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

Here in the life and regular rhythms of our church, we see discipleship primarily happening in 4 areas. We call these the spaces for discipleship. These spaces are the base-line, fundamental areas for growing in your ability to follow Jesus in the life of our church.

These spaces are:

Sunday Morning Gatherings

Core Foundations

Life Groups
Stages 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 saints (God’s people) gather together to fellowship, pray, and sit under the teaching and preaching of the Word. — Hebrews 10:24-15

Core Foundations
Core foundations is a year long class that is designed to give God’s people a deeper theological understanding of who God is so that they can clearly articulate the core doctrines of the Christian faith. — 1 Peter 3:15

Life Group
Life groups will 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

Stages Discipleship
Stages Discipleship is the 1-1 meeting between a person who is a disciple-maker and the person that they are discipling. Stages Discipleship is a clear pathway to equip others to become disciple-makers. — Matthew 28:19-20

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 Stages Discipleship.

Stages Discipleship Explained

Everyone we encounter is somewhere on this path: NOT CURIOUS, CURIOUS, BELIEVER, DISCIPLE, DISCIPLE MAKER, and LIFELONG SERVANT. In discipleship, our goal is to equip others to become disciple-makers (no matter what stage they’re in right now).

Interested in Stages 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 a mature Christian 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 Stages 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.

What material should we cover when we meet up together?

All of your meetups should be structured using the Meet Up Guide template. Printing out the meet up guide template is a great way to make sure your meetings stay on track.

When you start to meet up with someone, you can use one of these guides to help guide your conversation.

Curious — The Gospel According to Mark: Four Questions to Discover and Engage
Believer — Commands of Christ
Disciple — How Jesus Made Disciples | How Paul Made Disciples
Disciple-Maker — How Jesus Made Disciples | How Paul Made Disciples