a pastor goes on a mission trip, the number of people who sign up for that mission trip goes up. When a pastor comes to the Monday-morning prayer group, more people come.

Whether or not you’re a pastor, people follow the model they see in you as a leader. They do what you do.

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Written by Regi Campbell

Regi Campbell grew up in a small-town church. He’s belonged to congregations in multiple cities and gotten to know a quite a few pastors and churches. For the past twenty-three years, he’s been a part of one of America’s largest churches, Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church serving as an Elder twice and in other leadership roles. His first three books—About My Father’s Business, Mentor Like Jesus, and What Radical Husbands Do—speak to business people, mature men, and husbands respectively. Campbell now speaks to Senior Pastors, Staff Pastors, and leaders in the local church, sharing what he’s learned about creating interest in discipleship and disciple making.

Regi is the Founder and Chairman of Radical Mentoring, a nonprofit focused on equipping and encouraging churches to build disciples and disciple makers through intentional men’s small group mentoring. Regi believes the future of the local church is intimately connected to the development of strong Jesus-following lay leaders who will lead their wives, children, businesses, neighborhoods, and churches with God at the center.

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Source: Model Your Method

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by Regi Campbell: For years, I’ve defined a disciple as a “learner and follower” of Jesus. In theory, if someone really follows Jesus, they will end up helping others to become learners and followers. But the reality is they rarely do. Somehow, we get selfish saying things like, “I have my salvation, my church, my small group, my Bible, my eternal security.” Moving beyond “me and mine” is hard.

Reading Discipleship.org’s definition of a disciple showed me how weak my definition was. He says a disciple is “a person who is following Christ, being changed by Christ, and is committed to the mission of Christ.” That’s raising the bar! Let me “put some meat on those bones” from my perspective:

Following Jesus – A disciple of Jesus is living his way of life. It’s a lifestyle marked by love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, and joy. Following Jesus says my heart breaks for the things that break His heart. There’s a love for His Word, for worship, and for learning—a love for the church and for meeting together with other Jesus followers. Most of all, there’s a love for others. Following Jesus is an active thing. It requires engagement and involvement, not just participation and attendance.

Being changed by Jesus – A disciple is humble, the opposite of prideful and self-righteous. A disciple is open to the Holy Spirit, who lives within them and offers access to the mind of Christ. A disciple of Jesus has an open mind and heart, inviting God to “peel their onion” to expose their dark and blind spots and to heal their broken places. Disciples aren’t about self-improvement; they’re about finding parts of their hearts not yet surrendered and turning them over to their Heavenly Father for His use and glory.

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Source: Raise the Bar of Discipleship

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