Developing

an Intentional
Discipleship
System:
A Guide for
Youth Ministry
“We cannot disciple people that we are not in relationship
with. Discipleship begins with relationship.”
Rev. Junius Dotson
General Secretary, Discipleship Ministries

www.SeeAllThePeople.org

This booklet is a companion piece to:

Developing an Intentional Discipleship System: A Guide for Congregations
by Rev. Junius B. Dotson
Contents
Welcome 2

Personal & Corporate Discipleship 4

Personal Discipleship (Individual Discipleship) 4
Corporate Discipleship (The Church) 6

Systems 7
System Elements 7
Inputs, Processes, and Outputs 8

Intentional Discipleship Systems 10

Models Of Discipleship 12
Covenant Model 12
Ages & Stages Model 20

Planning Phases & Your Intentional Discipleship

System 26

Seeing & Reaching All the People 30

Appendix 33
Intentional Discipleship with Youth Across the
Connection 33
For Further Study 33
References (In Order of Appearance) 34
About Young People’s Ministries 35
About the Author 36
Welcome
This guide serves as a complementary resource to Developing
an Intentional Discipleship System: A Guide for Congregations
by Junius B. Dotson. As a church leader who cares about
discipleship and youth, read and familiarize yourself with that
resource to gain the most from this publication.

The scientists of the Manhattan Project, a research and

development undertaking during World War II that produced
the first nuclear weapons, worked long hours. That gave them
time to sit and discuss brainy, probably very “nerdy” things,
at length. During the course of their long working hours,
the subject of aliens (extraterrestrial life) came up. Several
scientists remarked on the likelihood of the existence of
intelligent alien life. With many billions of stars surrounded by
many more billions of planets, the odds are that people do not
stand alone as intelligent life in the universe. Several scientists
agreed, citing similar statistics and probability. Then, Enrico
Fermi raised a simple question, now known as the “Fermi
Paradox.” “Where is everybody?” In other words, if statistics
and probability say that intelligent life exists, why haven’t we
humans met anybody from another planet?

Those engaged with culture both inside and outside the

church can testify that adolescents can feel like alien life.
They use different words, different music, different clothes,
different technology, and generally have a different experience
of reality. A church may not see many young people from
their community enter their church building; yet, statistics say
that those alien youth are out there. Nearly eleven thousand
babies are born every day in the United States, about 26
percent of the US population is under 19 years of age, and
about 25 percent of the US population is between the ages
of 20 and 40. That’s right! Over half the people living in
the United States are under 40! Are about half the people

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in your church under 40? If you lead a church where the
congregation’s ages don’t match the ages of the community,
you’re probably asking Fermi’s question about young people.
Statistics say that young people are out there, but “Where
is everybody?” As Dotson notes on page 4 in Developing an
Intentional Discipleship System, “The problem is not a lack of
people. The problem is our inability to see and reach them.”

Engaging a church to #SeeAllThePeople means including

young people who help do the seeing while needing to be
seen. This resource will reframe the question “Where is
everybody?” That question comes from the perspective of
“We are the church; we are here. If a person doesn’t cross
the threshold of our doors, we don’t see them.” The time has
come for a new perspective.

Our asking “Where is everybody?” implies our interest in

where young persons find themselves on their journey of faith.
Let us get beyond the church walls to see and meet youth as
they go about the difficult job of navigating today’s rapid-fire
culture. We know youth are out there; our churches are in the
same communities as schools. Many church members have
extended families with younger generations.

The key component to an intentional discipleship system with

youth is the answer to the “Where are they?” question—not
where are they hanging out, not where do they spend their
time. Rather, where are they in their journey of identifying and
solidifying their beliefs? When we ask that question from this
new perspective, it opens the door to reimagining the inputs
and outputs of an Intentional Discipleship System.

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Personal & Corporate
Discipleship
Sam Halverson opens his book One Body: Integrating
Teenagers into the Life of Your Church, with a reflection on
time he spent at a graduation party for a teen he knew in
ministry. Many people came to celebrate the graduation and
had self-segregated into smaller groups based on how they
knew the family. Over here were the parents’ work partners;
here were the teen’s school friends. Connections from school,
church, plus family—all had staked out their spots at the party
and were interacting largely with one another in small groups.
Where did the people come together? The table: the horizontal
piece of wood that held the delicious food and drinks for
the party. At the table, the disparate people connected to
this family came together as a whole to share stories of how
they knew the graduating youth and to laugh and celebrate
together. At the table everybody saw one another!

Likewise, the table provides a place for the different

generations of a church to come together. The Communion
table calls to each of us—welcoming and refreshing us as God
calls us to remember that we are indeed one body in Christ. A
disciple is one who knows Christ; one who is growing in Christ,
serving Christ, and sharing Christ. As part of one body, we
as disciples will interact and influence one another through
discipleship—the process that makes or forms disciples.

Personal Discipleship (Individual Discipleship)

Equipping and empowering disciples for their own growth.

The Allegory of the Long Spoons tells a parable that fosters

our understanding of personal discipleship. As the basic
version states it, in both heaven and hell people sit before
identical tables of food. Spoons longer than anyone’s arms are

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the utensils with which to eat the meal. At the “hell” table, the
people are starving; they cannot guide food to their mouths
because their arms are too short. The greater their hunger,
the greater their struggle to put the long spoons into their own
mouths. At the “heaven” table, the people are all well fed.
Why? They use the long spoons to feed the persons seated
across from them. In turn, their neighbors feed them.

You may picture that table of hungry people in your mind

and ask, “Why in the world don’t they just feed each other?”
Perhaps no one has shown the people at that table another
way to live. Maybe they know they ought to share, but they
allow their own struggles to interfere with actual practice.
How many young people do we know who struggle to feed
themselves spiritually? Do we see issues of youth not knowing
their own faith and not knowing how to share it and to help
feed their peers? Do we also see youth who are hungry and
yet struggle because they do not know how to receive from
others? Youth often strongly sense “the way things ought to
be” and yet lack the knowledge or experience to implement
that sense.

Come alongside youth and show them how spiritual disciplines

have impacted your life as a disciple. In doing so, you will
both demonstrate and be reminded that growth into spiritual
maturity is not about age but about experience. It takes
more than knowing what ought to be done. Life as a disciple
also involves knowing how to grow. Walking alongside young
people in covenant groups, during a faith-development season
like confirmation, and worshiping with them can teach them
how to hold a spoon and feed others while being fed.

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Corporate Discipleship (The Church)
Doing everything we can as a church to provide
opportunities for disciples to grow and mature in faith.

Staying with the image of the two tables, remember that both
tables are equally set. Think of corporate discipleship as the
work of dressing and setting the table. Even people at the
table in heaven would go hungry without someone to set the
table with plates, long spoons, and the food itself. The church
does the work of setting the table: providing place settings of
organized generosity, laying a clean tablecloth, making sure
the chairs are stable and the right height for the table itself,
determining appropriate foods, and preparing that food to
perfection. Corporate discipleship involves the work of hosting.
The host ensures optimum conditions for the individuals
sharing the meal. Much of what you read about intentional
discipleship systems will use language and processes that
refer to personal discipleship. Those personal actions have
a much better chance of developing into a transformative
experience with a well-prepared table.

Time Out
Discuss the following with youth leadership:

1. What does the church offer that has fed me in my faith-life?

2. In what ways does the church encourage me to feed others?

3. How do I own my faith? At what tables do I sit to receive

spiritual nourishment? Where are they?

4. How is our church setting the table for youth to become

more spiritually mature? How is the church’s intentionality
of setting a table and sharing a place at the table with
youth made obvious?
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Systems
What is a system? It is a group of things that regularly interact
and work together. Many distinct bodies make up the solar
system, for example. They all interact with one another.
Likewise, the systems that make up the human body, while
distinct in their makeup and purpose, interact and influence
one another to maintain our physical bodies. A discipleship
system involves the interaction and working together of people
and church so people themselves may become more Christlike
and the church better reflects the kingdom of God.

John Wesley in Sermon 24 notes that “Christianity is essentially

a social religion.” The social nature of our faith implies that
a disciple shares life in community. The community (or
congregation or church) provides a social framework where the
processes of a discipleship system take place. A community
creates an Intentional Discipleship System by asking two
questions: What is a disciple? How are disciples formed?

The answers to those two questions help shape an Intentional

Discipleship System. No cookie-cutter or one-size-fits-all
system works for all people in every context. The reign of God
is more diverse and beautiful than that!

System Elements
Systems come in many varieties, and yet every system will
have some elements in common. An effective Intentional
Discipleship System with youth will include three elements:

Recognizing Spiritual Maturity. The system helps

disciples recognize their own growth and maturation
through the process. The system will also help other
church members recognize and celebrate spiritual growth
and maturity in their companion disciples.

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 Demonstrating the Great Commandment. The system
will provide opportunities and guidance to show love
for God and for neighbor. Wesleyan traditions call these
opportunities “works of piety” and “works of mercy.”

Practicing Theology. The system will offer opportunities to

practice what is preached, linking action and belief.

Inputs, Processes, and Outputs

To help identify and organize what happens within an
Intentional Discipleship System, the components of that
system can be labeled clearly as inputs, processes, and
outputs within that system. As you read on, and create your
own systems, make sure that you can identify each of the
three items below.

Inputs: What enters the system or the prerequisites to

begin the work in a particular piece of a system. These
items exist before a process begins.

Processes: The actions that take place to create growth

or change within a system. These actions or activities
happen with and to inputs.

Outputs: The end results at the close of a process within

a system. Once inputs go through a process, they become
outputs.

People, things, and actions can fall in any category, though

actions are most often processes.

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Time Out
Discuss the following with youth leadership:
1. How do the three elements of an Intentional Discipleship
System for youth find expression in our church?

2. How does the social aspect of the youth ministry connect

with faith development?

3. Why am I a part of youth ministry here?

4. Who brought me here, and what keeps me here?

5. Why is this place important to me?

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Intentional Discipleship
Systems
We have covered what creates a system and defined the
meaning of disciples and discipleship. Now, intentionality
simply means taking purposeful action and preparing to see
results. Notice the subtle difference between preparing to
see results and expecting a certain result. Economists and
many other professionals make a living from the unexpected
consequences of processes and systems.

Ruth Wakefield, a talented and practiced baker, had crafted

her cookie recipe to near perfection over several years. One
evening in 1937, Ruth prepared to bake a batch of her
favorite sugar cookies. She enjoyed tinkering with her recipes
and discovering new and tasty combinations. On this night,
she reached for a chocolate bar. She wanted to try and mix
chocolate into her dough and make chocolate sugar cookies.
She chopped pieces off the chocolate bar and mixed them
into her dough, thinking that the chocolate would melt into the
dough. However, when she pulled the cookies from the oven,
the chocolate hadn’t melted at all. The chocolate that she had
chipped into the dough remained in place. Ruth Wakefield did
not create a chocolate cookie that night. Instead she invented
the chocolate chip cookie! A world changer if there ever was
one.

If Ruth had expected a chocolate cookie to emerge from her

oven, she would have faced disappointment. She could have
gotten angry and thrown the cookies away. Fortunately for
us—and unfortunately for our waistlines—Ruth had prepared
herself for the results of her experiment. Instead of looking at
the output (the cookies) of her system (making and baking
the dough) and expecting them to turn out a certain way to be
acceptable, she simply prepared herself to accept the results

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of a process (chopping and adding chocolate) that she had
never tried before.

Expectations resemble nothing more than premeditated

resentments. When creating an Intentional Discipleship
System, set the table and prepare for the results. Avoid the
trap of expecting the system to create identical results from
every input. Instead, prepare for the outputs and then study
and refine the system so you understand how the processes
shape disciples. As Dotson states in Developing an Intentional
Discipleship System: A Guide for Congregations, a system
produces what it is designed to produce. Ruth’s system was
designed to make cookies, and she got cookies in the end.
However, by experimenting with her process, by deviating
from the inputs to her system, she produced something new
and amazing as an output.

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Models of Discipleship
Whether you recognize it or not, some system or process
exists at your church to help form and inform disciples. Your
table is set, but perhaps you don’t know who set it, how it
was set in the first place, or why things are the way they are.
Perhaps as you read, you’ll get excited to play with your inputs
and processes to see if you can create some new expression
of discipleship. As this resource shares some systems
and processes, do not feel the need to adopt any of them
specifically. Instead, take what you read here about systems
and models and then become more intentional about how your
church sets the table of discipleship. Become intentional about
the system and processes that your church will actually use.

Covenant Model
Many people may find the concept of covenant confusing
because of the temptation to simplify the term into more
familiar elements. Some view covenants as contracts where
two (or more) parties voluntarily agree to provide a service in
exchange for comparable value. Consider how a data company
promises to connect devices (mobile phones, tablets, and so
forth) to its network and provide the ability to make phone
calls, send text messages, and access data as long as a person
pays the amount owed for the connection. Legal consequences
arise if either the company or the person breaks the contract.
Contracts often accompany “things.”

Some view covenants as promises, commitments to do or not

to do something. We can make promises with ourselves, with
other persons, or even with groups of people. Broken promises
are always tied to an action. While the consequences of
breaking a promise don’t always involve legality, they can have
a major effect on trust. Consider a friend who doesn’t show up
when he said he would, a politician who promised changes

12
in government but kept things status quo after election into
office, a sibling who promised to keep a secret but ended up
spilling the beans. People are not things, and relationships
rely on trust. Covenants often contain promises, but they go a
step beyond the promises we normally make.

With discipleship, a covenant involves far more than things

or actions that people promise to give. A covenant is a
relationship initiated by God to which people respond by
living a life of discipleship. God’s covenant of unconditional
love and grace with humanity gives people the opportunity
to actively participate and overcome sin and death in the
process. God relates to people through covenant. While the
making and keeping of promises forms an important piece of
that relationship, God’s covenant is larger than a contract or
promise. In God’s covenant, grace goes before us, surrounds
us in life, and works in us and through our communities. We
are born into God’s covenant of grace; when we recognize that
gift, we may respond to it by living a life of discipleship.

A Covenant Discipleship System creates smaller groups

of disciples within the church family. Those groups are
accountable to and for one another’s spiritual growth. Those
groups define how they will live out their discipleship and
meet regularly to reflect upon their actions, growth, and
challenges. Everyday Disciples: Covenant Discipleship with
Youth is an excellent resource to better understand this model
in youth ministry. A Covenant Discipleship System asks youth
to reflect intentionally upon their own spiritual practices,
engage those practices regularly, and share with peers how
those practices help them grow in faith.

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ELEMENTS IN A COVENANT DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM
Recognizing Spiritual Maturity: Participants in Covenant
Discipleship Groups recognize maturity in one another during
their meetings. An administrator (or class leader to use
Covenant Discipleship terminology) can also see and track
the growth of disciples by participating in meetings or by
noting the results of the disciples’ actions in the church and
community.

The Great Commandment: Actions supported in a Covenant

Discipleship System find their basis in John Wesley’s Works
of Piety and Mercy. Every intentional act of discipleship is
designed to show love for God or love for neighbor. Please
refer to the diagram in the Covenant Discipleship System
Sample for details on the works of piety and mercy.

Practical Theology: Each work of piety and mercy is a tangible

activity. The group accountability asks disciples to reflect
with one another on how they are growing as a result of their
intentional actions.

Inputs: Learn more about these terms in any covenant

discipleship resource (www.umcdiscipleship.org/leadership-
resources/covenant-discipleship): Participants, Class Leaders,
Group Covenants, Regular Meeting Times, and Spaces.

Processes: Discernment, Organizing and Administering Group

Formation, Development and Training of Class Leaders,
Exploring Balanced Discipleship, Covenant Creation and
Signing, Ongoing Meetings

Outputs: Covenants, Covenant Groups, Spiritual Practice

Records

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HIGHLIGHTS OF A COVENANT DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM
• Covenant Discipleship groups provide a structure to reflect
upon intentional Christian action.

• Discipleship is a way of following Jesus’ teachings and

patterning our life after that of Jesus. Mark 12:29-31 sums
up what a life of discipleship looks like: to love God and to
love neighbor.

• Covenants are God’s way of being in relationship

with humanity; they are sacred promises. In a life of
discipleship, we live into a new covenant with God by
doing all we do in remembrance of Jesus and enjoying a
permanent and unbroken relationship with God. (Read
Hebrews 9:15.)

• Covenant Discipleship combines God’s way of relating to

people with the opportunity to pattern a life after Christ.

• Groups of disciples who covenant to act out Jesus’

teachings intentionally create opportunities to develop
deeper relationships with one another, with God, and with
their communities.

• Every action we undertake as Christians is a response to

our baptism and the baptismal covenant congregations
promise on our behalf.

• The General Rule of Discipleship is “to witness to Jesus

Christ in the world and to follow his teachings through acts
of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit.” (The Book of Discipline of
The United Methodist Church 2016, ¶ 1117.2a).

• That Rule guides the development of an active and

dynamic faith. We can organize faithful responses to
Jesus’ call to “love God and love neighbor” into four
categories: acts of compassion, justice, worship, and
devotion.

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• Acts of justice and compassion fall under works of mercy:
actions and practices that show love of neighbor.

• Acts of worship and devotion fall under works of piety:

actions and practices that show love of God.

• Compassion and devotion are personal acts that people

undertake as individuals. Justice and worship are acts
that people undertake in groups and in community.

• The Jerusalem cross provides a helpful way to picture a

balanced life of discipleship. Refer to the diagram, and
notice how the public and private works of piety and
mercy are evenly distributed across the quadrants of that
cross. A life of balanced discipleship includes participation
in acts of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion.

• Covenant Discipleship provides the opportunity to

experience mutual accountability and to actively
participate in spiritual growth.

• Each group creates its own covenant that includes a

preamble (who the members are as a group and why we
meet), four to ten clauses (things we will intentionally do
to grow as disciples), and a conclusion (closing prayer and
reflection). Find sample covenants in Everyday Disciples:
Covenant Discipleship with Youth.

• Participants can view Covenant Discipleship as a way to

run the race referred to in Hebrews 12:1-3. Participants
in a group are one another’s training partners, supporting
their brothers and sisters in Christ while running the
race alongside them. The race isn’t competitive but
collaborative.

• Everyday people doing everyday things every day can

change the world. In essence, the Methodist movement
calls us to shape the world and ourselves through regular
activities that intentionally connect us with God by doing
the work of Jesus with the support of the Holy Spirit.
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COVENANT DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM SAMPLE
In this system, the four column headings form a repeating
pattern of experiences in discipleship. The blank table on
the following page helps a disciple reflect upon each of the
categories of piety and mercy. If a blank is hard to complete, it
can inspire a person to follow through on the action and keep
the process of discipleship rolling.

Time Out
Discuss the following with youth leadership:
1. How and when do we use covenants in our ministry?

2. With whom do you currently talk about your growth as a

disciple?

3. In what areas are you called to accountability in your life?

4. What benefits could Covenant Discipleship groups bring

to our church life? For what ages would this program be
best suited?

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18
COVENANT DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM SAMPLE
Learn in
Live Christ’s Experience God
Relationship Witness to Growth
Teachings through Our Actions
with Others

Acts of Compassion

Acts of Justice

Acts of Worship

Acts of Devotion
19
Ages & Stages Model
This model adapts some of the examples provided in
Developing an Intentional Discipleship System: A Guide for
Congregations by Junius Dotson. Some of that initial study was
adapted from the work of Phil Maynard.

Developmentally, youths’ brains continue to form into their

20s. As their physical bodies grow and mature, so too can
their faith. The educational model in the United States uses
benchmarks for certain grade levels, clearly stating what a
youth should know by a certain point in their education. By
completing grades and meeting educational standards, a
youth grows toward a level of education identified by the wider
culture as “adult-level.” Likewise, an Ages & Stages model of
an Intentional Discipleship System with youth clearly identifies
characteristics of young disciples and stages of growth as they
mature.

We may find it tempting to think of this model like a baseball

diamond, where a faith experience will move a disciple from
first base, to second, to third, and then finally home. However,
that image is incomplete. The rules of baseball only allow
players to move forward on the base paths. In faith, while the
paths and stages of growth may be clear, youth (and adults for
that matter!) can move back and forth on the paths created
by the system. A system based on ages and developmental
stages creates clear stages where beliefs become actions. This
system is built around three questions:

1. What are the characteristics of a disciple in our context?

Create descriptions of what a disciple looks like at each
stage of growth.

2. What is the output of our system? Clearly identify the

characteristics of a maturing disciple in our context.

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3. How does a disciple grow in this system? Identify
markers for stages of growth, and develop processes that
help move disciples from stage to stage.

ELEMENTS IN AN AGES & STAGES

DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM
Recognizing Spiritual Maturity: The church identifies
markers so church leadership and disciples themselves
can recognize where they are in their spiritual development.
These are called “stages of growth.” The characteristics of
a maturing disciple can also reflect what spiritual maturity
means within the community.

The Great Commandment: The actions created by combining

the characteristics of maturing disciples as they go through
the stages of growth all link to the Great Commandment.

Practical Theology: Each stage of growth creates opportunities

for participants to connect faith with life. Participants do not
necessarily take action related to a particular spiritual growth
experience. The emphasis comes in how that experience
speaks into and shapes everything they do.

Inputs: Characteristics of a maturing disciple defined by the

church itself or by denomination-wide definitions, stages of
growth and markers to identify those stages, participants
answer the three questions in the section above.

Processes: Creation of markers for stages of maturity, self-

reflection, or guided reflection of participants on their current
stages and direction for desired growth, meetings with church
leadership to refine development. In many cases, the process
of combining the characteristics of a maturing disciple and
the stages of growth create subprocesses for participants to
experience.

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Outputs: Disciples engaged in a continual growth process,
clear markers for each stage of growth, defined expectations
for engagement at each stage of growth.

HIGHLIGHTS OF AN AGES & STAGES SYSTEM

• Provide a clear understanding and common language for a
community to discuss and recognize growth and change.

• Modifications for cultural understandings of maturity are

welcome in this system. Input from leaders can create
locally specific and meaningful paths.

• There is freedom to encourage intergenerational growth as

people of different ages may be at different stages of their
discipleship.

Characteristics of a Disciple (far-left column)

• Worships
• Partakes in community
• Commits to spiritual practices
• Serves and gives generously
• Seeks to be Christlike

Discuss these characteristics and modify them to fit your

context. Match the language the youth ministry uses to
articulate faith, growth, and expectations.

Characteristics of a Maturing Disciple (far-right column)

For each of the characteristics listed in the left-hand column,
develop language that best describes the output of that
characteristic when it goes through the processes of your
system. The characteristics below are only examples. Your
leadership will discuss, modify, define, or recreate these to
fit the context of your youth ministry. What will a maturing
disciple in your context look like for each characteristic your
leadership identifies?

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 AGES & STAGES DISCIPLESHIP SYSTEM SAMPLE

Searching Exploring Beginning Growing Maturing

Worship

Community

Spiritual
Practices

Service &
Generosity

Christlike

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 Worship—A maturing disciple finds ways to worship more
than weekly and invites others to worship together.

Community—A maturing disciple builds and maintains a

network of relationships within the church.

Spiritual Practices—A maturing disciple regularly

practices spiritual disciplines; can show others how to
engage in those disciplines and articulate their growth
through those practices.

Service & Generosity—A maturing disciple gives

generously in time, talents, gifts, service, and witness,
willingly restructuring his or her life and resources in order
to give.

Christlike—A maturing disciple partners with others to

explore the life and teachings of Jesus.

Stages of Growth (top row of the chart)

These stages of growth represent the qualities a church
determines it will recognize. The categories below are only
examples and, like the characteristics of a maturing disciple,
require discussion, modification, definition, or re-creation by
leadership to fit the context of the youth ministry.

Searching—Tries to make sense of life and the

surrounding culture. Asks questions like these: “What is
my purpose? What do I do that brings me joy?”

Exploring—Attends church/community events but does

not necessarily “belong” to the community. May or
may not be committed to following Christ. Willingly, and
perhaps actively, wrestles with God’s presence in his or
her life.

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 Beginning—Understands some elements of faith and
has initiated some practices of faith. May or may not be
excited about faith and church and may still hold doubts
about God, Jesus, and the church.

Growing—Discovers the commitments that make one a

Christ-follower. Takes personal responsibility to grow in
relationship with Jesus. Starts to integrate faith into life.
Looks to Jesus and other disciples for help.

Maturing—Moves toward more fully surrendering and

aligning life to Jesus. Desires to learn more: to know, obey,
serve, and follow Christ’s teachings and life. Begins to
make other disciples.

To see an example of a completed chart, refer to Developing

an Intentional Discipleship System: A Guide for Congregations
by Junius Dotson.

Time Out
Discuss the following with youth leadership:
1. What do the current stages of growth look like in our
church?
2. How do we set the table to help youth realize what stage
they are in? How do we encourage them to grow?
3. In a perfect world, what actions and practices would a
maturing youth disciple take on?

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Planning Phases & Your
Intentional Discipleship
System
In class meetings, John Wesley encouraged faithful
Methodists to connect and support one another. While
questions like “How are you doing?” or “How’s it going?” offers
an initial connecting point, those questions invite superficial
responses. A question like “How is it with your soul?” will draw
deeper responses. The most intentional set of questions that
John Wesley would have posed in class meetings go more
like this, per David Werner: “How is it going with what you are
doing?” Werner (John Wesley’s Question, 2010) notes that
stating the answer to that question, “sharing how well you
were living out your faith pushed you to live a changed life.”
Intentional Discipleship Systems require intentionality from the
leadership about the processes that make up the system as
well as a deliberate approach to the planning, development,
and upkeep of the discipleship system.

A significant difference exists between processes and

systems. A process has a definite beginning and ending and
is part of a system. A system is the overall combination of
processes and inputs that creates a specific output. While
processes and systems differ from each other, the creation
process for both have commonalities. Consider spending time
in each of the following phases during the creation and launch
of a discipleship system. Project management professionals
have identified the phases below, which occur in many
different contexts. Often, the initiating, planning, and closing
phases do not receive adequate attention. The excitement of
launching a new system without proper planning can confuse
church members.

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Initiating—The phase of creating buy-in for the creation
of an Intentional Discipleship System. Ensure that
everyone—church leadership, youth, parents—who
will feel the impact of the discipleship system be made
aware of the desire to become more intentional about
faith development. Discover needs from those who
care about the growth of youth in your community.
Certainly be in conversation with church leaders, as
well as all congregants. This could include all people
and organizations connected with the faith community.
Consider speaking with other youth ministers in your area,
leaders of other youth organizations, and discovering
other systems that are vastly changing the lives of youth
in your area. Before lots of planning happens, spend
time in prayer, discernment, and relationship with your
community so your leadership can create a needed and
relevant Intentional Discipleship System for Youth. A
project management term for people who care or will be
affected by a system is stakeholders.

Planning—The “devising your doing” phase of creating

a system. At this point, leaders make detailed plans
and record how they will create the system. Include
specific parameters like deadlines, budgets, and other
elements. Make sure that all stakeholders identified in the
initiating phase are aware of the finalized plans. Informing
stakeholders can take different forms, based on how
influential those stakeholders will be in the development
and success of the Intentional Discipleship System. Think
of this phase as creating the game plan of how you will
create the processes that will make up your system.
Back to the table-setting analogy, this phase would entail
figuring out how to get all the silverware, napkins, cups,
and plates that you will then use to set the table. Plan how
to launch the system!

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 Executing—The phase of actually doing the work to
create the system. Take plans and then create the
processes that will make up your discipleship system.
Hold meetings to inform leadership (especially youth
leadership!) of progress. Create new educational
materials based on feedback from church leadership.
This phase continues until the system is created and
launched. Consider having a launch, or kickoff, when the
discipleship system is ready for roll out.

Monitoring & Controlling—This phase confirms that the

processes receive the needed inputs and generate the
desired outputs. Make sure that what you are defining
and building in your discipleship system works. Ensure
that the system receives everything it needs for success.
Check to see that the processes work as designed and
that leadership can track disciples as they grow. If an
input or process is not generating the expected outcomes,
this phase would encourage a leader to return to the
planning phase and make changes to the inputs and
processes. Remember, a system produces what it is
designed to produce.

Closing—The final phase, documenting the successful

creation of the system and its implementation into the
fabric of your church community. Create any records
necessary to repeat or revise inputs, processes, outputs,
or the system itself in future generations. Record the
outputs, the success stories of the system, in ways
that you can share with all stakeholders and market to
potential new disciples. Consider the ease of evangelism
when people share meaningful, personal experiences.

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Time Out
Discuss the following with youth leadership:
1. In what phase does our leadership spend most of its time
and energy?

2. Who are the stakeholders (those impacted) if we develop a

new Intentional Discipleship System in our youth ministry?

3. How would an intentional focus on discipleship change the

way our leaders lead?

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Seeing & Reaching
All the People
Thinking intentionally about the discipleship systems in
your faith community can cause headaches. Systems are
big concepts that require faith, time, and energy in order to
set the table for the kind of faith development that a church
desires to inspire. That said, take heart and be encouraged in
this important work.

Consider the saying that “Shepherds don’t make more sheep.

Sheep make more sheep” in the context of discipleship
systems for youth. People could easily leap to the conclusion
that pastors or youth workers do not make more disciples.
Disciples make more disciples. In that spirit, remember that
youth are often the best evangelists to their peers. Hearing
about the transformation that came from the good, hard work
of engagement with your Intentional Discipleship System will
sound a lot more intriguing to a new youth when it comes
from the mouth of their peers as opposed to an adult. Recall
the Allegory of the Long Spoons. You may ask youth to invite
friends and share their stories to encourage new young people
to join the flock. Your youth may realize that they ought to
do that, but they may not know how. Perhaps the maturing
disciples in your system deserve the chance to learn to tell
their stories and intentionally share their faith.

Consider Isaiah’s (Isaiah 11:1) prophecy that a shoot would

come from the stump of Jesse. An old, gnarled stump of a
tree in a barren wasteland still held the potential to give life.
How? Its root system. Below the surface, that stump still
worked to draw nutrients from the surrounding soil. Likewise,
the Intentional Discipleship Systems that you create and
maintain for youth may not be the most obvious aspect of your
ministry. Your system may reside below the surface. Yet, no

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matter how barren or desolate the landscape of your ministry,
that system has the potential for transformation and life.

Consider ants at your picnic. You’ve spread a blanket with an

excellent collection of food. It’s a beautiful, sunny day in the
field you’ve chosen. You open the food to begin the feast...
and then the ants show up. Do they swarm all at once? No.
Just one or two scouts at the beginning. All your planning and
preparation only draws a couple of lonely ants. These ants will
find the feast you’ve prepared for them and return with more
from their colony. After a while, unless you intervene, a steady
stream of ants returns with the scouts to enjoy the feast. At the
beginning of your systems work, you may feel disappointed in
the returns on your investment of time and energy. However,
remember that systems in and of themselves exist to support
personal and corporate discipleship. An effective system
doesn’t necessarily guarantee huge numbers of youth.
Even so, an effective system will generate transformative
experiences for those first youths who participate in it, and
they will be your best advocates, eventually maturing to the
point where they will invite others to sit at your ministry’s table
and become disciples.

Consider the support that agencies like Discipleship Ministries

and Global Ministries offer in terms of community mapping.
(http://communitymappingforhealthequity.org/what-is-
community-mapping) The best Intentional Discipleship
Systems maintain an awareness of the community that
surrounds a church family. Mapping out and understanding
the demographics, challenges, and lifeblood of the context
and neighborhood in which your ministry exists will
enhance any discipleship system. Creating a system without
understanding the context of the larger community risks the
creation of an irrelevant system. Youth care about relevance.
For something to matter, that thing must make a difference
in their lives. Know what life looks like outside your church
before you create your system. Take the time to see and know
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others who are not connected to the faith community; only
then will the system you develop have easier access and feel
both familiar and relevant to new disciples.

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Appendix
Intentional Discipleship with Youth
Across the Connection
Stories and examples of Intentional Discipleship Systems
currently in use around the United Methodist Church will be
shared on www.SeeAllThePeople.org, hosted by Discipleship
Ministries. If you would like to share what discipleship looks
like in your youth ministry context and potentially be listed on
that website, please email cwilterdink@umcdiscipleship.org

For Further Study

• Masterpiece: The Art of Discipling Youth (2012) by
Paul Martin

• Teaching Teenagers in a Post-Christian World: Cultivating

Exploration and Ownership (2014) by Jake Kircher

• Teaching the Next Generations: A Comprehensive Guide

for Teaching Christian Formation (2016) by Terry Linhart

• Building a Discipling Culture (2014) by Mike Breen

• Charting a Course of Discipleship: A Workbook on

Christian Discipleship (2012) by Teresa Gilbert, Patty
Johansen, Jay Regennitter

• Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young

People Discover and Love Your Church (2016) by Jake
Mulder and Kara Powell, and Brad Griffin

• Building Spiritual Muscle (2017)

• FaithMinder Journal (2017) by Chris Wilterdink

• Everyday Disciples: Covenant Discipleship with Youth

(2016) by Chris Wilterdink

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References (In Order of Appearance)
• “Fermi Paradox” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_
paradox

• “Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned About

Millennials, Sparks & Honey” https://www.slideshare.net/
sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17

• One Body: Integrating Teenagers into the Life of Your

Church by Sam Halverson (The Youth Cartel, 2014)
https://theyouthcartel.com/product/one-body/

• “Sermon 24, John Wesley.” http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-

wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-
24-upon-our-lords-sermon-on-the-mount-discourse-four/

• “Allegory of the Long Spoons.” https://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons

• “Ruth Wakefield and the Chocolate Chip Cookie”

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/funfacts/
chocolatechipcookie.htm

• Everyday Disciples: Covenant Discipleship with Youth

by Chris Wilterdink https://bookstore.upperroom.org/
Products/Default.aspx?bookid=DR793

• “John Wesley’s Question: How Is Your Doing?” PDF

Download, Werner, David. 2010.
http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1006&context=asburyjournal

• “What Is Community Mapping?” National Community

Mapping Institute.
http://communitymappingforhealthequity.org/what-is-
community-mapping

Find support and information for Covenant Discipleship at

www.UMCdiscipleship.org/leadership-resources/covenant-
discipleship

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About Young People’s Ministries
UMCYoungPeople.org
This booklet comes from Young People’s Ministries (YPM), a
unit of Discipleship Ministries. We are a global organization
that supports youth, young adults, and those who invest in
the lives of young people. We create and sustain relationships
that help make young disciples, so that we can help integrate
young people into the life of the church and help them live out
their faith in the world.

UMCYoungPeople.org is full of connections and support for

ministry with young adults and youth, and YPM program staff
are available as consultants, speakers, and leaders as a part
of their ministry. Consult our website for contact information!

Events:
• Global Convocation - Leadership development and the
legislative gathering for young people in the UMC. Every
four years, 2018 in Johannesburg, SA.

• The YOUTH Event - The national event for UMC youth

in the USA. July 10-14, 2019 in Kansas City, MO.
YOUTH2019.com or on social media @youth2019

Resourcing
• youthworkercollective.com - Lessons, devotions,
coaching, games, and more written by and for youth
workers. Make this the first place you look for quality
youth ministry resources in the Wesleyan tradition!

• conspiritor.co - The Conspiritor Collective: a gathering

place for creatives. Discover, create, and submit art that
revives the church’s mission in the world. Find young
artists creating in the Christian tradition!

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Written Resources
• Everyday Disciples: Covenant Discipleship with Youth
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/Default.
aspx?bookid=DR793

• Building Spiritual Muscle: A Six-Week Journey to a

More Powerful Faith - https://bookstore.upperroom.org/
Products/DR862/building-spiritual-muscle.aspx

• Sex: A Christian Perspective on our Bodies, Decisions,

and Relationships - 4 core sessions designed for 6,
7, 8 grade youth. New modules added regularly at
ypmfaithandsex.org

Grants & Scholarships

• YouthServiceFund.org - By youth/for youth grant program.
Deadline of June 1 for funding the following year.

• Scholarship.umc.org - Grants for Ministries with Young

People applications at umcyoungpeople.org

About the Author

Chris Wilterdink is the Director of Program Development
in the United States for Young People’s Ministries, a unit
of Discipleship Ministries. With years of experience in
local church youth ministry, mixed with training in English
Education and Project Management, he finds the work of
discipleship both challenging and invigorating.

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 This and many other See All The People resources are
available for download and purchase at:
https://store.umcdiscipleship.org

1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212

UMCdiscipleship.org
877.899.2780
info@UMCdiscipleship.org COM958