Making Disciples of the Next Generation

This guest post was contributed by Kennon Vaughan, founder and director of Downline Ministries, a ministry that seeks to encourage a restoration of biblical discipleship in and through the local church.
In my first post I shared how my discipleship journey with Soup Campbell was beginning to change how I viewed my faith – but now I was wondering where the other “Soup Campbells of the world” were. I had felt the power of his lifestyle teaching with me, and so I was on a mission to find out if there were other men and women who were investing their lives and the Gospel into the next generation. I decided to start in the churches.
Over the next couple of months, I set up interviews with twelve of the leading pastors in our city (Memphis). As I sat down with each one, I shared my experience with Soup, and then asked them to help me understand Biblical discipleship. Once they heard my story, they all pointed to Soup’s sharing of his life with me as a great example of true Biblical discipleship. In fact, they went so far as to tell me how blessed I was to have him in my life. While I found this affirming, I went on to ask whether this from of lifestyle discipleship was happening in their churches, and the response I got was staggering.
Not one of the pastors gave me a positive response. They told me that they have very few members, officers, or even staff who are intentionally making disciples the way Soup was with me. They explained to me that this had become a lost art, and expressed their sincere remorse that true Biblical discipleship had become such a weakness in their church, and in the Western church at large.
As you might imagine, I was quite overwhelmed. I went back to Soup with my findings and said in desperation, “We’ve got to do something!” To which Soup challenged me to pray and think carefully about my plans to “do something”.
I didn’t have much of a plan, just a burden to see men and women of God walking alongside the next generation. I desired to see the students I was ministering to have the privilege of the kind of lifestyle teaching I had experienced with Soup, and I wanted my friends, mostly young couples, to have the chance to sit across the table and build relationships with older, wiser Godly couples who could serve as north stars in their marriages. I desired for non-believers across our community to not just hear about the joy of the Christian life but to see and experience it up close and personal in relationship with believers who were willing to share life with them.
As it sometimes happens, God did not immediately answer my prayers or help my plans to form. But the burden in my heart for a return to Biblical discipleship in the church only deepened, and my prayers continued, until three years later I sat in the office of Professor Howard Hendricks, a prominent seminary professor who heard my story and challenged me saying, “What you are talking about is the bulls-eye of what is wrong in the Western evangelical church today. Maybe God is calling you to do something about it.”
I was a student at the time, and I asked what he suggested, to which he quickly and wisely responded, “I’m not the fourth member of the Trinity young man, but ask the Lord and He will lead you.”
So, I began asking the Lord specifically what He might have me do to encourage a strengthening of discipleship in the local church. A few months later, I had my answer: what if the pastors who recognized discipleship as a weakness in their church came together to train leaders who could then encourage disciple-making back in their local church contexts. The training would be spartan in its approach, seeking to teach men and women to know the Bible and to be able to intentionally and effectively make disciples according to the model of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. In order to walk in Biblical discipleship, we have to know what Jesus meant when He said “Go and make disciples” and how to do it!
In 2006 we launched the Downline Institute to train Christ-followers to make disciples. We had 30 hungry students from 11 churches in that first year, and the experience was beyond our expectations. Lives were changing, paradigms shifted, and men and women of God inspired and equipped to be “Soup Campbell” in the lives of others for the sake of Christ. It’s been seven years, and over 1,000 students from 40+ churches in the Memphis community have been trained through the Downline Institute to be disciple-makers of Jesus Christ.
While we are grateful for what God has done and is doing through Downline in Memphis, it seems to be only the beginning of a much larger movement. In 2011, the Downline Institute training became accessible in an online format and is now available online in HD quality for anyone in the English speaking world who is hungry to know their Bibles and participate in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ!
Today, I am still passionate about Biblical discipleship because I often meet people whose experience in Christ reminds me of mine before I met Soup. They’ve believed the Gospel, made a profession of faith in Christ, and attended a church for many years, and yet don’t really know the Bible, don’t know how to walk with Jesus, and don’t know the depth of life in Christ that the Gospel offers. Almost all of them have never had a Christ-like model to follow and learn from in the context of a real relationship. They’ve never heard those sweet words, “follow me, and I’ll show you how to follow Him.” Through Downline Ministries and the willingness of wise Christians and church leaders around the country and the world, we are working to change that.
By the grace of God and the willingness of Soup, discipleship and lifestyle teaching changed my life – I pray that it might change yours as well.
For more information on how to be a disciple or become a disciple-maker of Jesus Christ, check out www.downlineministries.com and read about the Downline Institute Online. Alsocheck out the first of its kind customizable curriculum resource, Downline Builder, at www.downlinebuilder.com
Kennon Vaughan is founder and director of Downline Ministries, a ministry that seeks to encourage a restoration of biblical discipleship in and through the local church. Kennon speaks powerfully to the heartbeat of the Great Commission and loves to offer training on both the principles and practical of making disciples in the contexts of home, church, and marketplace. He can be followed on Twitter at @kennonvaughan.
Web www.downlineministries.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/dlministries
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Check out Kennon’s earlier post here
AMEN
Amen
Amen
AMEN
Thank You SO MUCH my Lord God Almighty in Heaven Forever, Thank You SO MUCH my Lord, I Pray all of this in God’s Almighty Name, Amen!
Amen!!!
amen !!!
LIKES THIS
Yes, my friends Angela and Norma
my Aunt Ruth, even when I didnt want to hear it.
Yes. My sweet Mandy. She died from colon cancer at 41. Heartbreaking for all of us here. But. Jesus wanted her more!
AMEN.
my Grandmother
AMEN
my mawmaw
AMEN~
not very often I have been caught up in bad teaching at times during my life with the Lord, and I have learned from Gods Word to be very discerning. and I have come across some very good teachers like John MaCarthur, Charles Stanley, Brannon Howse of WWW, and such.I have had very few good personal relationships with True Believers of The Gospel, who believe every jot and tittle of it,I crave fellowshiip of that hat kind.I do not believe in religion but in a personal relationship with our Father God through Jesus and Jesus alone.It is not easy to find like minded fellowship, I want to be trusting of those that say they are Christian, but that term is so abused and can mean different things to different people…
My Mom and Dad were very good models. I am so thankful to have had them for much advice, and examples. –
when i was 5,i’m 60 now,i just wanted to know about Jesus,so i asked my neighbors if i could go to church with them..i can’t remember a church service i missed as a child..
We went to church for a short period didn’t start going again til I was bout 10 or 11…
My Father
mother
My mommy !
MY Mama
My Daddy….
my MOM did,and the church
Momma and Sunday school
MY MOTHER
My Grandmother, God rest her soul!
My Grandmother.and she was great teacher.!!! I can still hear her praying.!!!
Mom
Mom. Read me stories from the bible
My Mommy!
My maternal Grandmother did as she and Papa and my family all lived together as I was growing up.
Went to church with my family, and my aunt and uncle too when I went to visit them. 🙂
amen
the church did
MY MOM
I was raised in the church,my mom made sure we was up for church every Sunday and the week day.
My Mother!
A little First Christain Church in Sundown,Tx. Mostly.
No one. Actually Miss Woods and Miss Pugsley came to our little country school a d taught us Bible lessons. One of my favorite memories from childhood. Can you imagine what would happen now if Bible teaches came to school and taught us about God??
Books, church, and parents…
Christian friends… I was raised catholic but I really never understood the kind of relantionship Catholic Church teaches about God back then… When accepted Jesus I was 16, that was when I needed him the most. My journey has not been easy but with Him by my side I’ve learned that I am Overcomer : )
CHURCH AND FAMILY
My mom and grandmother
🙂
I went to a catholic school. Believe me you will know who God is.
Church and school.
my Grandfather
Amen
My daddy
Mi abuelita…
Mom.
My Mom and Dad and the church.
My Mom and Dad
Went to church with family … and in my later years I learned more about GOD and JESUS through studying the scriptures and seeing all of the examples that GOD gave us to read about … Thanks be to GOD
My parents and grandmothers. Also the pastor.
My mommy.
My grandmother , mother , father, aunts, uncles, everyone went to church and still do. With out God where would we all be. God Bless.
Granny Bryant and Granny Gill
Church my parents took me to
went to church across the street with my mom
Miss Emily and my grandma and aunts..
my parents. Thank you Jesus for Christian parents!
my parents taught me and took me to church
My grandmother
I grew up in a bad neighborhood and mom was scared bad things would happen to me so in 7th grade i started attending a private christen school.
my parents
school, church…
Grandma Frances.
my grandmother!
My wonderful Mother! She went Home 3 yrs,3mos. ago – see you soon Mom, see you soon!
MOM
my mother
Granny
NWA. Nun’s With Attitude!
CHRISTAINS…
My wonderful GRANDMOTHER JULIA!!!Miss her very much !!
my mom & dad
my grandparents, my mom and dad
my parents
the Bible.
my parents
My parents.
AMEN
My mom.
I always was told to say my prayers and Mary would listen. I always had that pull toward God and wanted to know more and more about the sacrifice Jesus made. but my Daddy loved the Lord.
My aunts on my dads side always talked about God
I don’t know really. I wasn’t raised in a church, but I feel that I have always believed :))
My Father!! & Sunday school!
Me & My Mom
My wonderful family.
My Mom And Dad!!!
my Mom and church
my mom,mawmaw and church
MY POPPA
my mom, youth pastor, my pastor and the word of God
nobody I alresady knew
My Grandma and also the tell a story bus. And the mailbox club.
The CHURCH & CATHOLIC SCHOOL I ATTENDED!!!!!!!
my father! I miss him
My Grandma did and the church.
My Family And Our Church !!
The Baptist american missionaries were so diligent in telling, teaching & showing us films about God through Jesus Christ dying on the cross. We were always having Daily Bible School on summer vacations & that was in a very religious town of catholics who were angry at them & us, since most of our family were simply religious catholics!
But praise God! Glory & honor unto him alone. Nowadays? Almost everyone is a born-again Christian, lovers & doers of the Lord´s every word except a few who aren´t. GOD IS GOOD!
my mom
My Parents and going to church
My Mother, sent me and my Brother to Bible school.
My Mom and Dad took us to church sometimes (quite often sometimes) –
AMEN
While ye have the light,believe in the light,that ye may be the children of light. John 12; 35 kjv
My best friend and my nieces, family and most of all my kid’s and awesome husband. Amen
YES…..
God has put so many people in my life over the years, who brought His light to me, that I couldn’t possibly name them all, but what they all shared in common was their walk of faith with the one true light, Jesus, who’s birth we celebrate at this time of year.
The immensity of His birth was staggering, His love is overwhelming, and His return will be beyond all words.
Soli Deo Gloria!
YES
AMEN
Amen
AMEN
Divine illumination, beautiful truth , we are who God says we are , when He speaks , it is done …Amen
AMEN
Amen
Amen.
God is love
AMEN
There have been many lights in my life. The Aunt who invited me to church as a child, the Grandmother who took me in and raised me as her own even though,she’d already raised her four children, the VBS teacher who taught me about the Lord, the pastor who knelt beside me and prayed a prayer of salvation with me, just to name a few.
amen
AMEN
AMEN!!!!!
Amen
Amen
This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine!!! “AMEN”
My Husband has been a Light to me…for He is filled with the light, life and love of God….
Be the light!!!
AMEN
amen
amen..
amen!
With there
amen
Amen. Accept him today.
Amen and amen!
Jesus is the reason for all the seasons
AMEN
Amen. For its all His anyway.