Jesus came near and said to them,“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

But what a lot of pastors and church leaders may secretly (or not-so-secretly) struggle with is how this functionally happens as a part of local church ministry in the 21st century. Practically speaking, how does discipleship actually happen?

Different pastors and discipleship ministry leaders may answer this question in their own ways, and that’s good! Discipleship can happen in a variety of ways across different contexts.

When we’re partnering with churches in their discipleship efforts here at Rooted Network, we talk about four principles of discipleship strategy.

Let’s dive into them.

1. Discipleship Is Intentional, Not Accidental

Discipleship doesn’t really happen by accident. We don’t drive into spiritual maturity. Even once we’re saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, sin can still easily entangle and we often do not choose the narrow road, opting instead for self-indulgence and sinful pursuits, despite our faith in the risen Christ.

An effective discipleship strategy accounts for the sinfulness of even the saved Christian’s heart, and builds intentionality into the life of the believer. We are not saved by our efforts—praise God—but following Jesus requires effort! It is good to have a deliberate plan for following Jesus, rather than assuming that weekend worship service attendance will form us into the likeness of Christ.

What does this look like? It could look like having a Bible reading plan, a prayer journal and a list of items to regularly pray for, and time set aside for Christian community outside the worship service each week.

2. Discipleship Is Specific, Not Vague

Some Christians, especially (but not only) those who may be new to the local church, sometimes think, “Well now that I follow Jesus, I just need to grow spiritually.” But what does that even mean? What does that practically look like? Sure, it’s true, but it’s almost too vague to even be helpful.

Generalities and vague sentiments like those can sometimes do more harm than good, leaving us stuck and unsure of how to proceed in our attempts to become more like Jesus. We may be willing to grow and change, but unsure of what it looks like to do that in everyday life.

Specificity, on the other hand, is a gift to those who want to become more like Jesus. Clear steps presented in trusted community can serve as a guide to daily change that results in Christlikeness. Now of course it is important to not let this turn into some kind of legalism that has us trying to check items off a list to earn God’s favor. We are accepted by God in Christ. Our small, specific steps of faithfulness and obedience flow out of our faith in Christ as our sure salvation.

We are busy people in a world that wants an ever-increasing amount of our time and attention. This means that if we want to change and become more like Jesus, we need to be intentional and specific about how we’re going to do that.

What does this look like? It looks like working through a daily Bible reading plan instead of “trying to read my Bible more.” It looks like a weekly appointment serving at a food pantry instead of vague hopes of “helping the homeless” whenever we eventually get around to it.

3. Discipleship Is Experiential, Not Only Informational

Learning is important. Knowing God is vital to the life of the disciple. How can we love God and help others love Him if we do not first know Him? And to know God requires some amount of effort on our part—reading the Bible, reading other Christians who know God well, and learning from others in community. But anyone who has followed Jesus for some time knows that while discipleship requires acquiring information, it does not stop there. True, fruitful discipleship is experiential—it requires acting out our faith, not just learning more about the God who is the object of it.

The knowledge of God we stock in our heads must make its way to our hearts, which must lead us to love others by the works of our hands and our feet. An intimate knowledge of the God of the universe that does not lead to practically loving our neighbors and serving our communities is deficient and perhaps not as intimate as it seems.

What does this look like? It looks like taking time to pray in our everyday lives instead of just talking about prayer. It looks like mowing our elderly neighbor’s lawn instead of just reading about the importance of loving our neighbor. It looks like buying a friend’s coffee and having a good conversation even though we have vehement disagreements about politics or faith.

4. Discipleship Is Sustainable, Not Sporadic

A discipleship strategy that depends on one gifted leader—a charismatic senior pastor, a key discipleship coordinator, or otherwise—is a house built on shifting sand. Not because that key leader isn’t great, but because that leader could leave at any time for any number of reasons. When we are interested in creating discipleship strategies that are sustainable, we should ask, “If this pastor or that leader left, could we reproduce this discipleship strategy with church members and other key people?”

The goal of any discipleship strategy is to form disciples who make disciples. We want to multiply disciples in our churches, not just add them.

What does this look like? Frankly, it looks like intentional investment and leadership development of lay leaders and other non-central people in the church community. People leave churches all the time for all kinds of reasons, good or bad, so if a discipleship strategy in the local hopes to be sustainable, it needs to rely on a myriad of leaders who have been developed by the discipleship staff of the church to multiply discipleship efforts in the community.

Four Principles, One Strategy

These are the four principles of an effective discipleship strategy that we work to help churches implement through Rooted Network. Intentionality gives our discipleship direction. Specificity gives it clarity. Experience gives it depth. Sustainability gives it longevity. Which of the four is the weakest in your church? How might you need to grow and improve?

Reach out to one of our Rooted Network coaches for a completely free coaching conversation to help discern how you can grow and set a trajectory to do it!

You may wonder: why does a discipleship experience like Rooted come with a covenant like this? Further, why should leaders treat it as more than just a formality or some kind of symbolic gesture of privacy?

What the Covenant Actually Asks of Rooted Participants

The Rooted Covenant makes two primary asks of participants:

1. Keep all conversations in the group confidential.

2. Attend all sessions and actively participate in discussions.

The two components are related, of course. Let’s briefly explore them and why they are integral to Rooted and its role in church discipleship efforts.

Confidentiality Provides Fertile Soil for Honesty

Rooted participants are asked to maintain confidentiality regarding the group discussion to provide a sense of safety for everyone involved. Sharing sin, difficult life experiences, and other sensitive topics are core to the Rooted experience, and participants are more likely to share if there is some expressed willingness to not let whatever is shared leave the group.

It is important for group members to know that their personal struggles and life experiences won’t become coffee shop conversation fodder or be held against them in some way by others who hear about what they shared in their Rooted group. A commitment to confidentiality helps provide the feeling of security people need to share as much as they’re able.

Commitment to Consistency Creates the Trust Required for Community

It’s hard to build relationships with people who are inconsistent, flaking out on plans or not responding to text messages. It’s especially difficult to have vulnerable, deep conversations in a group setting whose members only show up a couple weeks out of the month.

Before we share the hard parts of our lives with people, we understandably want to have laid some relational foundation first—this can really only happen with lots of time together. In order for us to have the time we need with others to develop trusting relationships in our Rooted groups, we need to commit to consistently showing up, week after week. As we share our stories and testimonies throughout our Rooted experiences, it’s important that we show up to hear what everyone has to say, honoring them and what they share.

Of course, life happens and some people will miss group gatherings. But if a group member knows he or she will miss more than two weeks of the group ahead of time, they should be encouraged to join the next time a Rooted session is held.

Why “Covenant” and Not “Agreement” or Something Else

The Rooted Covenant is not meant to be some kind of cold contract that group members begrudgingly sign out of obligation. The whole purpose is for it to serve as a promise of commitment and confidentiality, a promise that is made to other members of the group. Our God is a covenant-making God. He makes and keeps promises to us in loving relationship, not as a matter of “policy.”

We want the Rooted Covenant to carry this same kind of relational meaning. Policies are for jobs and governments. This is a covenant meant to make a promise and establish expectations for a loving relationship.

How to Handle the Rooted Covenant in Your Groups

For practical reasons, it is good to walk through the Rooted Covenant and the importance of it at the first group meeting—what good is a conversation about the importance of consistency and confidentiality in week five?—but it is also good not to be pushy about it.

It is likely that some members of your Rooted groups weren’t aware of the Rooted Covenant when they signed up. So take some time in the first week your group meets to walk through the Rooted Covenant and why it is important, but don’t feel the need to have everyone sign it before they walk out the door that night. If a group member needs to think or pray on it before the next meeting, that’s fine. Perhaps someone will want to talk through the covenant more specifically with a group leader—great! The key here is: handle the Rooted Covenant early, but be gracious about it.

Likewise, if a member breaks the covenant and it is clear that confidentiality has been broken or consistency is not a priority, group leaders should address this with grace while maintaining the expectations outlined in the covenant.

With the sort of vulnerability that comes with experiencing Rooted, it is good for groups to set some expectations that care for the members of the group and till the soil for real discipleship to happen. That’s the goal of the Rooted Covenant and the role that it plays in our groups.

What’s more, your faith story is ongoing. God is continually forming all His children into the image of Jesus, and He’s using all your experiences to move you in that direction. All the pain, difficulty, and blessings you’ve experienced are being used by God, and that means your story goes on.

As Christians, we have a responsibility to not only remember and understand our stories, but also to share them with other people. Sharing our stories isn’t an exercise in self-promotion; instead, it’s actually a regular rhythm that all Christians should be engaged in.

Here are three reasons why Christians should regularly and unashamedly share their stories:

1. Because Others Need to Hear Them

The world around us is suffering from a deficit of hope. People are quietly feeling the weight of their circumstances, wondering if anyone else has ever felt the way they do. When we remain silent about what God has done, we are furthering the problem. Remember Paul’s words:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Our story of how God has faithfully met us in a season of difficulties are meant to be shared. They might be the lifeline someone else needs. In their pain, people don’t need a polished theological lecture; they need someone to say, “I was in the same darkness, and let me tell you how Jesus met me there.” Your story validates someone else’s struggle while pointing them to the Savior.

2. Because We Need to Hear Them

Yes, we share our stories for the sake of others. They need to hear them. But we also share our stories for our own sake. When we share our stories out loud with others something profound happens within our own hearts. Sharing our stories cements our own faith.

There is a spiritual truth found in how we invest our time and words: our hearts follow our investment. When you take time to look back at your faith story, tracing the hand of God through it and then articulate His faithfulness, you are taking an active role in renewing your own mind.

We are incredibly forgetful people. When a new crisis hits, our immediate reaction is to panic as if God has never delivered us before. We look at our bank accounts, family strains, or health diagnosis and assume God has left us. But when we regularly speak our stories, we are forcing ourselves to remember. We are reminding ourselves of God’s past faithfulness and using it to fuel our trust in Him in the present.

3. Because We Can’t Help It

Finally, Christians share their stories because they simply can’t keep them to themselves. When we have truly encountered the living God, silence is not an option. Think about Peter and John in the Book of Acts. They were dragged before the religious elite, threatened with imprisonment, and commanded to not speak in the name of Jesus again. Their response is telling:

“As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

When we witness something amazing, we tell someone else. We don’t have to be commanded; praise overflows naturally from enjoyment. When we grasp the immensity of God’s goodness and what Jesus has done on our behalf, our stories will spill out of us in the workplace, at the dinner table, and in our neighborhoods. We share because we are overcome with gratitude in who God is and what He has done.

Sharing your story doesn’t require a stage. It happens in the ordinary, mundane moments that God redeems into gospel-laden opportunities. So look back at your life this week. Call to mind the ways God has sustained you. And find someone to tell.

Today I want to share with you five responsibilities of every small group leader. I learned the importance of these responsibilities the last decade or so, even if I didn’t fulfill all of them perfectly. Of course fruitful small group ministry can happen without fulfilling every single one of these responsibilities perfectly, but these responsibilities are solid pillars that can serve as support columns for effective small group ministry.

1. Pray for your group daily.

We must not look over the importance of praying for our small groups! I get it. It’s so easy to get into rhythms and routines of life that sometimes make it feel like we just stumble from one commitment to the next. I’ve been there, trust me. But we have to remind ourselves that leading a small group is not simply a one-night-per-week commitment. Leading a small group is a commitment that really permeates our everyday lives.

However and whenever you pray, make it a point to pray for your small group amid your other prayers. Take prayer requests at group each week. Pray together during group. Add specific prayer requests to your own prayers each day. God hears our prayers. He really does. Let’s lead our small groups like we believe that is true. By taking our small group to God in prayer each day, we can feel empowered by the Holy Spirit to lead each week, no matter how we’re feeling as the weekly gathering approaches.

2. Lead the people, not just the gathering.

For a number of years, small group met on Tuesday night. Likewise, in that same period, Tuesday was routinely my busiest day at work. It goes without saying that I would often roll into small group on Tuesday night mentally exhausted and interested in doing almost anything except leading a gathering of people to have intentional conversations about faith and life.

Have you ever felt this way? I’m sure you have at least once, if you lead a small group.

Eventually I came to recognize that it was my responsibility to lead the people in the group as much as it was my responsibility to lead the group gathering. Of course, a robust group gathering is important for discipleship, but I became a better small group leader when I started to see Tuesday nights as an opportunity to love and lead individual people instead of another opportunity to organize a gathering.

As you lead, consider each individual person in your group. What are their hurts? What are their doubts? How might they need to hear the gospel afresh? Asking questions like this can help fight back the dread that can sometimes come with the prospect of leading each week in seasons of busyness and stress.

3. Create space for change, not just conversation.

Having regular, meaningful conversations with trusted friends is one of the most wonderful benefits that comes with being part of a small group of any kind. In our day of constant internet connection, deep interpersonal connection can sometimes feel scarce. But while we are encouraged, sharpened, and convicted through intentional conversation, we shouldn’t stop there. This conversation should till the soil for real, gospel change, rooted in the goodness and grace of God.

We are not saved because we live differently, but when we know we have been saved, we should live differently! This requires change. It requires us to recognize where we fall short of Christlikeness, how we sin, and how we can repent, turning from what we want and embracing what God has for us. This change is best done in community, not alone. We should create space in our groups for this kind of change.

4. Develop your replacement.

Developing new leaders in our groups matters both for replacement and multiplication.

All leadership is interim leadership. The sooner we leaders learn this, the better, regardless of whether we’re leading as unpaid volunteers or paid staff members. When we recognize all leadership is interim leadership, we shouldn’t be driven to some kind of discouragement, thinking our leadership is inconsequential. Rather, we should take hold of the opportunity we’ve been given by God to lead while also keeping an eye on others we could develop to take our place when the time inevitably and eventually comes for us to step aside.

Multiplication is a cause for celebration, and multiplying our groups requires leaders to be developed. Leadership development only happens with intentionality and the specific discipleship of individuals, even outside of the weekly group setting.

If our discipleship ministry is going to reach as many people as possible, our small group leaders need to be developing people to replace them or to be sent out to start new groups.

5. Point your group to look beyond itself.

One of the bigger temptations of small group leadership is to focus so much on the dynamics and needs of the group itself and the people in it that we neglect turning our groups’ eyes toward people, needs, and other opportunities beyond the group. Some groups are either so large or so full of brokenness and other ministry needs that it can be hard to think outside the group, and that’s understandable, of course. But if and when we’re able, as small group leaders, it is good for us to find ways for us to lead our groups to think beyond the bounds of the group.

What does this look like?

One clear way to do this is to find a way for your group to serve your community. Our church assigned each small group a teacher at a local school that had serious material needs. So each year, every small group in our church had the opportunity to provide school supplies and fulfill other needs in their classroom and throughout the school as a whole. That’s just one example.

However you can, try to find a way to get your group to think outside the walls of the group, serving the community or otherwise ministering to people.

The Bottom Line

Being a small group leader is wonderful, and it can be difficult, often all at the same time. For small group leaders, the bottom line is this: let’s show up for our groups each week to share about and show the love of Christ to people. We will not be able to fulfill all of these responsibilities at all times, to be sure, but at the very least we can show up and love them like Jesus.

And yet there ARE mistakes we can make when we come to worship. These mistakes have little to do with how many or what type of instruments are on the stage but instead are reflections of our hearts as we enter the sanctuary. Worship, after all, is the foundational rhythm of the Christian life. It is the response of a created being to the glory of the Creator. But because of our sin, we can turn that sacred act of communal worship into something… less. Here are three common mistakes that do just that.

1. We Treat Worship Like a Consumer Experience

We live in a culture dictated by preferences. We curate our playlists, customize our coffee orders, and stream only the shows that match our interests. And if we’re not careful, we can bring this same mentality into the church.

When we evaluate a worship service based purely on whether we “liked” the song selection, or whether the volume was just right, or whether the style moved us emotionally, we are badly misjudging what brought us together. We have positioned ourselves as the audience—consumers of religious goods.

In worship, we are not the audience—God is.

When Paul instructed the Colossians to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” the ultimate goal was gratitude in their hearts to God (Col. 3:16). When we shift from asking “What did I get out of this?” to “What did I give to God?”, our posture changes. There is a reason it’s called a “worship service.” Worship is not a product to be consumed; it is an offering to be poured out.

2. We Confuse Emotionalism with the Holy Spirit

God created us to be emotional beings. Music, truth, and the community of others naturally stir our affections, and it is entirely right to feel deeply during worship. But the mistake happens when we equate the height of our emotional experience with the depth of our worship.

We often fall into the trap of thinking that if we didn’t “feel it,” then the Holy Spirit wasn’t moving. Conversely, church leaders can easily manufacture some kind of emotional high through the lighting, song transitions, and even lyrics in order to bring about that feeling. But feelings are not the same as spiritual transformation.

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that true worshipers must worship “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). True worship is anchored in the unchanging truth of who God is and what He has done, not the fluctuating state of our feelings. So while emotions are a wonderful, if occasional, product of worship, they are a terrible foundation for it. We must seek God Himself, not just an emotional experience.

3. We Separate Sunday Singing from Monday Living

Perhaps the most common mistake we make is compartmentalizing our worship. We view worship as a specific event that happens in a specific building during a specific hour of the week. We sing about the gospel and pledge ourselves to following Jesus on Sunday morning, but then live quite differently just a few hours later.

The prophet Amos delivered a stinging rebuke from God to the Israelites about this disconnect: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals… Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river…” (Amos 5:21, 23-24). God rejected their music because their lives didn’t match their lyrics.

Paul, too, emphasized this point. He urged the Roman Christians “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Rom. 12:1). The songs we sing on Sunday are meant to be the catalyst for the lives we live on Monday. Gathering with the church is vital, but it is meant to fuel a lifestyle of obedience. If our worship doesn’t impact how we treat our coworkers, spend our money, or love our neighbors, then it isn’t truly worship. It’s a performance.

And yet there is grace. God knows us inside and out. He knows we are prone to this consumer-driven mentality and tendency to compartmentalize. So the next time you find yourself waiting for worship to begin, take a moment to pause. Examine your heart. Remind yourself that the King of the universe is in the room, and confess your lack to Him. And then sing with everything you have.

Praying for your pastors and lay church leaders can be one of the most transformative ways you contribute to the ministry of your own church. If you aren’t sure exactly how to pray, here are nine ways to pray for the people who help lead in your local church, whatever that leadership looks like:

1. Pray for endurance.

It is so tempting to quit when ministry gets difficult. Pastors and church leaders need help as they resist this temptation.

Pray that God would provide a holy endurance, free of bitterness or resentment, so that your pastors and church leaders can continue, clinging to Christ, when the heartbreak or pain seems insurmountable.

2. Pray for a guarded heart amid criticism.

Pastors and church leaders must live with their hearts on their sleeves, to some extent—emotional and personal vulnerability comes with the territory of ministry leadership. Without it, church leaders can be cold and standoffish, which isn’t conducive to heartfelt gospel ministry. But this necessary vulnerability leaves pastors and church leaders open to criticism and negativity of many kinds.

Pray that God would help your leaders have open hearts, ready to love, but guarded by the Holy Spirit against unwarranted criticism.

3. Pray for wisdom in hard decisions.

Church leaders, especially those who are on staff at the local church, are often faced with difficult decisions that impact the future of the ministry or the personal lives of those who are a part of it.

Pray that God would give your church leaders clarity where the right decisions seems murky and peace for whatever comes after.

4. Pray against comparison.

It’s so easy for ministry leaders to play the comparison game, wondering what it would be like to have a nicer facility or a sanctuary overflowing with people on the weekends. This is a natural temptation for pastors, but that doesn’t make it good.

Pray that God would help your church leaders not compare the work God is doing through them to the other ministry work going on in your community. Ministry is not meant to be a competition. We’re all working for the same King, pointing people to the same kingdom.

5. Pray for peace in conflict.

Ministry requires us to confront some of the brokenness that seeps into the lives of people we care about deeply. The beauty of the gospel is not compatible with sin, and so when pastors and church leaders have to confront sin and its effects, conflict is near at hand.

Pray that God would help your pastors and church leaders navigate that inevitable conflict with grace and love, and that they would find assurance in God’s goodness and the truth of the gospel, even amid hard conversations with people they dearly love.

6. Pray for soul-deep rest.

Many pastors and church leaders don’t realize how exhausted they are until it’s too late and they’re faced with burnout, trying to find the closest exit ramp out of ministry and maybe even out of the church altogether.

Pray for God to open your church leaders’ eyes to their exhaustion before burnout hits, and ask that God would give them a way to step out to rest without tapping out of ministry entirely.

7. Pray for faith when people aren’t showing up.

When pastors see empty seats week after week, discouragement isn’t often far behind. For many pastors, this isn’t a matter of wanting to be “successful” or “popular” so much as it is a desire to steward their ministry and its resources well.

Pray that God would give your pastors peace for when it seems like people aren’t showing up, and that God would remind them that their weekly faithfulness matters more than their church’s weekly attendance.

8. Pray for courageous leadership.

Ministry can be scary, especially when a desire to lead with the compassion and love of Christ collides with the realities of brokenness and sin in the life of the church and the broader community. Church leadership is certainly not for the faint of heart—it is for the heart that is totally reliant on the goodness and grace of God.

Pray that God would give your ministry leaders courage to have the hard conversations and make the difficult decisions. Pray also that he would remind them of His love and care.

9. Pray for fresh vision, rooted in truth.

Amid the daily and weekly grind of church leadership, with heads down preparing sermons or scheduling kids’ ministry volunteers, it is far too easy for church leaders to lose their vision for the future. The wonder of ministry can evaporate without notice or warning.

Pray that God would help your pastors and church leaders not lose hold of vision, always keeping one eye to the future, beholding the wonder of what God has done and what God may yet do.

Prayer Works—Let’s Act Like We Believe It

James 5:16 reminds us, “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”

Likewise, Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:10-11:

He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.

It is good and right to pray for our pastors and church leaders. They are encouraged by it, God is honored through it. We may never know the degree to which our prayers are answered, but that doesn’t make them any less effective or worthy to be prayed.

A lot of churches, and Christians, default to a mode of Christian discipleship that looks more like church-based information transfer than whole-life transformation. But knowledge alone doesn’t produce Christlikeness and a love for neighbors, and a weekly sermon or small group spiritual session are helpful, but by themselves they can struggle to compete with the routines and rhythms of everyday life that, themselves, disciple us, forming us into some kind of image.

Christian discipleship must be regular—a daily practice—and one of the ways it can be regular is if it is rhythmic.

Why Should Discipleship Be Rhythmic?

You’ve likely heard the aphorism, “You are what you eat.” Of course, this is not literally true—the man who eats only donuts will not himself turn into a donut. The point of the saying is to say that what you eat has a direct impact on your health, and that much is true. In a similar vein, you could coin a new saying, “You are what you do.”

In her book The Writing Life, Annie Dillard writes:

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.

If we aren’t careful to guard our time and create some structure for ourselves, we can quickly find ourselves on our heels, when life is just happening to us, and we’re constantly reacting to whatever comes our way. Schedules defend us from chaos. Rhythms help shape life into meaning. Rhythms and schedules can feel restrictive—or in a spiritual sense, sometimes legalistic—but it is in the restriction of rhythms and schedules that we feel freedom and can experience growth. This is “discipline,” not in the punitive sense, but in the training sense.

It’s like Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, “But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths. Rather, train yourself in godliness. For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

If we want to do the hard work of becoming more like Jesus, repenting of sin often and choosing wholeness in God, it will require some measure of discipline on our part. And attaching to rhythms of life can be a helpful way to grow in the discipline required for discipleship.

At Rooted Network, we’ve identified seven rhythms of discipleship present in the early church. Here are the seven rhythms of discipleship that make an appearance in Acts 2:

1. Daily Devotion (Acts 2:42, 46)

2. Prayer (Acts 2:42)

3. Repentance (Acts 2:37-39)

4. Sacrificial Generosity (Acts 2:44-45)

5. Serve the Community (Acts 2:44-45

6. Share Your Story (Acts 2:14-36)

7. Worship (Acts 2:26-28, 46-47)

Let’s briefly explore these seven rhythms in a bit more detail.

Rhythm #1: Daily Devotion

Acts 2:42, 46 say:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts

What is Daily Devotion? Daily devotion is a daily rhythm of reading, meditating on, and applying God’s Word to our lives.

What does Daily Devotion look like? It looks like finding time to read Scripture every day, thinking about it, journaling about it, or otherwise finding ways to apply it to life.

Why does Daily Devotion matter? We cannot follow a God we do not know. God wants to be in relationship with us, and in order for us to love and follow God, we need to know Him.

Check out our five-week study on Daily Devotion.

Rhythm #2: Prayer

Acts 2:42 says (again):

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

What is Prayer? Prayer is engaging God in conversation—sharing our hearts with Him and spending time listening to His voice, both individually and in community.

What does Prayer look like? It looks like regular time set aside to talk with God, praying with others in groups and gatherings, and pausing to listen, not just presenting requests.

Why does Prayer matter? Communication is one of the most important elements in any relationship. A relationship with God without prayer is like a friendship without conversation. Without it, it can’t grow.

Check out our five-week study on Prayer.

Rhythm #3: Repentance

Acts 2:38 says:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

What is Repentance? Repentance is taking inventory of our lives with the Holy Spirit’s help, humbly and honestly confessing our sin, and turning away from it toward God in surrender.

What does Repentance look like? It looks like ongoing self-examination, honest confession to God and trusted believers, and choosing to turn—not just once at salvation, but continually throughout life as a Christian.

Why does Repentance matter? Through Jesus’ offer of forgiveness we receive true freedom. Without repentance, faith is hollow; with repentance, we live in the grace that saved us.

Check out our five-week study on Repentance.

Rhythm #4: Sacrificial Generosity

Acts 2:44-45 say:

Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.

What is Sacrificial Generosity? Sacrificial generosity is acknowledging that all we own has been given to us by God and using our resources as a tangible way to partner with Him in His work.

What does Sacrificial Generosity look like? It looks like giving that costs something—money, time, possessions—offered to meet needs in the church and the world.

Why does Sacrificial Generosity matter? Giving demonstrates our dependence on God. We are blessed to be a blessing, and generosity keeps our hearts anchored to Him rather than to what we own.

Check out our five-week study on Sacrificial Generosity.

Rhythm #5: Serve the Community

Acts 2:32 says:

God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this.

What is Serving the Community? Serving is sharing God’s love by participating in the ministry of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in both the church and the world.

What does Serving the Community look like? It looks like using your gifts wherever there’s a need—inside the church and out in your neighborhood, workplace, and city.

Why does Serving the Community matter? God has given us agency with Him to fearlessly influence our society and the world. When we serve, we impact those around us and reveal God’s glory.

Check out our five-week study on Serving the Community.

Rhythm #6: Share Your Story

Acts 2:42, 46 say:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts

What is Sharing Your Story? Sharing your story is telling others what God has done in your life as a way of introducing them to the transforming power and salvation offered through Jesus.

What does Sharing Your Story look like? It looks like ordinary conversations—with neighbors, coworkers, friends—where you tell your story of transformation, no theology degree required.

Why does Sharing Your Story matter? The greatest gift we can give someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus is an introduction to Him. When we tell our stories of transformation, we tell the story of God.

Check out our five-week study on Sharing Your Story.

Rhythm #7: Worship

Acts 2:46-47 say:

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

What is Worship? Worship is consistently setting aside time to remember what God has done, thank Him for it, and put Him on display as we give Him the glory.

What does Worship look like? It looks like praise woven into everyday life—gratitude, singing, remembering God’s faithfulness—not just an hour on Sunday.

Why does Worship matter? In all circumstances we are called to practice God-centered worship. Worship reorders our hearts, keeping God—not our circumstances—at the center.

Check out our five-week study on Worship.

Transformative Discipleship Requires Discipline

Please don’t see these rhythms as some kind of checklist full of boxes to tick so that we might earn God’s love or favor. That’s not how this works at all! That’s not how our relationship with our Father works, nor is it how growing in Christlikeness works.

These rhythms are meant to be hand-holds that we grab on to throughout the routines of everyday life so that we might grow in intimacy with God and into the likeness of Jesus. Importantly, these rhythms are best practiced in community; they are not meant to be practiced alone and in isolation.

What rhythms are you holding onto as you walk with Christ? What rhythms seem difficult or foreign to your journey of faith? Check out our Rooted Rhythms Collection to dive more deeply into any of these rhythms, in community, over five weeks of study.

So what makes the difference? It’s not usually the curriculum or the fact that the leader has a theology degree. Instead, the most effective small group leaders are those who realize that their job isn’t to deliver a flawless lesson but instead to create an environment for spiritual growth to happen. Groups like that can happen through a few intentional practices. Here are three of them that the most effective small group leaders understand:

1. Effective leaders open their lives, not just their living rooms.

It’s no small thing to open your living room. That, in and of itself, is an act of sacrifice. But just opening the front door is different than practicing biblical hospitality.

The most effective small group leaders understand that hospitality is a reflection of the gospel itself. Think about it: in a massive display of divine grace, God opened up the door to a bunch of strangers and enemies and gave us a home. In His family. He did this by opening His very life to us.

Leaders who understand this choose to not just share their resources but share themselves. They model vulnerability and share their own struggles. They admit when they don’t have all the answers and let people see their actual lives. When that happens, group members feel safe to do the same.

2. Effective leaders guard the truth but gently steer the conversation.

An effective small group leader must be committed to the truth of Scripture… full stop. The group isn’t primarily there to share opinions but to submit itself together to the authority of God’s Word. At the same time, the most effective leaders understand that truth is best internalized not when it’s spoon-fed to the group, but when the group members arrive at that truth themselves.

When someone asks a tough question or shares a thought that is theologically off-base, an ineffective leader rushes to correct them and save the day. Effective leaders do not shy away from the truth, but they also ask follow-up questions. They invite the rest of the group to jump in and process together. They understand that their primary role is to facilitate a conversation.

Yes, there are times when the effective leader must take charge and offer gentle correction and provide a firm answer. But that same leader has the wisdom to see where the conversation is going and, when possible, allow it to get there on its own.

3. Effective leaders lead the group outside of the group night.

The weekly meeting is important, but it should also be the beginning. The most effective leaders know that the real work of community and discipleship often happens in the spaces between the meetings.

If a leader only interacts with the group members during the designated group time, then the leader is just running a meeting not developing a community of faith. Great leaders intentionally build relational equity during the week. They send quick text messages to check in on prayer requests. They grab a cup of coffee with a member who seemed quiet or burdened during the last discussion. They view leadership as an everyday lifestyle rather than a weekly chore.

There are certainly more practices that make group leaders effective. But starting with these three goes a long way. Leaders who do these things will find themselves shepherding, and not just leading. They will be growing alongside their people into the life in Christ God desires for us all.

Simply put, a church with a discipleship culture is a church in which it is normal for church leaders to equip church members to help one another follow Jesus and tell others about Him. But what does it even look like for a church to have a “discipleship culture” in the day-to-day, week-by-week ministry of the local church in its community?

Church culture cannot be created solely from the stage during weekend services. Culture requires the active participation of the whole church community. Here are five common markers of a healthy local church discipleship culture:

1. People talk about their faith without prompting.

In a discipleship culture, conversations about faith are normal, not awkward. A church with a discipleship culture is a church whose people get together at local coffee shops to share thoughts on Scripture, or stop to pray for one another when they bump into each other at the grocery store.

In a church culture that relies solely on programming for discipleship, spiritual conversations are more commonly reserved for weekend services and midweek gatherings. The danger in this culture is that matters of faith are compartmentalized and kept from seeping into the real lives of people outside the church walls.

A church with a real discipleship culture sees church members living out the call of Hebrews 10:24 to “spur one another on to love and good deeds” in everyday living, not just at Bible study.

2. Church members disciple other church members.

Perhaps one of the most common misunderstandings in the local church is that ordinary church members go to church to be discipled by the pastors, who are the ones actually paid to do the work of discipleship.

This is wrong!

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-16:

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head ​— ​Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Pastors and church leaders have been given to the church to equip the saints—that’s all Christians—for the work of ministry. Pastors and church leaders are not supposed to do all the disciple-making, but equip the people in their churches “to build up the body of Christ.”

A church with a discipleship culture gets this, and it shows when church staff are equipping church members to help other church members follow Jesus and tell others about Him.

3. Rhythms take precedence over events.

Any kind of culture, discipleship or otherwise, is built through repeated, sustainable practices, or rhythms of life. The kind of culture we create in our homes works this way. The kind of culture we create in our workplaces is built this way. The kind of culture we establish in our local churches comes about in this way.

Events create moments, which can be powerful and transformative. Rhythms create disciples who sustain the momentum of those moments for a lifetime of following Jesus. Some rhythms of discipleship include prayer, daily devotion, and worship.

If you canceled your next big church event, would discipleship still happen? How? In what ways is your church equipping people to maintain rhythms of discipleship amid the often-unpredictable rhythms of everyday life?

4. People regularly share stories of life change—in themselves and others.

In a discipleship culture, stories of transformation abound, and, ideally, they are shared regularly in a diversity of settings—not just reserved for baptism services. As many have said in different contexts over the years: you cultivate what you celebrate. When we celebrate stories of life change—whatever they look like—we till the soil for more life change to happen.

How long has it been since your church has received and shared a story of transformation outside of a video preceding a baptism? Do your small groups share stories of life change? What could it look like for your church to weave stories of life change into the regular rhythms of church life outside of the Sunday morning service?

Of course in order to share stories of life change with one another, we need to first actually experience life change, which may not be happening if the previous actions aren’t happening in our churches.

5. Leaders develop leaders.

Finally, we can’t forget the importance of leadership development in the local church—especially with regard to fostering a discipleship culture. Healthy cultures multiply leaders. Ground leaders raise up apprentices. Disciples make disciples. All leadership is interim leadership, and that is true for everyone from the senior pastor to the person checking kids into the children’s ministry on Sunday morning. In order to foster a flourishing culture of discipleship that sees and shares stories of transformation, leaders must develop more leaders.

Feel the Rhythm

A discipleship culture is created and sustained by Christians who embody Hebrews 10:24 and its author’s call to “spur one another on to love and good deeds.” A discipleship culture must be established and embodied by church leaders—staff or volunteers—but it cannot stop there. It must overflow down to anyone and everyone involved in the local church.

The hard work of establishing a discipleship culture does not happen overnight. It is built by incorporating rhythms and systems into the life of the local church that encourage people to make their faith their own and walk alongside others who want to follow Jesus more closely.

The 7 Rhythms of Discipleship practiced in Rooted are not new. In fact, they are the rhythms the church has practiced to grow in discipleship since the foundation of the church. And these rhythms, as recorded in Acts 2, are still bearing fruit today. Thousands of years old and still bearing fruit, talk about a successful track record!

Why is Rooted Built on Acts 2?

Because what the early church practiced in Acts 2 still works. Experiencing and growing in the rhythms of daily devotion, prayer, repentance, sacrificial generosity, serving the community, sharing our story and worship still works today to shape people to grow more in love with Jesus and to live more like Him.

Why do these ancient practices still work?

3 Reasons the Rhythms of Acts 2 Still Bear Fruit

1. Acts 2 is not a strategy; it’s a Spirit-formed rhythm.

Acts 2 is not a church growth plan with boxes to check. Acts 2 is what happens when people actually encounter Jesus and submit to His way of life rhythmically. These rhythms are areas every Christ follower can, and should, continue to grow in throughout the entirety of their life.

2. Acts 2 prioritizes depth over size.

Acts 2:47 tells us that the early church added to their number daily those who were being saved. The early church experienced exponential growth—but notice this: the early church grew numerically because people were growing in discipleship. The focus was on discipleship, not size. There is a cause and effect at play here. The church growing numerically was the natural outcome of the church growing in depth.

3. Acts 2 makes discipleship experiential, not just informational.

The early church learned in a hands-on, experiential manner. This wasn’t a classroom-only setting, this was a “now go do these things and grow” setting. This was life-on-life learning, not just content transfer. At Rooted Network, we believe that life change happens at the intersection of information and experience. How many of our discipleship efforts today are based only on information and study, as opposed to experience and practice?

What All of This Means for Your Church

It means that small groups now become the front line of discipleship—not an add-on program. By launching small groups through the 10-week Rooted experience, we are practicing the same model of discipleship the early church practiced. By beginning groups with the 7 Rhythms of Discipleship, we are focusing on depth first, and growth, friendship and connection are always natural outcomes of a discipleship plan focused on depth as the starting point.

One Final Thought

When it comes to the important charge of discipling our people, let’s look for something tested and proven—something with a successful track record. A track record thousands of years old, practiced since the very foundation of the church.

It’s an absurd illustration, but perhaps not too far off from what happens in the local church. We look at the volunteer gaps and know those gaps have to be filled. And suddenly, we’re just looking for anyone with a pulse who can stand in a room. We are so focused on filling the need that we don’t even consider whether the person is actually gifted—or prepared—for the role.

While we might actually fill out the volunteer roster like this, we are missing the fact that volunteering in ministry is a significant step in discipleship. Serving in the church is not just a way to keep the church organization from breaking down; it’s the pathway God intends for every Christian to live out their gifts from the Holy Spirit.

If you find your church is constantly on the search to find willing volunteers, it’s possible you might be leaning towards recruiting warm bodies instead of helping people take their next step in discipleship. To that end, here are seven common mistakes churches make when recruiting volunteers:

1. Recruiting Out of Guilt Instead of Vision

We’ve all heard—and probably made—the desperate stage announcement that sounds like this: “If two more people don’t sign up for the preschool ministry, we will have to shut the class down next Sunday.”

While that might work in the short term, guilt is a terrible motivator. The shift here is to stop telling people what will happen if they don’t serve and start painting a picture of what happens when they do. You aren’t just looking for babysitters; you’re inviting people to plant the seeds of the gospel in the next generation.

2. Asking for a Lifetime Commitment

Many times people don’t volunteer because they don’t know the parameters. They feel like once they’re in, they’ll never be able to get out, and so they say “no” to protect their family calendar. Instead, we can give people an exit strategy. We should recruit them for a specific season and let them know that at the end of their term, they can cleanly step down, take a break, or renew their commitment. Clear boundaries like these provide freedom.

3. Lowering the Bar Too Much

Sometimes we are so desperate to find help that we make the job as easy as possible. But in our efforts to clear the hurdles for service we actually make it less appealing, because we are unintentionally communicating that the role is unimportant. High-capacity people don’t want to give up their free time to something that requires nothing of them. Don’t be afraid to have high standards, and to be up front about them. People very often rise to the challenge set for them.

4. Relying Strictly on Stage Announcements

Yes, it’s necessary to talk about opportunities from the stage. But if that’s the only way we tell people, everyone can assume that someone else is going to do the job. As ministry leaders, we can’t be afraid to directly and personally challenge people to serve. When we do, it’s an opportunity to call out and affirm specific giftings you see in them.

5. Forgetting to Train and Equip

There’s nothing more frustrating than stepping up to help and then being left to figure it out completely on your own. When we dump volunteers into a role without clear instructions or tools, we set them up to fail. The shift here is to prioritize onboarding. Before a volunteer ever steps into a role, give them a simple, clear guide on what success looks like. Then check on them during their first few weeks to offer support and answer questions.

6. Treating Volunteers Like Free Labor Instead of Disciples

Volunteers are not unpaid labor; they are sheep under your care. That means their service should be an avenue for their spiritual growth and not a distraction from it. When we recruit volunteers, we should still be mainly concerned about their personal discipleship; we should care more about them than what they produce.

God is not panicking over your empty volunteer slots, so you don’t need to either. Take a step back and examine your process. Don’t just fill slots; form people. When that happens, service stops being an obligation and becomes an opportunity to see God move.

Pastors and church leaders are wise to look at the fall and consider how it may be a fresh start for discipleship efforts. Why? Here are a few reasons.

Reason #1: People Are in a “New Season” Mindset

Churches feel this phenomenon too. Many churches report their highest seasonal attendance and ministry engagement in the fall months as families come back from summers abroad and settle in for the new school year. This new season naturally creates a culture of commitment for people—either commitment to new interests or recommitment to routines and opportunities that waned over the summer.

Other seasons throughout the year have some kind of inertia that makes starting new things hard. Summer is chaotic and often involves a lot of traveling. Winter is full of holidays and, depending on geography, sometimes wintry weather. Spring is often home to endless end-of-year school activities and other opportunities like youth sports. Fall, however, can feel a bit more open—at least at the beginning—and prove to be a solid season of commitment.

Reason #2: Summer Reveals Gaps in Discipleship

Summer can be a difficult ministry season for churches. It can be hard to know, as a church staff, how much to offer and how much to pull back, in comparison to the rest of the year. It’s good to give people a season to not have so much church activity, but at the same time, it’s not like Christians need to stop serving and caring for one another because the schools are out and the weather is warm.

Regardless of what our churches do during the summer, the chaos or inconsistency that usually accompanies the summer months can serve to expose gaps in our discipleship. Summertime can be a good time to zoom out, consider how our churches are equipping people for ministry, and assess where gaps may be. Then, following the season of examination, the fall serves as a fresh opportunity to grow and improve in our discipleship strategies and efforts.

Reason #3: Fall Programming Is a Natural Entry Point

Pastors and church leaders can leverage the fertile soil of openness that many church members feel in the fall season by providing ample opportunities for ministry involvement. Fall is a great time to initiate new small groups, service opportunities, and other programs that may have had to take a break in the summer. Providing plenty of opportunities to get involved is important, while also recognizing that effective discipleship does not always follow in the wake of increased programming.

Be Intentional

Don’t just let fall happen to your church. Use the season and the changes that come with it intentionally and for effective discipleship. What can your church do this fall to plant the seeds of a more effective culture of discipleship?

The same is true in ministry. How often have we set out to accomplish a goal without first finding the right tool to maximize our energy and effectiveness? And how many times have we tried to use a really useful, well-designed tool to accomplish something it simply wasn’t designed to do? Rooted is one of the most practical tools in our discipleship toolbox, as long as we know what Rooted is… and isn’t.

What Rooted Is

1. Rooted Is a Proven Strategy for Launching New Groups and Group Leaders

Rooted is a proven resource for connecting 12–15 people into a group who want to keep meeting after the experience is complete. This happens through ten weeks of discipleship, practicing the rhythms we find the early church living out in Acts 2. There are many great small group resources available, but most of them are designed for existing groups, not for launching new groups and new group leaders for long-term success. When we start groups with discipleship rhythms, friendship and a healthy group are always a natural outcome.

2. Rooted Is the Best First Group Experience for Someone New

How many times have we tried to connect someone new to our church into an existing group, only to watch it go badly? Often, this happens because our groups are doing exactly what we want them to do, they’re growing closer to God and each other. That kind of growth creates history, shared experiences, inside language, and deep chemistry. This is great! But it can make it really hard for someone on the outside to break in. Introducing a new personality can also disrupt the growth dynamic and chemistry of an existing group.

This is why it’s always easier to join a new group that’s launching rather than trying to break into one that’s already established. No matter how friendly and welcoming a group might be, a new person can always feel like an outsider. Rooted answers the question every church needs to be asking: how are we consistently launching new groups where people can connect at the ground level?

3. Rooted Is a Repeatable Discipleship Process

Rooted is designed to be offered once, twice, or even three times a year. As our church grows and God brings new people to us, we need a regularly scheduled, prescribed process to launch these people into new groups. Just like we schedule new-here classes or membership opportunities, we need to schedule Rooted as our process for beginning someone’s discipleship and group experience. It’s not a one-time event, it’s a rhythm.

What Rooted Isn’t

1. Rooted Isn’t Designed to Be Done Alone

Rooted is a tool for the local church to launch new groups and new group leaders. It’s not a study or curriculum meant to be found and completed by individuals for personal growth. Personal study is vital to spiritual growth, but being part of a group adds the accountability and community that ensures growth sticks and goes the distance.

2. Rooted Isn’t a Class

Rooted is a group experience, not a class. The goal is for those leading through Rooted to facilitate conversation and guide experiences, not to teach. We need great teaching in our churches, but Rooted is not the environment for that. Rooted is the environment to live out and practice the rhythms of following Christ together. Trying to turn Rooted into a class will frustrate the leader, frustrate the participants, and fall short of the desired results.

3. Rooted Isn’t a One-and-Done Experience

Rooted is designed to be an ongoing part of a church’s discipleship strategy, something we offer regularly as the way we begin someone’s discipleship journey and launch new groups. Similar to a new-here class or membership process, Rooted is a step for everyone who finds our church and wants to connect. It’s not a one-time initiative we check off the list. It’s an ongoing experience we return to again and again to connect people to God, their church, and their purpose.

One Final Thought

When we use the right tool for the job, it’s amazing what we can build. Rooted is the right tool to begin someone’s discipleship journey, launch new groups, and develop new leaders within our church. Use it well, use it often, and watch what God does!

Learn more about Rooted and try it free with your church here.

Preview Rooted for Free Today

When we feel that need, our first reaction is usually to throw resources at it. So we make more announcements from the stage, make more asks in a newsletter, and put our general calls for volunteers through email. While those actions may be necessary and potentially effective, the dark side of them is that we often end up with leaders who aren’t necessarily gifted and passionate about the role. How, then, can we recruit the right small group leaders for the fall, even at this late stage? Here are three suggestions.

1. Think Character Over Competency.

It would be great if every first time small group leader was a great small group leader. But they’re not. And what’s more, most of them know they’re not. Leading a group can be an intimidating commitment, and many people don’t volunteer because they don’t think they have the right credentials to do so.

When we recruit leaders, we can break through that barriers. We need our people to know that we’re not looking for experts; we are looking for shepherds. We aren’t looking for people who necessarily know all the answers, but instead people who are humble enough to admit they don’t but then walk with others in pursuit of them.

An effective leader doesn’t need to teach a weekly masterclass; they need to facilitate a weekly conversation centered on the Bible. So while it might be easy to restrict your thinking to those people you know have the skills to lead, broaden your vision. Look instead for people with a humble commitment to God’s Word and to others and also exhibit hospitality in their lifestyle. Then assure them that they can learn the skills along the way, with your help.

2. Recruit the Person, Not the Position.

Big pushes from the stage may create awareness, but they don’t necessarily create leaders. When you only make big announcements, it allows people who might be leaders to stay in the crowd and assume someone else will take up the role. True recruitment happens through personal invitation.

Instead of saying, “We need five more small group leaders for our Life Groups,” take someone to coffee. Look them in the eye. Tell them personally, “I have watched how you interact with people in our church, and I think God has equipped you to lead. I want you to consider leading a group this fall.”

When you adopt a personal strategy like this, it makes the conversation less about the church’s need and more about the person’s gifting. You are encouraging and affirming them from the start and calling them to another level of service.

3. Offer Comfort Through a Co-Leader.

Leading a group for an entire year is a big commitment. Often too big for a person to say “yes” to. So instead of asking an individual to be responsible, recruit them instead to be a co-leader. Find an established, healthy leader and ask a new leader to partner with them for just six weeks. Be clear about what you’re asking them to do. Maybe for those six weeks, all the commitment means is managing a prayer request list or handling an icebreaker question.

That’s a much less intimidating role than leading alone. The new leaders understand they don’t have to carry the entire weight alone and they can build the confidence to step into a primary leadership role in the future. Incidentally, if this becomes your regular practice, then you always have a ready pipeline of new leaders ready to step in.

It may be July, but it’s not too late. Now is not the time to panic, but it is the time to be intentional. The leaders are out there—they just might not be in the first place you look.

In 2025, 64% of American Christians believed that “everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God,” which is in direct contradiction to Romans 3:10, 23, and plenty of other Scriptures. Likewise, 53% of American Christians agree with the statement that, “The Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being,” which conflicts with all the Bible says about the personhood of the Holy Spirit (See Ephesians 4:30, 1 Corinthians 2:11, Romans 8:27, and others). This is not good!

In order to worship God, we do first have to know God. In the same way I ought to know my wife before I declare my love for her, we will struggle to truly love and obey God if we do not first know Him. It is so vitally important for us to know information about God, but it is also important for us to understand that discipleship and life change requires more than just knowledge about God.

As Christians, we should know that everyone is not born innocent in the eyes of God and that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a force, but thinking rightly about these important beliefs does not automatically lead to following Jesus more closely and becoming more like Him.

Knowing and Becoming Are Not the Same

As already mentioned, biblical literacy and Christian education are important and perhaps an endangered species in some American churches today, but knowledge alone cannot lead to life change and discipleship. While, clearly, some American Christians could benefit from knowing more, plenty of Christians have fallen for the lie that knowing things about God automatically creates intimacy with God.

From even the earliest days of the Christian faith we see that knowing God and being familiar with Jesus does not lead to true belief and life change. Judas Iscariot knew Jesus as well as just about anybody, and yet he still betrayed Him for a few silver coins. Peter was eventually charged by Christ to help lead the early church, but only after he repented of his repeated denial of Jesus, which happened while he knew plenty about Him.

The teachings of Jesus Christ were surely an important part of His earthly ministry, but hearing His teachings did not create intimacy with Him on its own. In order to be in relationship with God, we must be willing to submit ourselves to Jesus as Lord of our lives and give up control. In order for Christ to be seated on the throne of our hearts, we must first stand up and move out of the way. This can happen in the wake of learning about Jesus, but it does not happen as an automatic result of reading the Bible or hearing it preached. True transformation happens in relationships, in community.

Transformation Happens in Relationships

The author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” We gather together for a purpose: to encourage and provoke one another to live like Christ. We don’t simply gather to learn, but to turn knowledge into Christlikeness and sacrificial love.

When we commit to follow Christ and commit to making Him the Lord of our lives, we are also committing to a life lived in community with other followers of Jesus. The Christian life is not a solo sport. To try to follow Jesus alone would be like taking a football field or basketball court alone and expecting to have a chance against an opposing team—it’s just not how it was designed to be. Trying to follow Christ alone, apart from community, is a similarly irrational effort—it just is not how it was designed to be.

Share the Gospel, Share Life

In 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Paul writes to the believers in Thessalonica, “We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.”

We are meant to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with one another, and we are meant to share life with one another. We must learn about the God we serve and the love He has shown us in Christ, and then we must turn that knowledge into a love for neighbor and for enemy alike.

Mavuno Church in Nairobi, Kenya

Almost 20 years ago, leaders from Mariners Church began a partnership with Pastor Murithi Wanjau and Mavuno Church in Nairobi. What we found in that faith community was a passion to see people encounter God and grow deeper in their relationship with Him and His Church. The passion we saw there ran counter to what we were experiencing in the United States, where we have traditionally relied on theological information as the primary activator for life-change. While information certainly has a place, it should not be the only way the Church invites people to participate in God’s story. Christians in the Western world know a lot of information, but don’t often experience the life transformation promised in Scripture. Something different was happening at Mavuno Church.

During one of our visits there, the people told us about an experience their church family was going through that had been developed by Pastor Murithi. They called it Mizzi, which is Swahili for “roots.” It wasn’t a Bible study, class, or program, and it wasn’t “taught” in the traditional sense. It was a 10-week journey with daily homework that each member of the church went on in community with each other. Groups of men and women would gather each week, and through a study guide and a facilitator, walk through Scripture, discovering and living out God’s purpose for them in their church family and the world.

Mizizi and Transformational Discipleship

The impact of Mizizi on their church was staggering. Thousands of people were discovering for the first time that God loved them specifically and had a beautiful plan for their lives. They learned God has gifted each of them perfectly for His purposes. They learned how to pray and how to unleash the power of His Spirit. They learned about Jesus’ heart for serving the poor, His ability to destroy Satan’s strongholds in their lives, and how He wanted them to steward the material resources He’s given them. And they weren’t only learning these things; they were doing them.

People were reaching their community with the love of Jesus, and their community was changing. Mavuno could hardly keep up with the growth of Mizizi because family members and co-workers who didn’t go to church or have a relationship with Jesus were signing up in droves. They saw their friends and family members’ lives change before their eyes, and they wanted to know why and how it was happening.

We wondered what God might do if we brought Mizizi back home.

So we began working with Pastor Murithi to adapt the Mizizi experience to our culture while keeping the spirit of the original work. As people moved through this experience, it became clear it wasn’t the curriculum that was changing lives—it was God. People came with open hearts, expectant of what God would show them, and He did not disappoint. Relationships were mended, strongholds were broken, and people sensed God’s call to go out and change their communities in ways they never thought they could.

From its beginnings in Kenya, then to southern California, and now to the rest of the world, God continues to use this experience to help people understand what it means to follow Jesus in a whole-hearted fashion. We pray that thousands more churches have the same experience.

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For example, let’s say you come across this problem:

4 + 3 x 2

How do you solve it? Do you move from left to right, and get an answer of 14? Order of operations tells you something else. You start with the multiplication and then move to addition. So the answer to the equation above is actually 10.

It’s confusing because you can’t strictly start from the left and move to the right; instead, you have to skip to multiple places within the equation, and that sometimes means doing things in an order that isn’t strictly linear. Discipleship actually works in the same way, though we don’t typically think it does.

We typically think of discipleship as a linear, left-to-right kind of equation. Here’s the order - we start on the left side with faith and trust in Christ. Next, we add biblical knowledge. Then we bring in spiritual disciplines. And then, when we are mature enough, we move out into the world and begin to serve. But when you look at the pattern established in the gospels and Acts, you don’t find that kind of linear progression, particularly when it comes to service. Instead, you find that service is not the byproduct or aftereffect of spiritual growth; it’s actually the means by which we are being formed into the image of Jesus.

Put another way, service isn’t just the result of discipleship; service is often the means of discipleship.

In the gospels, Jesus chose twelve men to be His disciples. Though they didn’t realize it at the time, these were the men through whom the church would continue into the book of Acts. Jesus, as He discipled them, was training them for this future mission. Jesus did not pull them into a classroom for three years until they reached some level of discipleship, and then sent them out. Instead, Jesus discipled these men in the midst of ministry:

• They learned about compassion while distributing bread to five thousand hungry people.

• They learned about faith while tossing in a storm on a boat.

• They learned about humility while their Master washed the dirt off their feet.

Their spiritual formation didn’t happen before the work; it happened in the work. After all, the core of discipleship is about self-denial. Jesus said that if anyone wanted to follow after Him in discipleship then that person had to die to him or herself. Surely one of the ways that self-denial happens is through serving the community. This is how we actively participate in dying to ourselves, and therefore actively participate in discipleship.

Service, then, is not the effect of spiritual formation; it’s one of the means of spiritual formation. We should not wait either to serve or to provide that opportunity to others. Instead, we should hold up service as a core component of discipleship itself.

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Too often, we Christians are guilty of only remembering the role of repentance at the point of conversion—that time when we first believe the gospel and declare allegiance to Jesus as Lord. When we bind repentance to conversion and only see it as a doorway into the kingdom of God, we miss the glorious role that regular repentance plays in the regular rhythms of following Jesus. We sin often, so we must repent often!

And yet, we neglect repentance. Why? There are likely many reasons, but here are three common reasons we neglect repentance as Christians:

1. We’ve reduced repentance to a moment.

Many Christians have, unfortunately, reduced repentance to an action that only takes place at the time of conversion, but becomes less relevant after the moment of decision. Repentance is rightly seen as the first step of faith, but wrongly often discarded or forgotten after that. For many, repenting of sin after conversion may feel redundant, repetitive, or even backward to some degree, thinking, “Why do I need to repent when I’m already saved?”

To repent is to turn away from sin, and so while we must do this as a first act of obedience to and faith in Jesus, as we continue to sin as followers of Jesus, we must continue to repent as followers of Jesus. We must continually turn away from sin and toward life in Christ. In the letter to the church in Ephesus, we see Jesus calling His followers to repentance. We read this in Revelation 2:5, which says, “Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”

Repentance is a first step to following Jesus and a common step for followers of Jesus in their everyday lives.

2. We’ve confused repentance with shame.

Another reason we neglect repentance is because we have confused repentance with shame. To be honest, the confusion of these is somewhat understandable. When we reckon with our sin, the ways in which we fracture our relationship with God and choose to worship someone or something else, this reckoning can lead to both a decision to repent and a feeling of shame. We come face-to-face with our sin and decide to turn away from it (repent), yet we may also feel a crushing sense of guilt and perhaps embarrassment (shame).

Paul recognizes the common combination of these two when he writes in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.” Likewise, David cries out in repentance in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.”

Obeying the call we have to repent and turn away from sin must not be stopped by the common accompaniment of feelings of shame. When we repent and turn from sin, God meets us with gracious, open arms, welcoming us to His side. It is good and right for our hearts to be broken by our sin, but in response to this heartbreak we are meant to run toward God in repentance not run away from God in shame.

3. We’ve forgotten what repentance produces in us.

Third, and finally, we often neglect repentance because we forget the glorious fruit that comes from it. Repentance costs something, to be sure—it costs us our pride. To repent requires us to admit that we don’t have it all together. It requires us to admit that we still sin despite our faith in a God who saves us from our sin. This cost can be painful, so painful, in fact, that it can blind us to the beauty on the other side of our repentance.

Jesus reminds His listeners in Luke 15:7, “I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.”

Repentance leads to rejoicing in heaven! God is grieved by our pride and revels in our repentance. He knows we sin, so our repentance does not sadden or surprise Him. Rather, our repentance shows Him that our hearts are aligned with His!

The apostle John reminds us in his first letter that God is faithful to respond to our repentance. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Rhythms of Repentance Must Be Modeled

In order for Christians to stop neglecting the vital spiritual rhythm of repentance, they need to see it modeled by their pastors and church leaders. Christians who only see their leaders as perfect spiritual bastions of righteousness will be less likely to admit when they mess up than those Christians who are led by people who acknowledge and turn from their sin.

God honors and rejoices over those who repent. Let’s not neglect repentance out of fear or shame, but lead the way in taking the steps of faith required to trust God with our sanctification and not ourselves.

Leading a small group is a wonderful privilege—my wife and I have done it for the better part of a decade—but it certainly isn’t without its occasional challenges. Nonetheless, it is important to gather together in small groups as the body of Christ so that we can get to know each other, share the love of Christ with one another, and bear the burdens of the group as one.

No doubt, a significant portion of a small group’s value comes from simply gathering together and getting to know each other, but it is good to have intentional discussion around matters of faith, too! After all, this is a church small group we’re talking about and not just a community book club or neighborhood block party.

But how do you actually have healthy discussion in a small group setting? It can be tricky! Here are five ingredients of healthy small group discussion (this is not exhaustive by any means!):

Ingredient #1: Safety That Invites Honesty

Here’s the reality: healthy small group discussion requires some measure of vulnerability for all involved, and vulnerability requires safety. Someone must be able to say to themselves, “I know that I can share this about myself and no one will gossip about or think less of me,” in order for real, healthy small group discussion to happen. Without this feeling of safety there will be no vulnerability, and without vulnerability, the small group will coast around on surface-level topics and never dig deep into matters of the heart and soul.

An understanding of confidentiality and non-judgment are prerequisites for healthy small group discussion. Honest confession and other sensitive discussion will only happen when burdens are carried as a group, not weaponized against one another. As Galatians 6:2 reminds us, “Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Leaders: we must model this vulnerability if we hope to see it in others. Going first here can be scary, to be sure, but it is the cost of being a leader, and it is a cost that should not surprise us.

Ingredient #2: Scripture at the Center

Healthy small group discussion orbits God’s Word, not opinions about current events, political issues, or other matters not central to the mission of the church. Colossians 3:16 is instructive here, when it says, “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another.”

Small groups do all kinds of different Scripture discussion together: some discuss the pastor’s sermon from the week, others study various topics, and others may do some kind of theological study. Regardless of what your small group does together, just know that the discussion will be most healthy when it is centered on Scripture and not other matters. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God’s Word can do a lot of heavy lifting here when the author writes, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword.”

The facilitator’s job is not to be a Bible college professor, but a facilitator of discussion around the scriptures.

Ingredient #3: Questions That Drive Conversation

This ingredient can be one of the trickiest ones to master, and it can take some time for new group leaders to figure it out. Not all discussion questions are created equally. Closed questions or questions that only merit a single-word answer (like yes or no questions) can kill discussion. Open-ended questions can drive a discussion forward. It can be tough for some small group leaders to know the best questions to ask in the moment, especially if the topic at hand is sensitive in some way.

As a small group leader, it is important to heed James’ word when he writes in James 1:19, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Listening is a vital part of keeping discussion going. Likewise, leaders should look to ask “what” or “how” questions, and be willing to embrace silence, no matter how awkward it may feel. It’s also helpful to sometimes to move discussion along by asking someone to elaborate on an answer further, saying, “Tell me more about that.”

This is a tricky art of small group leading, but it is vital!

Ingredient #4: Every Voice in the Room

Many small group leaders know: it can be all-too-easy for just one or two voices to dominate discussion any given night in a small group. I confess: I have probably been this person before. Likewise, I have been a leader in a group like this before, and it can be difficult to navigate—you don’t want to shut anyone down, but you want others to feel free to talk.

Mutual sharpening and support requires mutual participation. Proverbs 27:17 gives us a solid vision for small group ministry, “Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.” This can only happen when everyone participates.

As small group leaders, we can gently re-direct people who talk too much and invite quieter members to participate without putting them on the spot.

Ingredient #5: Real Application for Everyday Life

When our small group discussion only serves as a means of information transfer about the Bible and it doesn’t help people know how to apply the Bible to their everyday lives, it isn’t as effective as it could be. Discussion that ends at insight breeds hearers of the Word, but not doers. James cautions us against this when he writes in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

The author of Hebrews calls us to do more than hear the Word, but to spur one another to live like Christ. He writes in Hebrews 10:24, “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works.”

For small group leaders, one way we can sprinkle this ingredient into our groups is by ending our group time with a question like, “What will you do differently this week because of our discussion on this passage?” or something like that.

You Are Not Alone—Rely on the Holy Spirit!

Perhaps the most important ingredient for effective small group discussion is a leader who knows that the Holy Spirit is in charge, no matter how well or poorly we lead. It is good and right for us to do all we can to sprinkle these ingredients into our small groups and try to be the best leaders we can be, but God doesn’t need us to be awesome. God needs us to rely on the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the people in our groups. So let’s do that, at the very least.

Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change—the reordering of our loves. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life.

If all of this is true about prayer, and it is—praise God—why do Christians so often struggle to pray consistently?

Acts 2:42 lists prayer as one of the practices to which the early followers of Jesus committed themselves, and plenty of other biblical passages make the importance of prayer quite apparent. Prayer is, among other things, the primary means by which we communicate with the God of the universe. It is central to developing and maintaining an intimate relationship with God, keeping us from seeing him as a sort of far-off deity who is not interested in being in relationship with us. In a perfect world, prayer would be the most joyous rhythm of discipleship that requires little convincing. But, it is not so.

So why do Christians so often struggle with prayer? Here are seven common reasons:

1. Many simply don’t know how.

A lot of Christians struggle to pray simply because they fear they don’t know how! We even see the disciples of Jesus grapple with this concern in Luke 11:1, where the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus gives us the Lord’s prayer not to prescribe the only way to pray (see Matt. 6:5-13), but because He knows that being unsure of how to pray can be a real obstacle to relationship with God.

I can speak from personal experience here: as a child growing up in the church and eventually as a believer in my teenage years, I was always timid about praying because I was afraid I wouldn’t “do it right.”

Pastors, church leaders, parents, and anyone else who finds themselves in a position of spiritual leadership and influence are wise to model real prayers, not polished prayers. We can help people who are unsure about how to pray by demonstrating what it’s like to pray in authentic, vulnerable ways with them. We can teach others that God is interested in hearing what is really on our hearts, and that He is unconcerned with our verbosity or profound prayers.

2. Prayer becomes a performance

In giving the Lord’s prayer, Jesus warns against praying “to be seen by people” and “babbling like the Gentiles” (Matt. 6:5, 7). To reiterate a point from above: God is more interested in hearing our authentic selves than He is in being an audience to some kind of prayer performance ladened with spiritual words we think may please Him.

When prayer feels like a performance, a lot of Christians simply opt out. Prayer is meant to be a real, honest, unpolished conversation with a Father who loves us. It is not intended to be a speech for an audience of many or of One.

3. Busyness takes over.

What doesn’t get scheduled can be easily squeezed out. We make time for what we want to have time for, and sometimes the busyness of the day just takes over. Intentionally setting aside time to pray is important, and this intentionality doesn’t have to make it any less intimate.

Jesus built prayer into His daily rhythm. Mark 1:35 says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.” What time should you set aside to pray each day? Is it early in the morning? On your lunch break? Set a reminder in your phone and meet with God consistently and intentionally.

4. Prayer is seen only as a life raft in a crisis.

Of course God hears our prayers amid personal crises and tragedies, but prayer is not meant to be some kind of emergency device we only deploy when we feel powerless and unable to improve our own circumstances. God wants to be in relationship with us, not just fix our problems. First Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray constantly,” and the idea here is to pray throughout our days, no matter what may be going on.

5. Distraction decreases focus.

We are a distracted people. Phones, notifications of all kinds, mental to-do lists, and more take our attention at every turn. Jesus acknowledged this sort of issue generally in Gethsemane when He said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). No matter how much we want to pray, sometimes we are so easily distracted we can’t do so.

Fight distraction by picking a place to pray, putting your phone in another room, and doing something with your hands—like journaling—while you pray. Focus is possible, but it may take some effort.

6. Discouragement takes root.

For some, the struggle with prayer is rooted in discouragement that arrives before answers. Some Christians may try praying, not get the kinds of answers they want from God, and simply conclude prayer “doesn’t work.” Of course it isn’t implicitly wrong for us to want God to answer us in a certain way, so long our desire isn’t in conflict with what God says is good and right. But when we decide whether or not prayer “works” based on the productivity of God rather than the presence of God, we miss some of what makes prayer so wonderful.

Prayer is a means by which we experience the love and fatherhood of God. We ought not use it as some kind of cosmic vending machine or wish-granting mechanism. We can make requests of God, of course, but we must remember this isn’t the core function of prayer.

7. Prayer only happens alone and never in community.

Finally, some Christians can struggle with prayer when it functions only as a matter of personal spirituality and not within the presence of the broader Christian community. Private prayer is good and important, to be sure, but praying together with other Christians can breathe a special kind of energy into our prayer lives.

The early church prayed together, not to impress each other or as a matter of performance, but to encourage one another and turn each other’s eyes to the presence and promises of God. Such should be our practice.

Don’t Give Up!

When prayer is difficult, and especially if we feel some kind of shame because prayer is difficult, it can be so easy to just give up, wondering if God will even really care. We must not give up on prayer! God wants to meet us even in our most poorly-worded, vulnerable prayers. Psalm 62:8 encourages us this way, “Pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge.”

The goal here is not to measure our “success” in prayer by how often we do it or whether or not God gives us what we want. Our primary goal in setting aside time to pray ought to be in seeking the heart of God and talking to Him like we would talk to a Father who loves us deeply and eternally.

If you want to learn more about prayer or you could use some help establishing a more consistent prayer life, check out our Prayer study in the Rooted Rhythms collection.