Meet my crazy friend, Steve Waggoner. He’s the pastor of Crosswalk Fellowship in Delavan, IL. (Okay, we both might be crazy. Keep reading. You’ll see why.)
I knew Pastor Steve lived and multiplied a Jesus-like disciplemaking way of life long before I actually met him. Why? Because I kept meeting people he’s discipled. So I knew it was a matter of God’s timing before our paths would cross.
Meet my crazy friend, Steve Waggoner. He’s the pastor of Crosswalk Fellowship in Delavan, IL. (Okay, we both might be crazy. Keep reading. You’ll see why.)
Eventually, he showed up at one of Cadre’s disciplemaking training experiences (see above). Some time later, Pastor Steve and I connected over coffee. [It’s no accident that Bill’s personal blog is called cupojoewithbill.]
Then Pastor Steve asked if he could take the disciplemaking training he received from Cadre and pass it on others. I smiled and said, “No way. We can’t have people like you running amuck making disciples who make disciples” who make more disciples.” But I think he knew I was joking.
First let’s help leaders become first-live-ers of disciplemaking as a way of life…
Pastor Steve asked if we could start with the various leaders of the church. So, we did the same Cadre disciplemaking training experience with the ministry leaders of the church.
After training the leaders of the church, Pastor Steve jumped off a cliff.
He did something I’ve never seen a pastor do. He took his entire church through the exact same disciplemaking training experience for the next three months DURING the Sunday morning services. You might want to re-read that previous sentence again. Pastor Steve didn’t do the disciplemaking training experience in Sunday school. He slow-dripped the biblical disciplemaking values of the training for three months as the Sunday morning worship/teaching time with the whole church. Instead of only preaching about disciplemaking, Pastor Steve gathered people around tables and trained and equipped them. For three months as the Sunday morning worship service.
Then let’s multiply by becoming a training center (a gym) for disciplemaking as a way of life.
Let’s start with our family, friends and then extend the joy of this life with Jesus to others in our life.
And here’s the really amazing part: He kept his job as pastor (so far). And by the way, he stationed each of the leaders who were previously trained at different tables so they could facilitate the training and wrestling of Scripture for application with the rest of the church. The way they received disciplemaking is the way they gave it to others.
How ridiculous simple, beautiful and rare is that? I think this story is worth replicating millions of times.
Go to the Cadre Online Store to discover simple ways to increase your disciplemaking friendships.