Your Personalized Disciple Making Makeover

You’re not far from a meaningful shift: you already have Scripture in the mix and you’re actively investing in people. If you clarify the outcome (what a disciple is) and make personal application the normal finish line of every meeting, you’ll likely see your confidence rise because you’ll be able to recognize real progress—and you’ll be setting the conditions for replication to emerge over time.

Quick Snapshot

Overall Disciple-Making Strength
0 / 35 · Early
You’re actively trying to make disciples, and you do have a clear method in mind, but most of your time together is general discussion and application only happens occasionally. You’re also feeling low confidence right now because replication isn’t happening yet and you don’t have a written plan with specific next steps.

What's Working Well

You have real traction because you’re already engaging people intentionally and you’re not starting from scratch—there’s a method you can build on, and you’re using Scripture through a consistent Bible reading plan moving through selected books. – You’re already “in the game” and willing to evaluate what’s happening – Scripture is present in an ongoing, organized way (selected books) – You’re noticing outcomes you care about (you’re looking for lives to change)

What May Be Challenging

Right now the structure is set up in a way that can make it hard for people to leave with a clear next step: discussion stays mostly general, your definition of a disciple feels fuzzy, and there isn’t much connection outside church gatherings because everyone is busy. – No written plan with specific people and next steps – Application is occasional rather than the normal “destination” of your time – Limited “along-the-way” follow-up and low intentional reliance on the Holy Spirit in the process

Why It Matters

When disciple making is clear (what you’re producing), personal (how it connects to each person), and applied (what someone will do next), it becomes much more likely that you’ll eventually see the multiplication you want—people who don’t just participate in discussions, but actually grow and begin helping others grow too.

— 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 Fuel is God’s Word and The Goal is Application. 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

Not A Consistent Focus

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

Partially Implemented

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

Not A Consistent Focus

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

Based on what you shared, you’re actively engaging people and you have a method you believe is clear, but you’re not seeing replication yet and your confidence is low. The highest-leverage next step is to sharpen what you’re aiming for and then design your time so people consistently take personal action in response to Scripture. These two strategies work together: a simple definition makes the outcome clear, and an application focus turns “good discussion” into change people can actually track and repeat. You won’t need a disruptive overhaul—just a few focused adjustments you can start using right away.

Clarify the win (a simple disciple definition)

Based on what you shared, your definition of a disciple feels fuzzy, which makes it hard to know what you’re building toward and how to tell if your process is working. A simple, shared definition will raise confidence, align expectations, and make it easier for others to reproduce what you’re doing. – Write a one-sentence definition of a disciple you can say out loud (simple enough to remember) – Add 3–5 “markers” that fit your context (what you’d expect to see in a maturing disciple) – Decide what “progress” looks like in normal language (not churchy language) – Use your definition at the start of each meeting for a month to reinforce clarity – Choose a starter group of 3–4 people you’ll invest in most intentionally first

Make application the normal outcome

Based on what you shared, application happens only occasionally and most conversation stays general, which can stall growth even when Scripture is present. Shifting to consistent, personal application will help each person connect God’s Word to their real decisions and relationships, and it creates momentum that can eventually lead to replication. – End every meeting with one clear application step per person (simple, doable, and specific) – Ask one personalizing question each time (for example: “What does this mean for you this week?”) – Have each person write their next step down before leaving – Begin the next meeting by letting 2–3 people briefly share what they tried and what they learned – Keep your Bible reading plan through selected books, but tie the discussion to “What will you do?” not just “What do you think?”

What Success Looks Like

– Everyone can clearly state what a disciple is (in one sentence) and what you’re trying to produce – Each meeting produces specific, personal application steps rather than mainly general discussion – You can point to concrete stories of change, not just a general hope that things are improving – One or more participants begins taking first steps to help someone else grow

Early Measurable Wins

– Create and use your one-sentence disciple definition at the start of each gathering – Ensure every person leaves with one written application step connected to Scripture – Start each meeting with 10 minutes of follow-up on last time’s application steps – Identify 3–4 people you will focus on most intentionally and invite them into that focus

— 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

If you are going to share this with others, you might want to uncheck Print Headers and Footers in the print dialogue to remove your browser’s standard ugly headers!

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. 

– Build in a short, consistent moment to pray and listen for the Holy Spirit’s direction before choosing application steps – Add one simple “outside the meeting” touchpoint (a short check-in message or brief conversation) to strengthen along-the-way disciple making – Define one or two clear indicators you’ll watch for that align with your disciple definition

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!