Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Know where you are going. Identify your destination by following a clear direction to get you there. Go. Greg Ogden, author of Discipleship Essentials and Transforming Discipleship, summarizes the content of Go Micro that was published in 2024.

GO MICRO: A Guide to Transforming and Multiplying Disciples Through MicroGroups

The content of this book is a crisp summary of forty years of reflection on the practice of making disciples through MicroGroups. Greg Ogden and the GDI team believe we have discovered through experience a way to make disciples who make disciples by doing it Jesus’ way.

We have attempted to put into a condensed form our core biblical insights and the practical implementation steps that turn a church into a disciplemaking mission. There is no greater satisfaction than to participate with others as they are discovering the fullness of life in Christ! But it does not stop there. When these same people take the initiative to form their own MicroGroups and are enabled by the Holy Spirit to create an environment of transformation and multiplication, you are in the very heart of what the Lord has called us to do. How can it get any better than that!

The title of this book is as clear and distinct a way as we know how to state the essence of a particular way to carry out Jesus’ command to

“MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations.”

In our interaction with pastors and church leaders around the globe, we repeatedly hear that they lack a way to make disciples. The discipleship deficit is obvious, but how can I translate Jesus’ call to MAKE DISCIPLES into practical reality? Our goal in this work is to give you a “how to” that will lead you to say,

“Thank you. You have given me a path to walk along so that when my days come to an end, I will be able to see that I have legacy of reproducing disciples.”

I look forward to the day when I am with Jesus, when I will be approached by someone I never met while on earth who will say,

“Greg, you have never met me, but I can trace my personal connection to Christ, because you discipled someone, who discipled someone else and because of that, I came to know Jesus, the Lover of my soul. I am eternally indebted to you.”

This is a call to keep the main thing the main thing. Here is an overview of the content of these fifteen chapters so that you can see the logic of the flow and structure.

Greg Ogden’s Personal Disciplemaking Journey

Chapter 1

In the first chapter, I tell the story of my personal journey to Christ as a frightened 12-year-old; my church’s failure to follow-up; the Lord’s faithfulness to bring me into loving community in my later teen years; my engagement in outreach ministry while in college through a seminary student who also became my first model of intentional, relational disciplemaking.

Though I then thought the very definition of disciplemaking was a one-on-one relationship, you will read about my two “epiphanies” (God sightings) that led me to write our core disciplemaking curriculum, Discipleship Essentials, and the transformative “Ah-ha” discovery of multiplying life in a MicroGroup. These two epiphanies contain the two necessary elements for transformation and multiplication:

When biblically based content (i.e., Discipleship Essentials, etc.) is brought together with a transformative context, the MicroGroup (relational environment modeled after Jesus’ approach), the power of the Holy Spirit is released.

The Great Commission: Jesus’ Marching Orders

Chapters 2 and 3

In Chapters 2 and 3 we do an in-depth study of Jesus’ last few words with his eleven disciples that close out the gospel of Matthew, stated in Matthew 28:16-20. The church of Jesus Christ down through the ages has come to label this as “The Great Commission.” When Jesus meets His eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee in His resurrected state, we are told that they worshipped Him. They literally fell on their faces before Him. In this setting Jesus declares that His Father has bestowed on Him all authority “in heaven and on earth.”

Against the backdrop of this authority, Jesus declares to the eleven, as well as us down through the ages, that we are to “Go and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations” (people groups) in Matthew 28:29. You cannot pack more into 40 words.

In Chapter 3 we note what has been often overlooked. Jesus gives us a profile of a maturing disciple in three participles or verbal adjectives: going, baptizing, and teaching. Disciples move out (going) toward the unbelieving world; when someone comes to faith in Christ their identity is immersed (baptizing) into the loving eternal community of the three-person God; and then the rest of our days are spent being taught to obey (teaching) all that Jesus commanded.

The Discipleship Deficit and Its Root Causes

Chapters 4 and 5

Now that the imperative of making disciples of Jesus is front and center, it is time to ask the hard question in Chapters 4 and 5.

“How are we doing in fulfilling Jesus’ call to make disciples?”

My wife and I go to what is called a “wellness doctor.” Most Western medicine is focused upon treating the symptoms after you become ill. A wellness doctor provides a proactive approach to keep you from becoming ill in the first place. Twice a year we do extensive blood tests that are windows into our health. We can immediately see on our printouts, the red marks that indicate the areas of needed improvement. These are the warning signs of things we need to pay attention to.

In Chapters 4 and 5 you will pay a visit to the church doctor. Chapter 4 will surface some of the symptoms of ill health that need to be addressed. We do this by looking at seven biblical ideals that are marks of a healthy disciplemaking church. You are then asked to evaluate your church or ministry in light of these ideals.

What gaps do you notice? This diagnostic tool helps you to get a realistic picture of what is most urgent to address. But understanding symptoms of ill health are of no value unless you can identify the causes. The focus of Chapter 5 takes you through 8 potential common causes that get in the way of being a healthy disciplemaking church.

Again, you will have a tool to identify the core causes—the root causes. Why? So that you can proactively address them, along with your leadership team. Addressing your discoveries can help prepare the culture of your church to support a disciplemaking ministry.

Jesus: His Model and Process for Making Disciples

Chapter 6 and 7

Now with a clearer picture of the current reality, we turn our attention to Jesus’ approach to making disciples. Jesus is, of course, our model. We will follow Jesus through the gospels to see his intentional, relational approach. In Chapter 6 we will observe the turning point and critical moment when Jesus calls twelve disciples to be with Him. Jesus selects a group of twelve to be a part of his inner core and spends far more time with them than with any others. We ask the question,

“What was Jesus trying to accomplish with them? Why were the twelve so critical to Jesus accomplishing his mission?”

Then in Chapter 7 we will go on the journey with Jesus and observe the ways Jesus moved them through stages of development to get them ready to take over His ministry when He returned to the Father. Jesus interacted with His disciples in ways that provoked them toward the goal of maturity as well as taking on the responsibility to disciple the nations. Just as Jesus’ goal was to prepare his disciples to take over His ministry as He returned to the Father, so our goal is to grow maturing, reproducing disciples who can assume leadership and set the tone for a disciplemaking ministry.

If Jesus’ Model of Disciplemaking Is So Clear, Why Have We Not Adopted it?

Chapters 8, 9 and 10

With Jesus’ biblical model fresh in our minds, we ask an astonishing question in Chapters 8-10: If Jesus’ model of disciplemaking is so obvious in Scripture, why have we not more broadly adopted it in the church? There must be something or several things, that are getting in the way of seeing what is right before us. In these chapters we highlight three impediments to implementing Jesus’ relational approach:

1. We have substituted programs for relationships. Programs are group methods to herd people through classes, seminars, group Bible studies, etc. We have even thought we could make disciples through preaching. On the other hand, relational disciplemaking centers on deep personal connections of transparent trust centered around the truth of God’s word.
2. We have adopted what might be called a dependency model ministry that puts “the ministry” in the hands of pastors while bypassing the “saints” (ordinary followers of Jesus), who were intended to do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). Instead, Scripture tells us that it is an equipping ministry that provides the ministry culture to grow reproducing disciples of Jesus.
3. We have been preaching a non-discipleship gospel that produces “forgiveness only” Christians. Our salvation message promises forgiveness of sin and life eternal with Jesus if we put our trust in Him. We have made an unbiblical distinction that says we can be a Christian without being a disciple. Yet we shall see that Jesus’ preaches a gospel that leads to radical redirection through repentance as we come under His authority.

The MicroGroup: An Ideal Transformative Environment
for Growing Reproducing Disciples

Chapters 11-15

Up to this point we have been laying the groundwork to implement a very specific approach to transforming and multiplying disciples through MicroGroups.

You will be introduced to the three elements in an equation that will lead to a successful disciplemaking ministry: disciples who make disciples.

In Chapter 11 we finally introduce the MicroGroup as the critical setting in which to grow multiplying disciples of Jesus. The first step is to define what a MicroGroup is. We do this by identifying 9 characteristics that set MicroGroups apart from other contexts. Since the one-on-one has in the past been the dominant pattern, we make the case for why the MicroGroup is preferable disciplemaking purposes.

In Chapters 12 and 13 we zero in on the first element of a successful disciplemaking journey the relational environment. We equate the relational environment with the car, a vehicle to get us to our destination. Every journey needs a means of transportation. Life in a MicroGroup contains the “climatic conditions” necessary for healthy and accelerated growth. This is why we refer to MicroGroups as, “Hot Houses of the Holy Spirit.”

There are four conditions that combine to make for accelerated growth.

1. We spend an entire chapter on the first quality, transparent trust, because without it the other three qualities will not flourish. Transparent trust is an atmosphere of openness at a deep level where we share both the joys and also our inner areas of weakness. We must apply the truth of God’s word right to where we struggle if we want it to change us.

In Chapter 13 we explore the three other vital conditions:

2. Truth of God’s word in the context of relationships: So often we simply intellectualize or reduce the Bible to information. The distinguishing mark of the MicroGroup is that we want Scripture to sink deep into the soil of our lives.
3. Life-Change Accountability: The MicroGroup gathers around a mutual covenant of shared commitments. We each attempt to share areas of our life where we know we need God’s transforming touch. Our partners lovingly help us stay focused on life-change.
4. Engaging in our God-given mission: One of the temptations of a loving, confidential group is to turn inward. In fact, one of the main reasons for having a safe, open environment is so that it can be a place of refreshment. But refreshed for what? We are refreshed in order to engage in the mission of personal witness to Christ and focus on the particular ministry need which our Lord has placed on our heart.

Chapter 14 moves us to the role of the intentional leader. In this chapter we identify four critical initial roles that the convener of the group plays.

1. The leader prays for the Holy Spirit’s discernment to be led to the right people.
2. The leader then makes the invitation and explains the nature of the commitment.
3. The leader helps the members embrace the covenant.
4. Finally, the leader sets the tone by leading the first few sessions before inviting all the others to take their turn. Secondly, we show why this leader’s role is accessible to almost anyone. If there is to be a multiplication of disciplemakers then it has to be something almost anyone can do. Given the small size of a MicroGroup, a leader is primarily engaging the members in a conversation. There is no extra training needed because all the training happens while you are practicing in the group itself.

Chapter 15 covers the last element, the reproducible process. The reproducible process is equivalent to a map or even better known today as a GPS. To get to your destination you not only have to know where you are going but how you get there. The GPS is equivalent to a disciplemaking curriculum. You will explore the importance of curriculum by noting what would be the impact if you do not have a curriculum.

A primary analogy we use for a curriculum is assembling a puzzle. Many followers of Jesus have an accumulation of disconnected puzzle pieces. Each puzzle piece represents a truth tossed in a box. The problem is that they have never been put together into a coherent picture so that you can see the whole of the life in Christ. A good curriculum assembles the puzzle pieces into a bigger picture. This is, of course, what we trust Discipleship Essentials will do for you.

Conclusion: A Personal Word

The crying need of the church worldwide is to address the lack of depth of discipleship. Everywhere we go in the United States and beyond, we hear it. “Professed Christians are generally a mile wide and an inch deep.” As was true of my personal experience, people make professions of faith in Christ, and often get no intentional follow up. There are no short cuts to going deep in Christ. We are not offering a quick fix. If we did, you should question it.

It takes dedicated people to make consistent, personal investments over time. We have attempted to simplify the process by using the MicroGroup as the context and Discipleship Essentials as the content. Just as we are praying for a great harvest, we are also praying that we will not fail these new believers but provide a nurturing environment so that roots can grow deep in the soil of Christ’s life.

We thank you from depths of our hearts that we can share in partnership with you in this great eternal enterprise until Christ comes again. Until then…we will be about our Father’s business.