Your Personalized Disciple Making Makeover
Tony Magaldi
You’ve already built something with real substance: a clear progression (101–401), daily life-on-life engagement, and a strong commitment to personal application that’s producing visible change. By clarifying your simple definition and tightening your repeatable method, you’ll protect what’s working and make it far easier for others to reproduce—so the fruit you’re seeing can multiply through more disciple makers, not just your direct effort.
Quick Snapshot
You’re actively discipling people through a structured 101–401 pathway, and you’re seeing real change in how they think and act. Your process already includes daily follow-up (prayer texts and purity check-ins) and a consistent push toward applying what you’re reading. The biggest opportunity now is to protect what’s working and increase transferability so more people can reproduce it.
What's Working Well
You have real traction: a defined progression (101–401), daily along-the-way contact, and a strong application emphasis that keeps learning connected to real life.
- A measurable tool is in place through your 100-question maturity survey.
- Your daily texts (prayer + purity question) create ongoing shepherding beyond meetings.
- You’ve seen at least one instance of multiplication (someone you discipled discipled another).
What May Be Challenging
No major structural weakness was clearly described—your system has several strong, reinforcing parts. The main risks are drift and inconsistency as it grows: your disciple-making “method” and “definition” were described as not fully clear/consistent yet, and your Scripture engagement sounds anchored in selected books rather than a shared Bible reading plan through the whole Bible.
- If others try to copy what you do, they may copy the activities (classes, texts, survey) without capturing the simple, repeatable core.
- Selected-book growth paths can be strong, but they can also unintentionally leave gaps over time without a clear Bible reading plan.
- Replication may stay occasional unless the pathway is easy for others to explain and lead.
Why It Matters
Because you’re already seeing change in people’s lives and you’re investing daily, clarifying and simplifying the core of your process will help you scale without losing what makes it effective. A clearer, more transferable pathway also makes it easier for future disciple makers to lead with the same priorities—Scripture, Holy Spirit dependence, and real-life application.
— 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 Goal is Application 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
You’re actively discipling with a clear progression (101–401), daily follow-up, and an application-driven culture, and you’re seeing life change. The two strategies below were selected because they’re the highest leverage for making your disciple-making approach easier to reproduce without weakening what’s already working. Together they clarify “what we’re aiming for” and “how we do it,” so that multiplication can become more normal rather than occasional.
Clarify a Simple, Transferable Definition of a Disciple
Based on what you shared, you already have a strong pathway (101–401) and clear life change goals, and tightening your simple definition will make it easier for others to lead the same process with the same outcomes. Practical helps:
- Write a one-sentence definition of a disciple and a one-sentence definition of “success” (what a well-made disciple looks like).
- Tie your 100-question maturity survey to a short set of “core markers” (for example, 5–7 markers) so people can remember it without the full tool.
- Make your definition visible inside every 101–401 step so the path and the destination stay connected.
- Have one disciple (or leader) repeat your definition back to you in their own words; refine until it’s easy to repeat.
Make the Method Clear and Easily Reproducible
Based on what you shared, you already have powerful elements (daily texts, prayer, purity check-ins, and consistent application), and turning that into a simple, repeatable method will help multiplication increase. Practical helps:
- Reduce your process to 3–5 repeatable steps that happen every time you meet (and are easy to explain).
- Standardize your “application moment” with one repeatable question each person answers (what they will apply next).
- Add a simple Bible reading plan that moves through selected books intentionally (and eventually can expand toward whole-Bible reading over time).
- Create a one-page guide that someone else could use to lead a meeting and do the daily follow-up without guessing.
- Identify 3–4 potential future disciple makers and walk them through leading one portion of the process while you observe.
What Success Looks Like
- People move through 101–401 with clear, visible growth that is reflected both in daily life and in your maturity survey indicators.
- Each participant consistently leaves with a specific personal application step tied to what they read.
- Your disciple-making definition and method can be repeated accurately by others without you present.
- Multiplication becomes normal: participants begin discipling others using the same simple process.
Early Measurable Wins
- Write and test a one-sentence disciple definition and one-sentence “success” definition with your current group.
- Draft your 3–5 step repeatable meeting plan and use it exactly the same way in multiple meetings.
- Establish a shared Bible reading plan for everyone (even if it’s selected books), so Scripture intake is unified.
- Identify 3–4 people to train for reproduction and let each one lead a small, defined part of the process once.
— 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!
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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.
- Strengthen “The Fuel is God’s Word” by steadily expanding from selected books toward a cover-to-cover Bible reading plan over time.
- Strengthen “Making Disciples is Done Intentionally” by setting one or two specific disciple-making goals tied to replication.
- Strengthen “The Process Relies on the Holy Spirit” by building in explicit listening, surrender, and Spirit-led decision moments beyond pre-reading prayer.
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!
