Your Personalized Disciple Making Makeover

You’re not starting from zero—disciple making is happening, and you’re seeing enough of a gap to pursue clarity and alignment. The most important next step is to make the process simple enough to model and repeat, then ensure it consistently lands in personal application so the fruit becomes visible. As you build a unified pathway that doesn’t feel disruptive, you’ll give leaders and ministries a shared direction they can actually carry together.

Quick Snapshot

Overall Disciple-Making Strength
0 / 35 · Early
Disciple making in your church is happening informally, but it isn’t consistently producing people who go on to disciple others. Scripture engagement is mainly through topical passages, and different ministries are pursuing different approaches without a unified pathway. You also shared low confidence in current outcomes and a real concern from leaders about disrupting existing systems.

What's Working Well

Even with mixed priorities and approaches across ministries, there is some disciple making happening, and there are moments of follow-up outside meetings (even if it’s inconsistent), which is a meaningful foundation to build on. – Leaders are at least somewhat engaged (modeling is mixed, not absent) – Some measurement exists beyond “nothing,” even if it’s partial – There is openness to change because you’re naming the gap and seeking a clearer approach

What May Be Challenging

Right now, the biggest constraints are structural: there isn’t a clear, repeatable method, application is not a consistent focus, and group time tends to stay at general discussion rather than helping individuals apply Scripture personally. In an organization where ministries do different things, those gaps compound—people don’t know what to copy, and reproduction stays rare. – Scripture is present, but primarily topically rather than through a consistent Bible reading plan – Your disciple-making definition has partial clarity, but it’s not clear enough to guide a unified pathway – Holy Spirit reliance is not a consistent part of the process, which can leave disciple making feeling more human-driven than Spirit-led

Why It Matters

When a church lacks a shared, simple process, disciple making tends to depend on a few motivated people instead of becoming a culture others can step into. Because you’re already experiencing low confidence and leaders are concerned about disruption, the path forward needs to be simple, visibly modeled, and easy for ministries to align around without “blowing up” everything they’re doing.

— SEVEN SUCCESS STRATEGIES —

WHAT DOES SUCCESS
LOOKS LIKE?

Contrary to popular belief, the best measure of success is not multiplication because if you multiply immature disciples no one wins. The best measure of success is life change (transformation)—which oddly enough always results in healthy, big multiplication.

Making disciples is a “get to” not a “have to” or “should do.” It’s a natural result of being a mature believer. It’s the BE comes before DO principle. Healthy people do healthy things. Here’s your best measure of disciple-making success,

The disciple does the right things for the right reasons, navigates the unknowns of life, and makes disciples long after your influence fades.

The quickest pathway to  success is to stop making makers and focus on making individual healthy followers.  Jesus did not come to make makers, he helped individuals follow and then called them to make. And the most efficient way to do that is to implement the Seven Success Strategies!

You + The Seven

Every successful disciple making effort leverages three or more of seven success strategies. Highly successful disciple making systems leverage five to seven of the strategies. The more you implement, the greater your success—which means the disciples succeed! Your top success factors are The Definition is Simple and The Process is Done Along the Way. Based on our conversation, you can see (in red) your depth of implementation alongside each of the seven strategies. 

The Fuel is God's Word

Partially Implemented

Disciples read the entire Bible, cover-to-cover being exposed to all scripture which is useful to guide, correct, direct and prepare them for good works.

The Definition is Simple

Partially Implemented

Disciple makers know exactly what it means to make a disciple, what the end product should be, and how to know when they have succeeded in making a well-made disciple.

The Process Relies on the Holy Spirit

Not A Consistent Focus

Disciple makers embrace the truth that it is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies, renews, and transforms making space and helping disciples hear from Him.

The Focus is on Individuals

Not A Consistent Focus

The process is focused on leading disciples individually even in groups helping them find and apply immediately useful, relevant truths that transform their lives.

The Goal is Application

Not A Consistent Focus

Disciples makers embrace Jesus’ call to help disciples obey (apply) God’s truths to their decisions focusing on transformation not education.

The Process is Done Along the Way

Partially Implemented

Disciple makers model following Christ and make disciples inside and outside weekly meetings over the course of several years giving disciples time to fully mature.

Making Disciples is Done Intentionally

Not A Consistent Focus

Disciple makers embrace disciple making as the primary work to reconcile the world, have a plan to make disciples, and set specific, measurable disciple making goals.

— ONE BITE AT A TIME —

HOW DOES STRATEGY
BECOME SUCCESS?

Strategies are big objectives, big concepts, and the key to implementing them is to align what you “do” with the seven strategies. Your “dos” are your methods.

If you’re just getting started or are ready to try something new, you can implement all seven strategies right from the start. Just build your disciple making plan to incorporate them or adopt some proven methods that achieve the seven strategies.

But when you are already making disciples, implementing all seven strategies can feel overwhelming. In a church setting, moving too quickly can feel a bit too disruptive.  Your leadership might not even be open to a total overhaul! So what do you do?

You figure out which two strategies could use the most makeover and focus your work on them.

As those two strategies become consistently present in your disciple making, then you pick another strategy to work on. Before you know it, you’ll see even more success than ever before!

You’ll find your top two makeover strategies (with some practical steps and “how tos”) below.

And we’ll help you pick your next next
strategies in the last section.

Your First Makeover Strategies

Your church has informal disciple making happening, but it isn’t reliably reproducing, and leaders are rightly cautious about disrupting existing systems. The highest-leverage move is to introduce a simple, repeatable disciple-making method that leaders can model, and then anchor that method in personal application so groups don’t stay at general discussion. These two strategies work together: a clear method gives everyone the same “way to do it,” and application ensures the process produces real transformation rather than information. The goal is alignment and momentum without requiring every ministry to be replaced.

A simple, repeatable disciple-making method leaders can model

Based on what you shared, the lack of a clear method is making it hard for ministries to unify and for new leaders to know what to replicate, which contributes to low confidence and low reproduction. Practical helps: – Draft a one-page “how we make disciples here” outline that fits on a single page and can be taught in 10 minutes – Define a simple meeting flow leaders can use in any setting (group, triad, mentoring) – Choose one shared starting point for leaders (a small starter group of 3–4 leaders) to practice the same method before scaling – Identify 2–3 “non-negotiables” that any ministry can adopt without losing its unique mission (for example: Scripture, application, prayer) – Ask senior leaders (even if modeling is mixed today) to practice the same method in visible, ordinary ways so others can copy

Shift from general discussion to personal application

Based on what you shared, groups tend to stay at general discussion and application emphasis is low, which makes disciple making harder to measure and harder to reproduce. Practical helps: – Add one consistent application question every gathering: “What will you apply, and when will you do it?” – Make application specific and personal (one person, one decision, one next step) rather than general takeaways – Build in a simple follow-up touchpoint outside the meeting (a brief check-in) focused on encouragement, not reporting – Train leaders to ask one or two short individualizing questions in the group so each person connects Scripture to their real situation – Keep notes on stated applications so leaders can pastor people over time and see growth beyond attendance

What Success Looks Like

– Leaders across ministries can describe the same simple disciple-making method in the same language – Group environments increasingly produce personal application rather than only general discussion – More people are being helped to take real next steps outside meetings through supportive follow-up – Early signs of replication appear as participants begin discipling others using the same method

Early Measurable Wins

– Create and share a one-page disciple-making method draft and get feedback from a small set of key leaders – Run the next gathering using the same basic flow and include a clear personal application moment – Identify a starter group of 3–4 people to pilot the method consistently and learn what needs tightening – Track two simple indicators beyond attendance: personal applications named and follow-up connections made

— THE BIG FIVE —

HOW WILL YOU
MEASURE SUCCESS?

Most of the methods we research have one of five focuses and naturally measure success based on  that focus. We call them the Big Five.

  • Education (Success = Participation and Knowledge)
  • Assimilation (Success = They Stay and Look Like Us)
  • Behavior Modification (Success = They Fix Their Problems)
  • Multiplication (Success = They Get Others Involved)
  • Leadership Development (Success = They Lead Something)

The Church has been doing the Big Five for, well, forever. We do them because that is what we know. We do them because they are easy and easy to measure. Done well, they will result in some spiritual growth but normally the Big Five just produces “dos.”

The problem is the Big Five only work for 20% of all believers because all five are actually the outcomes of transformation, not the cause.  

Whether you adopt or design an overall plan, your best bet is to pick a method focused on discovering and applying all of the truths in God’s Word that measures effectiveness by transformation. Something like,  

The disciple does the right things for the right reasons, navigates the unknowns of life, and makes disciples long after your influence fades.

Don’t settle for anything less because when they get transformed, they will be smart, be a part of the body, fix their stuff, make disciples, and lead! Remember, healthy followers do healthy things—naturally. 

The team at Sustainable Discipleship uses the
highly Predictable PathwayTM to measure success.
You can learn more below

Ideas + Resources for You

The ideas and resources on this page have been curated based on your Makeover answers and, like your previous “how to” ideas, are based on the Sustainable Discipleship Method—a model that’s fueling a global disciple-making movement.

Our single-minded goal is to share what God has shared with us. But let’s be clear—there are many ways to make disciples. Whether you are evaluating methods or designing your own, we hope these customized ideas help. But definitely check out the Makeover Meetups!

print your makeover report

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Future Strategies to Consider

Once you get your first two makeover strategies going, you’re ready to work strengthen the rest. Based on your makeover answers, here a few next steps that will increase each disciple’s transformation. 

– Introduce a consistent Bible reading plan to move beyond primarily topical Scripture engagement – Increase intentional Holy Spirit dependence by adding simple practices of listening and discernment into the process – Set one clear, measurable disciple-making aim that leaders can rally around, even while broader priorities remain mixed

Seven Success Strategies ➞ How To Methods

The Fuel is God’s Word

The Goal is Application

God designed us from creation to understand the Bible. Brain Powered Bible reveals a reading method that will have folks engaged cover-to-cover, getting immediate value working with God’s learning design rather than against it. It’s like Bill Nye the Science guy meets the Bible!

The Definition is Simple

Making Disciples is Done Intentionally

Even if you are designing your own disciple making model, the proven “how tos” in this book may give you ideas that will supercharge your disciple making. The principles and methods have fueled thousands of disciple making efforts for individuals and churches.

Disciple Making Focuses on Individuals

Making Disciples is Done Along the Way

This free ebook introduces the  Predictable Pathway. It’s fourteen, highly predictable steps that every believer takes as they mature. The beauty of the pathway is that you can know exactly where someone is and know exactly what to give them to get to the next step. It’s the simplest way to measure success and boost transformation.

Makeover Midday Meetups

Want to talk about your makeover plan? Join us (and others!) for a one-hour Makeover Meetup the first Tuesday of each month at noon. 

  • Want to go over your makeover report with a team member?
  • Want to be greater at the one thing God called you to do?
  • Are you an independent maker who needs a tribe?
  • Just want to talk disciple making?
  • Looking to get tips and tricks before you change things?
  • Trying to get leadership buy in for something new?
  • Need to avoid disrupting what's already working?

Makeover Meetups are for you! One of our experienced team members will be there to help you with whatever you’re working on—not to pitch you! See you there!

Welcome to your

Disciple Making Makeover

Your Makeover Webpage is permanent. You may want to save a bookmark so you can revisit or share with your staff or fellow disciple makers.

You can also print a version if you want a pdf or actual paper to mark up. There’s a print button in the last section!

If you have questions or encounter a problem, feel free to reach out to us by email. We do our best to answer the same business day!

You're Important to Us!

We’ve trained this model with thousands of tests to do exactly what we do in a live Makeover. We’d love to know…

How helpful was your makeover?

We understand that sometimes things just don’t go as expected. If your makeover didn’t meet your expectations, we’ll meet with you personally. And if we can’t make it right—we’ll refund your investment!