This is an open letter to discipleship/education pastors on behalf of over 350,000 lead pastors in the U.S. This won’t be that letter that slaps your hand about what went wrong last Sunday. Actually, this is a genuine letter of appreciation, and I’m guessing you don’t get many of these.
You are Important to Me as a Person
In my pastorates, these discipleship leaders were all men who had a variety of gifts, personalities and titles like: Discipleship Pastor, Executive Pastor, Education Minister, and Sunday School Director. Most of them were paid, but none of them had the opportunity to focus exclusively on discipleship because their jobs also carried other responsibilities.
The one thing they all had in common was their proximity to and influence on me, their lead/senior pastor. These were my right hand men who I loved and depended on.
In my last church, I had two associate pastors, so I know what Moses felt like when Aaron and Hur were lifting up his arms during the battle with the Amalekites. These two men, and several before them, held me up when I was down and celebrated a few victories along the way as well. They were more than pastors with me, they were pastors to me as well. I let myself get close to each on a friendship level which sometimes backfired, but was more than worth it because ministry is too hard to do alone.
Your Ministry is Our Core Mission
Disciple-making is the core to the success of the Great Commission, so it follows that your ministry is the very core of your church’s mission. I want to make a bold and somewhat controversial assumption: your pastor probably doesn’t know that much about discipleship.
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