Discipleship at Pillar

What is Discipleship?

After Jesus rose from the dead, he gave his disciples one final command before ascending to heaven: “Make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

Disciple: The word “disciple” simply refers to a person who follows the teachings and lifestyle of another person. So, when the Bible uses the term “disciple” it is referring to a person who follows the teachings and lifestyle of Jesus.
Discipleship: Discipleship, then, is the practical means by which we make disciples. Discipleship in its most basic definition is helping others follow the teachings and lifestyle of Jesus.

Spaces for Discipleship

There are a number of things in the Christian life that could be considered discipleship. Here in the life of our church, we see discipleship primarily happening in four areas. We call these the spaces for discipleship. These spaces are the base-line, fundamental areas for growing in your ability to follow Jesus and help others follow Jesus in the life of our church.

These spaces are:

Sunday Morning Gatherings
Second Sunday Prayer
Life Groups
1-1 Discipleship

These spaces can be thought of in four concentric circles. As the circles move inward, the space becomes more intimate with less people involved.

Sunday Morning Gathering
The Sunday morning gathering is the space where the people of God gather together to fellowship, pray, and sit under the teaching and preaching of the Word. — Hebrews 10:24-15

Second Sunday Prayer
Second Sunday Prayer happens on the second Sunday evening of every month. This is the space where we gather for intentional prayer, instruction from the Word, and fellowship over a corporate meal. — Acts 4:23-31

Life Group
Life groups consist of deep fellowship, intentional confession and prayer, teaching from the Scriptures, and application from the Scriptures that should be applied to the daily lives of our people. — Acts 2:42-47

1-1 Discipleship
1-1 Discipleship happens when two followers of Jesus meet together with the intention of growing in Christlikeness. The goal of 1-1 discipleship is to see followers of Jesus grow deeper in their love and knowledge of Jesus with the intention of sharing it with others. — 2 Timothy 2:1-3

Here at Pillar San Antonio, we don’t merely want to talk about making disciples of Jesus, we want to practically equip our people to become disciple-makers. One of the most intentional ways we do this is through 1-1 Discipleship.

1-1 Discipleship Explained

This is the multiplication process of 1-1 Discipleship. The way you live your life in light of the Gospel should attract others to listen to the truth you believe about the Gospel (Life & Truth). This will then work transformation into the life of the person you are meeting with (Life). The response of the person you are meeting with should be to live a transformed life that will attract others to listen to the truthfulness they believe about the Gospel (Life & Truth). This will lead to a transformed life in the person they begin meeting with (Life), and so on and so forth. It is a continual chain of disciple-makers making disciples who then become disciple-makers themselves.

Interested in 1-1 Discipleship?

If you want to…

Learn more about following Jesus
Grow as a Christian
Learn how to share your faith
Be equipped to make disciples

We want to connect you with someone who can meet up with you one-on-one to read the Bible together.

Your first step is to complete our discipleship self-assessment. This form will help you articulate where you are currently and where you want to go. Once you complete that form, we’ll follow up with next steps.

Note for filling out the self-assessment: In the ‘Name of your mentor’ field, if you don’t have someone to meet with for 1-1 Discipleship yet you can put Pillar San Antonio. In the ‘Mentor’s Email’ field you can put [email protected] and it will be received by Andrew McDaniel who will follow up with you to help you take next steps.

Make Disciples

What is a disciple-maker’s goal?

When you meet up with your disciple, your goal is not just to meet up and talk about the Bible. Our goal is to do two things…

Teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded.
Training them to make disciples themselves.

These are the goals that Jesus himself gave his disciples in his “Great Commission,” his parting words sending them out for mission (Matthew 28:16–20).

What should you do when you meet up with a disciple?

We suggest meeting up with your disciple every-other week for 90 minutes.

In our meet ups, we want to make sure we’re emphasizing teaching and training. (Remember, the goal of meet ups is not just getting together to talk about the Bible — the goal is to produce a disciple-maker.)

To help guide your meetups, it’s important to use the Meet Up Guide template. Print one out (or grab one at the church building) for everyone at the meet up.

Download the Meet Up Guide template here.

The Meet Up Guide divides your time into three sections:

Looking Back — 30 minutes of exploring recent growth, heart issues, and praying together.
Looking Up — 30 minutes of looking at the Bible together, learning, and asking questions.
Looking Ahead — 30 minutes of planning specific action steps.